posted by Robin Tooms @ 7:45 PM
In the current Jan/Feb 2009 Issue of STEP Inside Design on “Emerging Talent,” I wrote about the effective design and marketing behind the change.gov website as compared to other government sites, and how this site continued the trends set forth in the earlier campaign site.
From the article:
“There are many historical firsts from this year’s presidential election, but one worth noting is the first highly successful use of websites and social media in a presidential campaign. In looking back over the past year, why this worked seems obvious now, but that is with the knowledge of hindsight. Is it no surprise then that the most brand- and media-savvy candidate to date is also continuing these methods into his transition to president. It’s positive to see good design and communication practices in a government site, so there is hope for the role of design in government yet.
As a whole, government sites are notorious for being confusing and poorly designed. And, for the most part they don’t leverage the latest in online communications trends. While we watched the presidential inauguration this week in person, on TV and of course online, we now turn our attention now to the post-inauguration communications. Yes, January 20, 2009 has passed, but on that date the new whitehouse.gov Website went live. As I expected, the whitehouse.gov site changed drastically from the previous version on that day – not just a design refresh but a reworking of the site approach. Some of the visual hallmarks from the earlier change.gov site are there and there is a distinct emphasis on the free exchange of information. The site is even licensed under Creative Commons, so the intent is for the information to be distributed.
The recent publicity around recovery.gov also got me thinking about the accessibility and transparency the web can provide for the government (or companies) that want to keep open lines of communications with their stakeholders. What does this new transparent government also mean for corporate and investor communication trends? What do you think?
