As per the request of Wes Benedict, can IPR readers give their thoughts on this site?
http://libertarian.nationbuilder.com
Thoughts on test Libertarian Party site?
By Caryn Ann Harlos on February 18, 2016 6:03 PM
Caryn Ann Harlos
Caryn Ann Harlos is a paralegal residing in Castle Rock, Colorado and presently serving as the Region 1 Representative on the Libertarian National Committee and is a candidate for LNC Secretary at the 2018 Libertarian Party Convention. Articles posted should NOT be considered the opinions of the LNC nor always those of Caryn Ann Harlos personally. Caryn Ann's goal is to provide information on items of interest and (sometimes) controversy about the Libertarian Party and minor parties in general not to necessarily endorse the contents.
Having compared the two sites, the test site is an improvement but that’s not saying much. Certainly not worth $20,000.
As for the logo, yeah, that’s just awful.
Someone needs to read WordPress For Dummies. Apropos generally, for LNC. Who is the proposed beneficiary of the $20K? It’s a secret, correct? What the LNC does best is mis-spend, and never tell anyone.
Shane rules … .
Yeah, that’s bad. Very hard to read and the layout is not ideal. It’s definitely not designed for call-to-actions, which is what you want.
In designing an organization’s site, you’re not looking for people to visit it each day and develop a habit (very hard to do). The goal is to get a new visitor to take an action. Keep it simple.
You can still have all the content and “clutter” but have a very direct way for a person to get into the conversion funnel. Contrasting the CTA against the rest of the site with the use of color and space is the easiest way to do that.
You don’t have to “close the sale” on the first visit, you have to get a visitor to open the door.
Having a pretty or clean site is all fine and dandy but if it does not serve its purpose, don’t bother dedicating time or money to it. Just put up a billboard site and call it a day.
With that said, LPHQ should just pull the trigger on a template to get off of their current CMS. They’re locked into a proprietary version of PHP (called Moon PHP) and making any structural changes are a major PITA.
So good or not, switch it over, load the old content into the new database and start tweaking.
And Robert, when you switch, take me off of the freaking admin notifications with Rackspace! It’s been nearly a decade of annoyance . . . and I know you’re reading. 😉
Hate to sound like a curmudgeon but I agree with Austin and Darcy.
I agree with Austin. I think it looks horrible, just like the new banana logo.
I think it looks good overall, but there was a whole lot of yellow for my taste. For me, the white printing on a yellow background did not show up well at all.
I think it looks good. I’ve viewed it in Chrome on my PC and Chrome on my Android phone. Both versions look solid.
I agree with a comment above that it looks fairly “stock”. But, that’s fine. Its a big upgrade from the current site, and it can be polished later.
Major downgrade, just like the new logo. Part of a totally confusing move to burn money and reduce the visual quality of the party’s communications… it all makes absolutely no sense to me.
I think it looks nice and clean, yellow is always a bold choice 🙂 It is used tastefully on this site though.
our Cyber Party had a test website I started to build out on Nation Builder. It’s a good choice since they probably are robust enough to keep the site safe and running.
As mentioned if it has issues on smaller screens (tablet and smartphone) maybe just some style tweaks will get it to behave better. Life used to be simpler for us web designers when everyone had pretty much the same size screen and only 2 basic browsers. Oops, am I dating myself now? It used to be that bigger and more was better, I have 2 monitors. Most users use their smart phones these days.
It was an effort to finnd wherre to make a comment!
That said, itt is a great idea, calling thee site “Independent Political Report. A lot of people are cal;ling themselves independents, these days.. Also, a good many independents will find out they are more libertarian than they thought.
Disclaimer: not a Libertarian.
It is a vast improvement over the old site, which is horrifyingly outdated. However, to those in the know, it is clearly a fairly standard WordPress site, which is a bit low-budget for an organization with the LP’s financial resources. I wouldn’t pay that dude $20,000 to upgrade it, but I would pay a developer a couple thousand to add the visual bells and whistles that would make it look more professional and sophisticated.
Wes, I have posted this around FB as well and so far very positive reactions.
It is an improvement, but still too cluttered. For a contrast look at http://www.lpmndc.org Way too much information for a mobile device. You cannot read the content on a smart phone without enlarging and scrolling. Mobile devices have taken over computers for web access http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/
Didn’t we determine a while ago that we’re really close in age, Mark? I can barely type the numbers, but rumor has it that I was born in ’55, which makes me…really old.
What’s Facebook? It’s a place where I spend way too much time, but where I’ve made wonderful liberty-lovers across the continent.
Jill,
I’m not as young as you are.
What’s a facebook?
Wes,
Looking good!
Looks great!
Massive, massive, massive, massive improvement. Challenge will be to keep it clean going forward. Even the best designed site can look clunky and cluttered if updated carelessly.
I like the site! I love that I can sign in through Facebook, and it’s easy to use.
Wes, done.
I like it. Clean and detailed.
Can you link to the home page, instead of the register page? Thanks. libertarian.nationbuilder.com
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