A few weeks ago the Ohio Democratic Party was runnning a temporary website. It look’s like they’ve rolled out a new one. My initial reaction to this? Prepackaged. The Party is identified. There’s the rotating images (here represented by an attack on the Republican gubenatorial candidate). Notice the buttons across the top and the “contribute” and “take action” buttons along the right.
Fortunately, for people like me, each major party exists for satire. Take a look at the Ohio GOP site below. Frankly, the differences are slight. Aside from a few broken links at the bottom (yikes. I mean, really), we’re talking about the only difference being the party identification. There are some substantive differences. The Dems give the impression that they want to hear the citizen’s voice. There are several Twitter and blog links. The Republicans seem to link more directly to their candidates sites. But it’s a matter of degree, really. These interfaces are one in the same.
My only question? Did the same outfit contract for each site, or are two people being paid to produce the exact same interface. Seems to me that online literacy and originality are inversely related.
Earned Media Ohio 