I've Seen Better, I've Seen Worse
The incumbent page for Congressman Tom Davis is a perfectly fine web page. While it’s not cutting edge and doesn’t make a wow impression, the design is professional, clean and easy to navigate.
It’s clear Davis’s intern is not responsible for designing the site. A subdued gray palette gives the page an elegant look compared to many of Davis’s Technicolor and amateurish peers in the House of Representatives. Almost all of the homepage fits onto a single screen with a task bar on the left providing easy access to information. A few well-placed icons on the right side allow visitor’s to access other areas of special interest. The latest news from Davis’s office is front and center.
Yet there is room for improvement on the homepage. While news takes up the most space on the homepage, showing visitors that Davis is an engaged congressman, and it is updated frequently, the news is just press releases. With so many media outlets in the region, there shouldn’t be any shortage of real news stories to draw from. Using press releases makes it seem (at least to a professional journalist) that what’s going on in Davis’s world isn’t really newsworthy.
Also, while almost all the stories on the page were from this month, the lead and largest story “Davis Secures Millions of Federal Dollars for Important Local Projects in Transportation Equity Act” is dated March 11th. Obviously Davis believes this accomplishment will please his constituents, but anyone who clicks on it will find out it’s a bit stale.
Though the gray on the homepage offers sophistication, a little more color would be a valuable addition. The only two color photos on the page are a not particularly flattering headshot of Davis and a faded photo of the Occoquan River that doesn’t tie into any of the adjacent news stories. The four icons on the right side transform from grayscale to color when scrolled over, but those too seem faded and dull.
When it comes to signing up for Davis’s e-mail newsletter, the box asking for visitor’s e-mail address is given a prime position on the top right corner. But once an address is entered and the submit button is pressed, visitors are whisked away to another page where they are required to enter their first and last names and complete address in order to become subscribers. Not only is this annoying, it makes me skeptical of the site’s privacy policy.
Like any good website, Davis’s page has a link to a privacy policy at the bottom of every page. The policy says Davis is a “strong supporter of individual privacy of the Internet,” and the policy is just 163 words long. The part that raises my eye brows is the promise that “No information collected on this website will be sold to others or used for the purpose of political campaigning.” So if Davis isn’t going to use the information for campaigning, and he isn’t selling it, why does he need it? Maybe it’s the journalist in me, but something smells fishy.
Of the eight items in the task bar (Home, the 11th District, Constituent Center, Committee on Government Reform, About Tom Davis, News, Virginia Facts and Links and Resources), the most play is given to Constituent Center, which displays the subcategories Contact Us, E-mail Me, Internships, Flag Requests, Tours, Service Academy Information and Immigration/Visa Questions. This is a wise move on Davis’s part. Since his incumbent page cannot be used for active campaigning, it’s smart to emphasize the value Davis brings constituents. This element is something I don’t remember seeing as prominently when I first began studying this site a month ago and suggested such an effort in my strategic plan. But maybe I am imagining the change.
The Constituent Center can also be reached by a labeled photo link on the right side of the page. Both links lead to the same constituent center, which includes even more useful options than the task bar lists.
The 11th District link provided a collection of random information, including 11th district schools and towns and a map that was so difficult to download that it almost crashed my computer. This area needs improvement. A good first step would be to give the page of focus. The hodgepodge isn’t effective.
The Committee on Government Reform is an outside link to the Committee’s official web page. Again, this is wise as Davis is chair of the committee and both he and the committee’s accomplishments are featured prominently.
About Tom Davis isn’t moving and would be better if it used the top-down pyramid structure of a newspaper story. The bio is too long for most people to read, yet all of Davis’s recent accomplishments are at the bottom of the story. A shorter read that starts off with some warm, fuzzy personal details and then quickly moves through a brief narrative of Davis’s career highlights would help.
The News section could seriously benefit from some archiving. A laundry list of headlines all the way back to March 2003 overwhelm the reader, especially since the man seems overly fond of press releases. As I mentioned earlier in my blog, his Virginia Facts section is a joke.
Among the three remaining picture links on the right side, the OPM Emergency guide is a useful resource for constituents living in an area where residents have legitimate concerns about terrorism. The kid’s page provides outside links to kid-friendly web sites, but doesn’t really add much to the page and does not deserve the prominence it receives.
The photos page has some issues. While the shots are recent and have good captions, they are often grainy and not particularly flattering to the congressman. For instance, in the shot with Fenwick Gilroy, the congressman looks really sweaty and shiny. If he refuses to be powdered before the photo op, then touch him up in Photoshop. He doesn’t look stately.
All in all, Davis’s incumbent web site is relatively decent. It’s not going to win any awards, but the design is clean (with the exception of the gargantuan map) and features a lot of useful information.
It’s clear Davis’s intern is not responsible for designing the site. A subdued gray palette gives the page an elegant look compared to many of Davis’s Technicolor and amateurish peers in the House of Representatives. Almost all of the homepage fits onto a single screen with a task bar on the left providing easy access to information. A few well-placed icons on the right side allow visitor’s to access other areas of special interest. The latest news from Davis’s office is front and center.
Yet there is room for improvement on the homepage. While news takes up the most space on the homepage, showing visitors that Davis is an engaged congressman, and it is updated frequently, the news is just press releases. With so many media outlets in the region, there shouldn’t be any shortage of real news stories to draw from. Using press releases makes it seem (at least to a professional journalist) that what’s going on in Davis’s world isn’t really newsworthy.
Also, while almost all the stories on the page were from this month, the lead and largest story “Davis Secures Millions of Federal Dollars for Important Local Projects in Transportation Equity Act” is dated March 11th. Obviously Davis believes this accomplishment will please his constituents, but anyone who clicks on it will find out it’s a bit stale.
Though the gray on the homepage offers sophistication, a little more color would be a valuable addition. The only two color photos on the page are a not particularly flattering headshot of Davis and a faded photo of the Occoquan River that doesn’t tie into any of the adjacent news stories. The four icons on the right side transform from grayscale to color when scrolled over, but those too seem faded and dull.
When it comes to signing up for Davis’s e-mail newsletter, the box asking for visitor’s e-mail address is given a prime position on the top right corner. But once an address is entered and the submit button is pressed, visitors are whisked away to another page where they are required to enter their first and last names and complete address in order to become subscribers. Not only is this annoying, it makes me skeptical of the site’s privacy policy.
Like any good website, Davis’s page has a link to a privacy policy at the bottom of every page. The policy says Davis is a “strong supporter of individual privacy of the Internet,” and the policy is just 163 words long. The part that raises my eye brows is the promise that “No information collected on this website will be sold to others or used for the purpose of political campaigning.” So if Davis isn’t going to use the information for campaigning, and he isn’t selling it, why does he need it? Maybe it’s the journalist in me, but something smells fishy.
Of the eight items in the task bar (Home, the 11th District, Constituent Center, Committee on Government Reform, About Tom Davis, News, Virginia Facts and Links and Resources), the most play is given to Constituent Center, which displays the subcategories Contact Us, E-mail Me, Internships, Flag Requests, Tours, Service Academy Information and Immigration/Visa Questions. This is a wise move on Davis’s part. Since his incumbent page cannot be used for active campaigning, it’s smart to emphasize the value Davis brings constituents. This element is something I don’t remember seeing as prominently when I first began studying this site a month ago and suggested such an effort in my strategic plan. But maybe I am imagining the change.
The Constituent Center can also be reached by a labeled photo link on the right side of the page. Both links lead to the same constituent center, which includes even more useful options than the task bar lists.
The 11th District link provided a collection of random information, including 11th district schools and towns and a map that was so difficult to download that it almost crashed my computer. This area needs improvement. A good first step would be to give the page of focus. The hodgepodge isn’t effective.
The Committee on Government Reform is an outside link to the Committee’s official web page. Again, this is wise as Davis is chair of the committee and both he and the committee’s accomplishments are featured prominently.
About Tom Davis isn’t moving and would be better if it used the top-down pyramid structure of a newspaper story. The bio is too long for most people to read, yet all of Davis’s recent accomplishments are at the bottom of the story. A shorter read that starts off with some warm, fuzzy personal details and then quickly moves through a brief narrative of Davis’s career highlights would help.
The News section could seriously benefit from some archiving. A laundry list of headlines all the way back to March 2003 overwhelm the reader, especially since the man seems overly fond of press releases. As I mentioned earlier in my blog, his Virginia Facts section is a joke.
Among the three remaining picture links on the right side, the OPM Emergency guide is a useful resource for constituents living in an area where residents have legitimate concerns about terrorism. The kid’s page provides outside links to kid-friendly web sites, but doesn’t really add much to the page and does not deserve the prominence it receives.
The photos page has some issues. While the shots are recent and have good captions, they are often grainy and not particularly flattering to the congressman. For instance, in the shot with Fenwick Gilroy, the congressman looks really sweaty and shiny. If he refuses to be powdered before the photo op, then touch him up in Photoshop. He doesn’t look stately.
All in all, Davis’s incumbent web site is relatively decent. It’s not going to win any awards, but the design is clean (with the exception of the gargantuan map) and features a lot of useful information.
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