Website Analysis: Madsen-Findley

This is the second in a series of three posts analyzing campaign websites.

Address:  http://www.tomandblake.com/

The Madsen-Findley website is being hosted on Weebly, which allows for easy website construction and edits.  The team chose a clean, professional theme for the site that has a nice navigation bar and is easily viewable on my iPad and as a mobile site on my Android phone.  The background is the classic, deep panther purple for the background (although the purples across their campaign media don't match - this is possibly me just being a nitpicky designer).

What They Are Doing Uniquely

• Campaign Team - I really like seeing a campaign team listed on an NISG campaign website.  It gives credit to the people who do a lot of behind-the-scenes work for a campaign, and also provides points of contact other than the presidential and vice presidential candidates.  Not only does the Madsen-Findley website provide a list of team members, their positions, and their contact information, but almost every team member listed also provides a testimonial as to why they are helping with the campaign.  
• Resumés and Cover Letters - Tom and Blake have kept their biographies short and to the point, and have supplemented them with downloadable versions of their resumés and cover letters.  This is an interesting way to provide more information about the candidates' accomplishments.  I really like that the cover letters are specifically written for the positions of student body president and vice president because it shows their capabilities as writers in addition to professionally detailing why they are qualified for the positions.

What They Are Doing Well

• Campaign Video - Since one of the planks on the Madsen-Findley platform is to have weekly video blogs from NISG executive officers, I am glad to see that they have a campaign video on their website.  While I know the campaign team will be very busy during the next week, I would love to see another vlog or two from this campaign to show that they're dedicated to this platform plank.

What They Could Do Better

• Election Dates - The other two campaign websites have the election dates in large type in prominent places on their homepage, but the Madsen-Findley website doesn't have the dates listed anywhere except in images on their Support page.  Having the election dates and where to vote on a campaign website serves as a great reminder to voters as they are looking at a website.
• Consistent Branding - The posters, t-shirts, and social media for the Madsen-Findley campaign have a very distinct (albeit not great) typeface that is not used anywhere on the website.  This small design incorporation would help visually tie all of the campaign media together.  I also wish there was a branded header on the platform PDF, especially since there is not any identifying information at the top of the PDF.  

Overall Thoughts

The Madsen-Findley campaign has a clean, attractive website with all of the pertinent information a campaign needs.  The site could use a few more prominent links to their social media and campaign email accounts, but as a whole the website gets the job done.