GUILFORD CONNECTICUT DEMOCRATIC TOWN COMMITTEE
Equality for all in a web redesign
Designer: Ashley Haffner
The Guilford Democratic Town Committee (GDTC)
uses their website as a tool to provide information
to voters in the area and to advance participation
in government. Maureen Gaffney, chair for the
GDTC website and public information committee,
says, “The new site design should convey a sense of
vitality. It should be unique, attractive and not so
radical as to alienate the conservative tendency of
Connecticut Yankees or overly challenge seniors.”
Gaffney says, “Since this is a volunteer-run
operation, the site needs to be simple HTML-only
with JPG and/or GIF images. No Flash. No bells and
whistles.” Designer Ashley Haffner based her redesign
of the site on an outline of pages and needs that
Gaffney provided—allowing room to grow.
“I put the committee chair’s letter on the home
page because I’m assuming this will be a monthly
updated feature,” says Haffner. “But even if it isn’t, I
think this is the way to welcome people to the site.
The flag visual adds interest, while allowing a break
between the main content and the navigation.”
“By putting everything on the right of the web
page you risk people not noticing it,” says Haffner
of the original navigation on the site. “Most viewers
scan down the middle of a page and if they’re
on a small screen or have the type set huge—as my
mother does—they cut off the entire right side of
the screen. And unless they scroll over, they may not
even realize anything is there on the right.” Haffner
added large buttons to the top navigation and created
a left navigation bar for ease of use.
Haffner selected traditional red-and-blue patriotic
colors paired with gray, but also added a richer
shade of brick red. She selected legible fonts, News
Gothic and Garamond, to use in the redesign. She
also says, “Highlighting the other candidates is great,
but instead of the ‘More’ link taking visitors to the
other member sites, it would be better to have a link
to a page that briefly highlights the candidates first.
The GDTC shouldn’t be in such a hurry to send visitors
to other sites. It gets viewers sidetracked from
the main intent—which is to make them informed
Democrats who volunteer and vote.”
