Investigating the Voter Experience with Republican Candidate Websites Head-to-head competitions between GOP candidate websites show that campaigns too frequently place campaign objectives ahead of voter needs. Competition experiments, using 15 undecided voters, found that the websites of Michele Bachman and Hermann Cain were the most effective at influencing voters. Surprisingly, the website of GOP front-runner, Mitt Romney, was one of the worst.

1. What the People Want
Investigating the Voter Experience
with Republican Candidate Websites
9 Major Usability Findings
Researched by Normal Modes
normalmodes.com
© 2011 - Normal Modes LLC - All Rights Reserved.

2. 1. Bachmann and Cain campaigns
hadthe best overall user experience

3. “ Her information is
straightforward.
Consistent. Clean.
”
– Mixed voter

4. “ I like the navigation.
And there’s nothing
confusing about
the interface.
– Mixed voter
”

5. 2. Features of successful
campaign websites:
- bullet points,
- strategic bolding &
highlighting,
- brevity

6. “ There’s a lot of
information on this
page, but it’s laid out
the way I’d want to
see it. I like the bullet
items. This feels like
something I’d see at
work, and I like that.
It looks professional.
There’s highlights
and bolding. I like the
way this is presented.
”
– Democrat voter

7. “ The 11-point plan is
broken into sections,
which I like.
”
– Republican voter

8. 3. Email collection “splash” pages
before the homepage
annoy & confuse voters

9. How do I get to his [homepage]?
– Democrat voter
No, I wouldn’t [enter my
information]. I would go back to
search.
– Republican voter
I would get out of there and go
back to the Google search if I
wanted to find out more
information about Mitt.
– Democrat voter
Not what I was expecting to see.
So far I’m 0 for 2 on finding the This is not what I’m looking for, so
homepage… so now I’m going let’s go back [to Google] and look
back and search one more time. again.
– Republican voter
– Republican voter

10. I don’t know if I would
[enter personal information]
right now, so I would go
back to the Google list.
– Democrat voter

11. So, I’m not going to leave
my email address so I’ll go
back [to Google].
– Mixed voter

12. It wasn’t what I was
expecting to see. When
people are asking about
my name and zip code… I
try not to put too much
information online.
– Republican voter

13. No, I don’t want to Join the
Campaign, so I’ll go back
to Google.
– Mixed voter
As soon as I saw the email
address and zip code, I
knew I did not want to sign
up for anything on this
page.
– Democrat voter

14. It’s neat that there’s a visit
michelebachmann.com link
that will probably take me
to her homepage.
– Republican voter
Interesting enough already
it’s asking me to sign up for
email updates, but does
not ask for my email. I like
that.
– Mixed voter

15. 4. The Perry campaign’s videos
are exceptional

16. “ By god, I’m about ready to run out the door and vote for that
man. Well done video. Very well done.
”
– Democrat voter

17. 5. Romney’s website suffers
from major usability issues
that are easy to resolve

18. “ I don’t really like how
the tabs are set up.
When you click on a
tab the sub-tab kinda
”
disappears in the
grey header area.
– Republican voter
“ [The design’s] not
super catchy.
”
– Republican voter
“ This does not look
clean enough to be
[Romney’s] website.
– Republican voter
”

19. 6. Huntsman’s biographical timeline is
extraordinarily engaging&“sticky”

20. I find scanning through here, [The timeline’s] cool. It’s gives
the presentation with the a great layout of the steps that
pictures is well done. he took to get here.
– Mixed voter – Democrat voter
[The timeline’s] filled with facts.
– Democrat voter, during a 12 minute review of the timeline

21. 7. Participants viewed
engagement with campaigns
as a funnel or process

22. Voter’s Perspective of the Candidate Engagement Funnel
Commitment Level
Awareness Consideration Support
Visits Candidate’s
Voter Wants, Needs, & Motivations
Website Signs up for
Email Newsletter Donate, Volunteer, &
“Join the Campaign”
Wants:
Wants & Needs:
Information about Wants & Needs:
candidate’s bio & position Additional information
on issues important to the delivered to their email Easy-to-use advanced tools
voter on a regular basis from the like donation forms and portals.
campaign More research needed.
Needs & Motivations:
Motivation: Motivation:
Information, presented in an
easy-to-access, uncluttered More easily keep up with all Commitment to a candidate
and straightforward possible candidates and a cause. More research
interface in order to assess while deciding which will needed.
candidate’s compatibility ultimately gain their support
with their voting
preferences
Time © 2011 - Normal Modes LLC - All Rights Reserved.

23. “ I wouldn’t sign up for
this [Join Team Cain]
area until I decided
that I want to support
”
Herman. I didn’t want
to do this now.
– Republican voter

24. 8. “Join the Campaign”
is a level of commitment
that is inconsistent across websites

25. “Join the Campaign” = Email Subscription

26. “Join the Campaign” = Supporter Portal

27. 9. Voters believed design elements
were borrowed
from Obama’s 2008 campaign

28. “ Every time I see his
logo, the Perry for
”
President reminds me
of the Obama logo.
– Republican voter
“ The blue [color] kinda
reminds me of
”
Obama from 2008.
– Republican voter

29. Thank you
Download the full report at normalmodes.com/reports
Questions & Comments
Angela Schmeidel Randall
Founder & CEO, Normal Modes
@normalmodes
hello@normalmodes.com
888.956.6337
© 2011 - Normal Modes LLC - All Rights Reserved.