Dimpool Analysis Team

08 November 2011

Creating a unique website

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1- Coding a website

These days, WordPress based politician websites are very common. Especially in the U.S. nearly all of the Republican candidates have similar websites as they are all using similar WordPress templates; without even editing the original template.

Even though WP based websites has some perks, such as being user friendly, and easy integration with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts; people and specifically constituents would not like it if they feel that their candidate does not want to spend time on  his/her website so he/she decided to use a non-sophisticated way to build it.

The best way to build a nice looking unique website for a politician is to combine coding languages of PHP, Jscript, CSS and HTML. Particularly SPAN and DIV tags are two of the most important factors as, they allow you to write general rules for different elements, and therefore after you are done with the basic coding, you will not have to redo everything when you start adding content to the website.

Jscript is basically used for fancy sliders, and image or video galleries. Although it definitely increases the visual performance of your website, if you do not write your code lines carefully, your visitor might end up with Central processing unit (CPU) + RAM disk (RAM) choking website, which spoils the visual quality with low performance.

 

2- Home Page

Home-page is the most important page of your website as, it is the first page that the visitors face off when they visit your website, so in order to reduce the bounce rate you need to have a well-designed welcoming page which tempts visitors to check out the rest of your content.

The best way to create a home page is to build it in a mixed soup model, -that you put a little bit from every content of your website- which increases the chance of having something that might interest your visitors.

Best home page design: http://www.dannyayalon.com

Home Page of Danny Ayalon
Home Page of Danny Ayalon

3- Biography

Biography is one of the most important sections of a politician’s website because, it basically presents your CV to your voters, and therefore you need to organize your biography page as you are organizing your CV for a job application.

Best biography page design: http://jon2012.com/jon

 

Jon Huntman's timeline
Jon Huntman’s timeline

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4- Issues

Even though the issues section is essential for a politician’s website, we realized that only few politicians successfully created and filled that page. While the constituents are looking for a candidate to vote for, they would like to know your opinions and suggestions on the current agenda of your country.

While creating an issues page; first you need to successfully point out the problems that are surrounding your country. Then, you need to come forward with precise solutions for those problems –people do not want to hear more than comments like “elect me and I will correct everything”

Best issues page design: http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/issues

 

Issues page of Gary Johnson
Issues page of Gary Johnson


5- Picture and video gallery

Galleries are important factors because it gives people a chance to have a visual contact with you; that is why you need to choose them carefully. Particularly you have to pay strict attention to your picture selection.  The most common mistake is to select pictures that will make you look like a superhero, superdad , etc.., so politicians should avoid those kind of unrealistic pictures, which might disappoint people when they face the truth.

In addition, you have to have a little diversity in your galleries, uploading videos or pictures of similar events might raise a question mark in minds. And a little bit explanation below the pictures and videos would be informative.

Best picture gallery:  http://www.dannyayalon.com/Picture%20Gallery/

 

Danny Ayalon's picture gallery
Danny Ayalon’s picture gallery

Best video gallery: http://www.ricksantorum.com/video

 

Rick Santorum's video gallery
Rick Santorum’s video gallery




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