Republican Bob Schaffer's campaign for the US Senate has finally gotten a substantial website on the air. It's not a bad effort, to be honest, but doesn't match up to the site of his Democratic opponent opponent Mark Udall by several measures.
The short version: Udall gets the web, Schaffer doesn't.
Schaffer's website is relatively small in content, and its navigation is simple and straightforward. The graphic design is a bit heavy-handed: you might get tired of the overlarge, ubiquitous page header picture of the grinning Schaffer clan (clearly) photoshopped in front of a grove of aspen, with the helpful caption "THE SCHAFFER FAMILY" in case you couldn't figure out who they were. What's worse - it's the only photograph on the website. There's also one video - a 12 second clip - also used on every page. Overall the site has a very flat feel.
By contrast, Udall's website is a lot busier, heavier in content and vastly more understated and professional in design. Also more understated is Udall's family - you have to go to the "About Mark" page to see them, and they're not photoshopped. Overall the site is nicely illustrated with professional looking photography. Udall's designer clearly understands photoshop layers and fading.
Schaffer's site is much easier to navigate. The Udall site has no apparent "tree" structure or hierarchy, and offers no visual navigational cues as to where in the site you are. Schaffer doesn't have those either, but he doesn't need them - you can't get lost on a site that small.
Schaffer's "Upcoming Events" section is mite slim with exactly two items: "May 31, 2008 - Colorado State GOP Convention" and "Nov 4, 2008 - Election Day!" Presumably Bob will be filling his calendar as time goes on.
Udall's events are listed on the home page, but it relies a lot on maps and gimmicks instead of a nice, straightforward text-based list. His link to the "Stand Up For Colorado Tour" has a "Trippermap" of upcoming events and their progress across thes state. There's also a searchable events page - you can specify your zip code and a search radius, and you'll get a map of upcoming events with syndication and ical links. But it's a Yahoo map, non-resizable and a bit claustriphobic. He'd do well to get a more straightforward "events" page in plain old html and link to the fancy stuff from that. And use an external Google map for heaven's sake.
One thing Schaffer does quite well is his "on the issues" page, which has capsule descriptions of 16 issues and links to detailed pages on each. The detail pages including side-by-side comparisons of Schaffer's positions with Udall's. In fact, Schaffer's site mentions Udall quite a bit, while Udall barely mentions Schaffer at all. You'd think he was an incumbent. Or sitting on a lead.
The Udall website is very participatory, while Schaffer's is decidedly not. Udall invites you to register to personalize the site, network with other users and even create your own blog. The main blog page (thankfully) has an RSS link, so you can add it to your favorite feed reader. Udall also has links inviting you to host "IdeaRaisers" - meetups, I'm guessing - and you are also invited to "share stories," which are posted (presumably moderated) on a "Make Your Mark" page. The site has a very dynamic feel overall, and appears to be continually updated.
Schaffer, by contrast, has a very static site, with user participation limited to a "get involved" form allowing you to submit your personal information and click checkboxes to indicate how you want to help (IE, Put a bumper sticker on my car). Click the button and "Join Team Bob!"
Both candidates are working the social networks, albeit differently. Schaffer has links to his MySpace and Facebook pages, and a YouTube channel. The MySpace page is a bit garish and unprofessional looking, but hey, it's MySpace. Among Schaffer's MySpace "friends" is Tedd, whose thumbnail on Schaffer's page is art from the video game "Hitman" - a bald, suited man holding two impressive pistols as he glares menacingly at the viewer. Clicking Tedd's link to his own page offers the quote "How does a good man know when to kill?" Schaffer may want to reconsider having this picture and link on his page.
In terms of social networking, Udall goes Schaffer several better, with links to MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, but also Flickr, Party Builder and Twitter pages. Udall's blog pages also offer links to Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Del.icio.us - he's clearly covering a lot more bases, but whether that will get him any traction remains to be seen.
Schaffer's site has no search function, and Udall only allows searching of blog entires. But then that's what Google's for.
Udall has a site map, Schaffer does not.
Both sites have prominent "contribute" buttons leading to standard contribution forms. This is a political campaign, after all.
All in all, I'd give Schaffer the edge in terms of simplicity and ease of use. But Udall is vastly ahead in design, content, multimedia use and user participation. Udall's campaign "gets it," where Schaffer is just going through the motions.