On January 14th (prior to the release), Lowell, rightly so, said in a comment " I also hope that the DPVA's new website will have a kick-ass blog, first and foremost to keep the Virginian netroots up-to-the-minute on what's going on, and second to fight back against the new, blogger-led RPVA communications shop." (http://raisingkaine....)
So isn't it time that we start giving the DPVA some feedback on how it's working for us and what they maybe could do to make it even better?
The technical side:
a) The type size is too small for many folks (I don't wear bi-focals but I have to move nearer to the screen to see what's there)and there is no text resize function. On the "letters to the editor" page, the newspaper text is illegible.
b) The "back" function isn't utilized in the navigation process. For my tastes, that's pretty frustrating...if you want to go back to where you just came from and can't, you've just lost your point of context! (The Society for Technical Communciation, in it's Ten Guidelines for User-Centered Web Design, has a nice set of website usability guidelines ...http://www.stcsig.or... and addresses this problem along with others.) "Dead-end" pages -- pages with no links to any other page in the site -- are a frustration to users. Also, it would be nice if the site provided a list of links to major sections at the bottom of every page or a site map.
c) The page layout, at least to me seems seems confusing. The number of visual elements seem to to be competing for attention. That may just be me. I know that the data is probably there but I just can't seem to find it where I would have first thought to look. Again, this could be just one my idiosyncracies.
d) There isn't a top-level e-mail contact function to the Party itself that could be used to route an e-mail, if needed, to the appropriate place. You have to search through names to try to guess who you think might have the answer to your query/e-mail. (Example: When I wanted to notify the DPVA of a technical error I found, the person I chose to send the e-mail to never responded and the problem still exists today ). Organizationally, this is risky (things fall through the cracks and there is no central control).
I'll leave most of the content side to others to discuss....although I would have hoped that Demo Memo would have re-appeared and that there would have been a Party/state-level blog. I think it would have been good to have State Party officials participating in a blog, answering questions, talking about what is going on at HQ DPVA. Or maybe DPVA could have a regular byline written by someone from the "Party Officials" and/or the "Party Staff". Tell us what's going on at meetings, what's being planned, etc.,....the status of things. For example, I just read Vivian Paige and learned that the DPVA has lifted the prohibition on giving incumbent challengers access to the voter file. That would have been nice to know...
Bottom line, I'm glad that the DPVA has implemented a much improved website, but I think there is room for fixing some of the problems and most importantly, there should be a clear mechanism for feedback, which I don't see. A commenter, Teddy, said last fall: "There should be a feedback and comment section. Audience participation would do wonders for the Democratic Establishment to hear."
The Search function still doesn't work for someone wanting targeted, specific information. Although the search results screen title uses quotation marks around the search term(s), the results don't take you to the specific item you requested. I queried among other subjects "Party Plan". Got everything but it... On clicking on some of the query hits, I got kicked back to the Home page.
And where is the list of all candidates running this year? Only Petersen and Northam are listed.
Are you experiencing and encountering the same problems? Have you found other problems that the DPVA should be notified of? Let's help them out and like Teddy said, give them some feedback!!!