KEY POINTS:
Political opinions are often formed through a process of osmosis, with voters slowly assimilating policy. But with the advent of political websites, anyone can trawl through numerous press releases, speech transcripts and policy.
So just how web-savvy are New Zealand's political parties? In a series of articles I'll take a look at each party's website and rate their overall web strategy. In this first article, I'll cover National and Labour - arguably the two parties with the most to gain or lose online.
National's website at www.national.org.nz acts as a central hub for their online strategy, with links to blogs by John Key and Bill English, a multimedia site at ntv.org.nz, Bluelibs for the liberals, SuperBlues for the 60 plus, Internats for offshore voters and BlueGreens for environmental policy. Though National's sites vary in their style and quality, it's a smart move to link them from the main website, as it provides voters with easy access to sites that are themed for their particular interest area.
The website makes an excellent first impression; it is well laid out and organised, and though there is a lot to take in, it's not overwhelming. Navy blue is the dominant colour but it is balanced nicely with greys and light blues.
The homepage makes good use of the left sidebar by displaying regularly updated graphics of their latest billboards. A series of drop boxes helps voters locate relevant information on policy, MPs, candidates, and electoral boundaries. There are obvious calls to action to enrol, visit John Key's Facebook page, and watch videos on YouTube.
Adding a personal touch to the homepage is the most recent video message from John Key. Viewers can respond to the video by leaving text, audio or video comments, demonstrating that National has grasped the concept of the participative web.
National's policy can be easily accessed and is worded in plain English. Voters can download PDF copies of the policy as well as watch related videos or read speeches on the topic.
Both John Key and Bill English are blogging. John Key's blog makes good use of online video by embedding his latest YouTube video journal.
In Key's first video log he states that the aim of the blog is to get viewers participating in the conversation. That goal is certainly being achieved, with viewers engaging with the blog; however I suspect they are preaching to the converted.
Overall the National website is well thought out, attractive, appropriately designed and easy to use, with an excellent mix of multimedia resources. The content is regularly updated with even slogans and central images modified every few days. National has taken full advantage of the web earning themselves an A for their online strategy.
Google "NZ Labour Party' and the first result is www.labour.org.nz. My first impression of the website is 'what a lot of red'. The website header contains Labour's logo but no political slogan; instead there are themed icons for national identity, families, economy and sustainability, with each icon going through to a page that pulls out media releases relating to each theme.
The header is dominated by a flowering pohutukawa which further adds to the redness of the website. The left sidebar has an attractive and smiling image of Helen Clark with a call to action to 'meet Helen Clark'. Other graphics include links to the budget calculator and 'working for families' websites.
Locating information on your MP or electorate is somewhat buried at the bottom of the right sidebar. There is just one online video making the site's lack of multimedia glaringly obvious when compared to National. The policy on the site is from 2005 and there is no mention of when it will be updated.
Labour's main website is neither as visually appealing nor as well organised as National's but it is redeemable. However Labour's strategy has been to launch two new websites, which is rather risky this close to an election.
Their new site at www.labourparty.org.nz is nicely designed with darker reds and adds a blog to the mix, as well as linking to Labour's presence on YouTube and Facebook. Multimedia is limited to just a few YouTube videos embedded from other YouTube channels including thestandardnz.
A YouTube icon in the right sidebar links off to a channel at labour08 which consists of just one subscriber and no videos. The overall impression is that the site is very much a work in progress and if you view the policy page you'll get a message to visit www.labour08.co.nz.
Labour's 08 campaign website is not a great leap forward; it's not terribly attractive, ignores the rules of good web layout, and is a mishmash of flashing images and poorly positioned graphics and text. It's not a vote winner and Labour's got some serious catching up to do.
Labour would be better served by concentrating their efforts on www.labour.org.nz starting with a facelift to this site, integration of a blog (with real posts - not just re-hashed press releases or speeches) and links off to their video and social networking sites.
Labour is lacking a cohesive online strategy that pulls everything together for easy access, and they appear to have neglected the one site people will find in Google in favour of building something entirely new just for the election.
Labour could do much better, so they get just a C+ for their online efforts. As the incumbent, perhaps they don't have the same drive as National, or maybe they don't place as much importance on the web.
The election won't be won online, but if the 'undecideds' are influenced by something they've watched or read on a party's website then surely it's worth the effort to get it right. After all, every vote is going to count with this election.
Michelle Williams is the Director of Web Matters, a Christchurch-based web design firm with clients throughout New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
www.Start-UP.co.nz.
