Whitehouse.gov got a fitting update today for the newly inaugurated Obama administration. After poking through it for a bit I’ve written down my initial thoughts here.
- The Homepage: Very well done. I like the 4 featured articles/pages that are toward the top of the page. The navigation here (and throughout the site) is also quite good. Overall, it is made relatively easy for one to find information quickly and efficiently. Seems fitting with the larger claim that this administration will be the most transparent and accountable in history.
- The Blog: That’s right, whitehouse.gov now has a blog. When I initially read about this I was extremely excited, but after a first look it appears to be underwhelming. While so much of the site (as well as Obama’s campaign site and transition site) were amazingly well designed the blog page just seems crowded and poorly thought out. The text is done in a way that is just plain. While plain text can certainly work it needs to be made clear what parts of the page are article headers, article summaries, etc. For me the blog just fails as presenting information in a clear and thoughtful way.
That’s it for now, perhaps there will be more at a later date.