I've got the onerous task of sending feedback to McCain and Obama through their contact webforms for a project I'm working on, and found it interesting the different tact the two of them have taken on their websites.
John McCain
The URL, http://johnmccain.com/Contact/ annoys the crap out of me because it's got a capitol C in contact. The web isn't totally case sensitive, but I feel strongly that URLs should be lowercase. This website is coreygilmore.com, not CoreyGilmore.com. The URL does work with a lowercase 'c' in contact, a benefit of hosting on Windows.
McCain's contact page is simple. Damn simple. There's a phone number (hey, it ends in 2008 and this is the 2008 election!), an address and a very simple form. John McCain doesn't care where you live, just how to reach you.There are four choices for the message subject; General Question, Donation Question, Website Question or Tell us about an an event.
What this is saying:
- General Question - Are you crazy and being watched by hidden cameras? This is the spot for you.
- Donation Question - Let us help you figure out how to give us money
- Website Question - Does our website not let you give us money?
- Tell us about an event - Where can we send campaign staff ask a large group of people for money?
It is a very simple page, almost blunt in its presentation. It looks like a one-off of nearly any contact form you'd find on a company's website.
Barack Obama
Obama's contact page is actually several separate pages. The main URL, http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/ suffers from CMSitis. We know it's a page, and yes it's content, but let's throw that cruft in the URL anyways. http://barackobama.com/contact/ does redirect to the proper content page, but http://my.barackobama.com/contact/ throws a 404 error.
The contact landing page offers you several choices: will Obama show up at my wedding/high school graduation/nephew's bar mitzvah/Elks club barbecue; can I interview Obama; I want to volunteer; and everything else. There's also and address and a phone number (guess what four digits it ends in).
On the general contact page your email, name and message are required, and you can optionally provide your address and phone number.
Obama doesn't want to know what the subject of your request is, he wants to know what your interest is. And what a list of interests. I'm not motivated enough to write something snarky for all of these, but in the interest of being non-partisan I'll throw a dollar sign next to the fundraising requests.
- Event Information
- A Policy Issue
- A Donation Inquiry - $
- An Obama Store Inquiry - $
- Hosting an Event - $
- Website Suggestions - partial $
- Reporting a Problem with the Website - $
- Sending a Message to Michelle Obama - ♀
- Making a comment
Breaking it down
The most obvious reason for the differences between the two sites would be that McCain's strategy folks haven't had a hand in his contact page and it was done by web developers who don't have any vision. I assume this is the case. If not, it raises questions that should be discussed in political junkie forums elsewhere.
Obama's page shows more consistency between the contact form and main site - it's on message. Asking about policy is saying "We want to involve you in decisions about the country". The option to send a message to his wife is humanizing and reaches out to women voters. You're not presented with the sterile "Website Question", instead help us out, report a problem with the website.
I wouldn't say it demonstrates an inordinate attention to detail by Obama's staff, but it's an interesting oversight by the McCain campaign and I'd be curious to see the traffic the two candidate's contact pages receives; both relative to the rest of their sites and to one another. Perhaps no one uses McCain's contact page and the blandness doesn't matter.
Does anyone from a big metrics company like Hitwise or Compete want to share these numbers?
Tags: Politics, Statistics, UI
July 1st, 2008 at 10:59 am
[...] Gilmore evaluates the contact pages of the two major candidates: The most obvious reason for the differences between [...]
August 6th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Thanks for interest in the :""contact"issue. I have tried to send opinions to the Obama campaign several times. IWhen I reply to their daily outreach e-mail I get an automatic thank you lamenting they can't take comments there and refering me to another place which I can click on to get to.. Once there, I eventually get to choose what to comment about. When I do - I get an automatic reply back, vaguely on the topic but which does not ackowledge my specific points so I have no sense whether anyone at the camaign has read what I wrote or what the reaction there is . It is disheartening. For example, now I would like to Urgently voice my opinion NO BAYH to the possiility that Barack chooses that pro-war rightwing democrat who is a boring speaker to boot. I don't know if anybody actually reads oiur e-mails or notl I wish there were a more direct way to send in our opinions and a more personal response receied. thansk Linda k
October 4th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
YOU DRIVE ME NUTS!!!! PLEASE ASK MR. OBAMA TO CHANGE HIS STYLE TO EMPHASIZE,YES, REPUBLICANS. FOR EXAMPLE,DO NOT ALLOW THEM EVER TO GET AWAY WITHOUT IDENTIFYING THEMSELVES AS REPUBLICANS, i.e, AS PRES. I WILL DO…..THEN THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS WILL PASS LAWS TO…ETC. SPREAD THE IMAGE FROM PRES. AGAINST PRES. TO PRES. AND CONGRESS. THE WAVE OF THE DEMOCRATIC FUTURE WILL BE MIDDLE CLASS LIBRRATION…ETC.
CALL IT:". MR. MCCAIN YOU ARE ASKING THE AMERICAN VOTERS TO VOTE YOU AND ALL THE REPUBLICANS WHO HAVE JUST SLAMMED US BACK IN TO OPFFICE. THAT DEFIES REASON. LOOK…..HERE IT IS. REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN IN OFFICE. REPUBLICANS HAVE WAGED A HORRIBLY RUN WAR WITH A SMALL COUNTRY FOR MORE YEARS THAN WE TOOK TO FIGHT WORLD WAR TWO ALL OVER THE WORLD.
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE LAVISHED MONEY TO BUSINESS MEN AND MADE AS MANY MILLIONAIRES AS THE NUMBER OF SOLDIERS THEY HAVE KILLED
NOW, YOU ASK WE VOTE YOU IN TO [PROTECT US FROM YOU?
WHY DO YOU NOT SAY YOU ARE REPUBLICANS? AND YOU WANT MORE. THIS IS MAVERICK.
MR. MCCAIN STANDS ON THE STAGE WITH TWEEDLEDEE ON ONE SIDE AND TWEEDLEDUM ON THE OTHER. ONE IS NAMED JOE AND THE OTHER IS NAMED LINDSAY.
THEN,FOR VARIETY HE STANDS WTH TWEEDLESHE ON ONE SIDE AND TWEEDLEMUM ON THE OTHER. THEY ARE CALLED SARAH AND CINDY.
HE IS LITTLE JOHNNIE JUMP UP IN THE MIDDLE YELLING AND ANGRY AND SAYING HE KNOWS HOW TO DO IT. WHATEVER IT IS.
AND OBAMA IS A BAD GUY. BELIEVE IT AS HE SAID SO AND HE IS A HERO.
HIS EXPANDED VICE PRESIDENCY WILL RUN THE VICE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE AND THE SENATE. HE KNOWS HOW TO DO IT AS DICK CHENEY TOLD HIM HE COULD. JUST TRUST SARAH TO EXPAND ALONG WITH HER VICE DUDE, TODD.
BUT,I AM NOW BEING SILLY. SERIOUSLY CALL IT AND DO NOT EVER LET THEM MAKE A POINT AS IF THEY DO NOT KNOW WHO WAS IN OFFICE THESE MANY YARS. GOOD LUCK
MR. WEYMOUTH FOGELBERG, WHO PRAYS DAILY THAT MR. OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS WIN AND THAT THEY HEN GOVERN WITH A WISE AND EVENHANDED HEART.