The Design of Politics, the Politics of Design

Given how the 2004 U.S. presidential election activity is already heating up, and how the campaigns of this election will without doubt involve more effort made via the Internet than at any other time in history, including campaign websites and blogs, and given how if you use the web and also happen to think about world affairs and social issues, you can't help but notice all the political web activity . . . it's time to take a look at this phenomenon, from a design perspective.

What does any of this have to do with Nettle, a blog about user experience, design strategy, and the like? I think it has tons to do with it. We've probably all seen at least one political party or campaign website or blog --- they're popping up everywhere. Each of them has its own design, look and feel, organization, and information architecture. It's time for Nettle to take a look at these things, not with any particular political bias, but strictly from a design perspective. What's working? What doesn't? Who has the best graphics? Who has the worst? Over the coming year, Nettle is going to seek answers to these questions.

Stay tuned for more. Posted by brian at September 16, 2003 01:55 PM