The Pixel Awards take a fresh look at the best on the web, annually honoring 20 compelling sites that have shown excellence in web design and development. In addition, each year The Pixel Awards announces a People’s Champ based on the votes of the web community. Voting for the People’s Champ will open September 24 and close on October 24. Be sure to tell your co-workers, friends, and family so they can help us knock out the competition!

WE NEED YOUR VOTE! Please go to http://pixelawards.com/webawards/people_champ/champ.php#Non-Profit and select NJ REBEL. You can vote once a day.

Thank you in advance for your vote.

I realize neither candidate actually did the work I’m critiquing. But, as Harry Truman said, “the buck stops here.” Each candidate is ultimately responsible for how they portray themselves. So, for the purposes of discussion, let’s take a look at the candidates’ web sites:

Barack Obama

barackobama.com

Much like the crowds he draws, Mr. Obama’s website has gotten lots of attention. Rightfully so, as the level of sophistication in execution extends from the macro to the micro.

Layout

• Astutely organized with a focus on usability and flexibility. The page has a ton of links and information without being complex or cumbersome.
• Navigational items are clear and easy to find.
• Informational hierarchy is intelligently laid out and tiered to best suit the medium.

Aesthetics

• Logo is at once clever and elegant (when can you even recall a candidate having something you could even remotely call a logo?)
• Typography is savvy and refined (you really can’t go wrong with Gotham as your primary brand font).
• Design limits itself to silhouetted photography, vector graphics and lighting gradients which allows for depth and complexity while always remaining consistent.
• No detail is overlooked: Check out the text detail in the rollover navigation and custom icons.

Technology

• Stylesheets are incredibly sleek, simple and modern. Feel free to take a look at the CSS yourself, or you could just trust me.
• HTML markup is standards-based and semantically appropriate.
• Uses unobtrusive Flash and Javascript to subtly add rich content.

John McCain

johnmccain.com

Mr. McCain’s website approaches design… differently.

Layout

• Navigation is extremely difficult to find sandwiched in between a massive (but otherwise useless) banner and an annoying bar demanding that I know what kind of voter I am.
• Organization is terrible in general, creating a burden on the user to locate information.

Aesthetics

• For arguments sake, I will concede that McCain has a “logo”. But stars? C’mon EVERY politician uses stars. At least make the attempt toward originality and use stars in a different way.
• Typography is bland and completely inconsistent.
• Design is flat and all over the board, at times looking like a patchwork of separate ideas rather than a single, focused message.
• Icons look like bad stock art and buttons look like trite Photoshop filters gone wild.

Technology

• CSS is wasteful and unorganized. To be blunt, it looks like it was done by someone’s friend’s nephew who learned to code last summer.
• Tables? Tables? Only programming dinosaurs still use tables.
• Uses Flash and Javascript, but the technology is being asked to overcome the deficiencies in layout. Take for example the functionally confusing trio of sliding graphics to the left.

With politics being full of tacky one-liners and status quos, it is refreshing to see design taken seriously on the national stage. Mr. Obama claims this is “change we can believe in.” Indeed, Mr. Obama. Indeed.

NJREBEL.COM, a website designed and developed by Square360, has garnered numerous recognitions across the Web, including Adobe’s prestigious Site of the Day. Adobe recognizes projects based on strong visual design, technical execution, usability, interesting and/or timely content, as well as overall innovative use of Adobe products. Developed in conjunction with Winning Strategies, the website features cutting-edge techniques in design and technology and leverages everything from video tour guides, Facebook games, student-led blogs, rankings for smoking facts and video parodies.

To date, NJREBEL.COM has been featured on:

• Adobe Site of the Day
• Best Web Gallery
• BOTWG
• Command Shift3
• CoolHomePages
• CSSLoggia
• CSSMania
• DZine
• Faveup
• Kinoa
• Most Inspired
• My3W
• ScreenFluent
• Smashing Magazine
• The Daily Slurp
• Waacoo
• WebDesignerWall

REBEL, which stands for Reaching Everyone By Exposing Lies, is a statewide, youth-led, anti-tobacco movement dedicated to educating peers and the community about the dangers of smoking.

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