One of the candidates from the Democratic Party running for president is Bernie Sanders. When opening his website berniesanders.com, it takes to the landing page, at which Bernie asks his supporters to donate to his campaign. Other option is to continue to his official website, and at the top of the main page we can see the photos of his supporters. The link to main pages are placed on the upper footer of the main page, and they include events, volunteer, news, and other pages. The website is rather thorough, as the user can click “more”, and it will open the pop-up bar with the links to other pages, grouped in four categories, such as Learn, Organize, Social Media, and media.
This website is rather hard to navigate, as some pages can be seen only when opening the pop-up menu by clicking “more”, and the links to some pages are placed on the left upper side menu and in the pop-up menu. Although, there is no search option, so everything should be found manually. The main page also includes other information and infographics when the user scrolls down. The main contributions planned by Bernie if he becomes a President are listed on the Issues page, and when choosing one of the issues, it takes to a new page with a detailed description what Bernie wants to do if he becomes a president, and it is rather easy to find the answers to Bernie’s stand on critical questions (“Issues – Bernie Sanders”).
I did not manage to find any information about another candidate from the Democratic Party on Bernie’s website, and no information is provided about Republican candidates. Also, the site provides information about Bernie Sanders and does not encourage to vote for him. Also, the website did not motivate me to donate to his campaign and volunteer to work for Bernie Sanders. There were no motivational banners and no information at the main pages that would encourage some actions, and if the visitor of the website does not want to find more information, he will not see anything asking to support Bernie.
Also, I have reviewed the website of Donald Trump, one of the candidates from the Republican Party. He has a website that is also hard to navigate. Although he does not have a landing page and there are no pop-ups of the large size, there are some minor things that make his website rather complicated to navigate. For example, when opening the States page, there is a list of all states, and the user has to scroll down to the very end if he/she is from Wisconsin. It does not make any sense, as today there are many tools that can be used to make navigation easier.
At the same time, it is easy to find the information about Trump’s main positions on critical issues. The first thing in the upper footage menu takes the visitor to the page with Trump’s stand on important issues. However, in the upper footage menu on his website, Trump has both Issues and Positions options, and it is hard to figure out what is the difference between issues and positions, as both pages include the Donald Trump’s main plans if he becomes a U.S. President. The issues page depicts many different issues that Trumps cares about, but it is rather hard to get a detailed information about his plans, as each position has a general description and a video attached (“Donald J. Trump Issues”). Thus, the visitor of the website will have to watch the video to figure out what exactly Trump is going to do in case he wins the presidential campaign.
In the main menu, there is an option Get Involved, and when it is chosen, we can see the pop-up that asks to provide contact information to get updates about Trump’s campaign, and in case the visitor wants to volunteer for his campaign, he can tick the option “I would like to volunteer”. I have not found any information about another candidate at this website as well. However, this website is encouraging to vote for Trump better than the Bernie’s website motivates to vote for Bernie. Trump’s website has a patriotic Republican-style design, and the main logo is “Make America great again!”, which makes me link Trump to America’s success. The website does not motivate the visitor to donate, although it provides an option of donating. It seems that Trump gives a chance to donate, but does not need money for his campaign.
Prior to viewing the websites, I was supporting Trump, but after looking through his website, I found it difficult to get a detailed information on his plans, and it looks like he tries to hide his plans from the majority of the visitors. Bernie’s website is better organized in terms of presenting his positions. Thus, an undecided voter would get more information about Bernie’s plans, and it can possibly be the most useful thing for an uninformed visitor. But Trump’s website does the better job in attracting the support of the voters because it is designed in a patriotic way. I believe that both websites are effective, but Bernie’s site provides more information, and Trump’s site encourages to vote for him.
Works Cited
"DONALD J. TRUMP Issues". Donaldjtrump.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 3 May 2016. <https://www.donaldjtrump.com/issues/>
"Issues - Bernie Sanders". Bernie Sanders. N.p., 2016. Web. 3 May 2016. <https://berniesanders.com/issues>
