Support my campaign: Critique my website.

[alexwcovington]

http://www.johnathanmcclure.com

Thoughts?

[LightTheMatch]

1. Really?

I don't know where to start.......

[alexwcovington]

3. Fire away!

Go ahead...

[brokensymmetry]

2. Congratulations on your candidacy!

May I make a couple suggestions?

You have 10 links at the top, and all are text. A graphical image map might be better, and the various links more visible. Javascript buttons - the kind that light up when you pass the mouse over them - would look even slicker.

You might wish to simplify the entry page so that it's very clean, almost austere. All the other material would be in linked sections off the home page.

On contact info, you might wish to include the area code as well as the telephone number.

Lastly...have you considered getting a blue two-piece suit, white shirt, and red tie like the two distinguished gentlemen beside (Senators Conrad and Dorgan)? People judge you by your clothes, even though they shouldn't.

Good luck!

[alexwcovington]

4. Ok

Well, there are a lot of things sitting just outside of my present budget. I think I will get the site redesigned by a professional... and a suit would probably be a good investment...

But I'm hardly a wealthy guy at the moment. I'm still looking for a summer job. Maybe in a few weeks....

[alexwcovington]

10. and... *I* *HATE* *JAVASCRIPT*

And not just because I don't understand it... It's because all the web browsers don't seem to either.

I'd much rather write something in plain-jane HTML and avoid cross-platform issues, rather than worry about making it look too fancy.

The key issue is -- is the information accessible? Is it organized properly? Presented properly?

[Career Prole]

5. I'd use a different picture for the front page,

and more of your biography on the homepage and less of the website's biography. :)
Also I think your issues page should have a big link up there with the others rather than being buried in the homepage text. That hyperlink in the homepage text to your issues page wouldn't work for me...kept getting "page not found"...but that could be me. The ol' computer's been acting up all day.

Good luck on your campaign! :toast:

[Qanisqineq]

6. Re: The " About Jonathan" page

I like this page. Tells me a bunch. I think some of this should be on the homepage (or was it and I am just blind?). Only 18? Holy cow!

"Everyone talks about needing good-paying jobs to fight outmigration -- but I talk about meeting the social needs of young people with grants and incentives for hang-outs."
Glad to hear this, I left ND a few years ago (just after college) for a job. I hope to move back within the next few years.

"Everyone talks about developing our state's wind resources..."
My parents are very interested in this topic, too. (They live in the SE part of the state though).

[alvis]

7. Spellcheck

From the bio page: "represnting". It would be a very good idea to run the text through a spellchecker.

From the donate page: "Why have lobbyists buy candidates when you can do it yourself?" Not sure about that one. I'd be a little leary if a candidate was seemingly open for sale.

For the blog: Personally, I would lose the Star Trek Font, lose the black background and white text and go with a white background, black text. The key is to look professional.

Broken link for http://web.ndak.net/~mcclure/issues.htm found on page http://web.ndak.net/~mcclure/indexblog.htm

I wish you the best of luck in your campaign. I am glad that you are looking for a critique of your web site. I'm glad you are looking for an honest critique for your site. In my previous job I did QA, so I'd be happy to look at your site and critique it if you need more input.

[alexwcovington]

8. Well, the blog archive is just that

It's an old website. Yeah, a lot of my design style carried over into the new site; old habits die hard.

Where is this broken link? I'm not seeing it.

[alexwcovington]

9. I see the broken link now

I have some weak points in my site design -- two copies of the index page, one in the top-level directory, and one in the same directory as the rest of the files.

Yeah, I've got a long way to go. Thanks for the help.

[alvis]

11. You're Welcome.

It's what I do. I break things :)

[el dusto]

12. professionalism

Let me preface this message by saying that I think you're doing a great thing for democracy, and I would vote for you if you lived in my district....

I don't know about your website, though. If you look at a national candidate's website, you'll notice a few things. First, the colors are not so garish, and there's uniformity of style throughout the site (if you're going to link to your blog, make them both the same style). Someone else already said this, but your links get lost under the huge header graphic. If you look around, you can probably find some ideas you can ape - sure, they have professional site designers, but their ideas are nothing that you can't borrow and simplify with a few hours in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop/Illustrator or something. Do you write raw HTML? If not, learn to use your HTML coder's imagemap feature - it will make your site cooler without having to use the dreaded javascript.

Second, and Howard Dean's website was great about this, there would be frequent SUBSTANTIVE updates. Rarely was there a quick phrase about why he couldn't update the website that day; instead, we were treated to expanded discussion about what his policy views and/or plans were, and how to achieve them. You have great taglines and sound bites, now explain how you're going to incite the kind of change you want to make. As you add more articles, your website will become more valuable to you and to the people looking at it.

Last, and most importantly, DITCH THAT PICTURE OF YOU. It is a long national nightmare just waiting to happen.

Good luck!
-d.

[alexwcovington]

13. Alright.

I've chopped down the header size and replaced the picture. I do write raw HTML... I have little experience with image maps though.

I've been trying to put as much content in text as possible. Maybe it's unnecessary nowadays, but I still think too many images clog a site design...

Bah. This is a holdover. There are plenty of volunteers for a modernized version of my site, I just need some cash so I can pay for decent web hosting.

But your input is still appreciated!

[alexwcovington]

14. Now... about the "Blog"

I suppose it is a bit unexpected for someone new to the site to click that link and find themselves someplace completely different...

Let me explain.

WebCenter is my old -- STANDARD website even. The campaign is pre-empting WebCenter, so to speak, off johnathanmcclure.com. I don't want to make the old stuff unavailable. But I can't have it clashing like it is now.

[Career Prole]

15. It's coming along...

This sentence..."I am excited to be running for State House, District 40 and I hope you are too"...could be a bit confusing. We know what you mean, but I think if you ended it "...and I hope you'll be excited too" it would be better understood.

Good Luck!

[SmileyBoy]

16. Very nice simple site...

I'd suggest adding on to the photo gallery.

[alexwcovington]

17. kick

Did some redesigns, out up issue statements...