Standing Out From The Crowd

Just one day after the election, in a discussion group for UX practitioners and Information architects, I saw a post asking people’s take on the U.S. election with respect to UX & Usability.  Specifically, it was asking if either McCain or Obama would provide a better environment for UX to thrive…

Well, my first reaction was to think that the question was a little off-point and that the choice of the U.S. President couldn’t possible affect the UX environment, but then I stopped to really think about it…

It’s interesting to think how a president could positively or negatively affect the UX environment. Particularly, I’d think that the UX environment evolves by the need from users to have more friendly sites/systems and by usual rules of market behind supply and demand, driving companies to look for new and better ways to stand out from the competition.  

Now, Obama proved more than once during his campaign that when used correctly and to its full potential, the online channel can change the way your product is seen and consumed.  He showed that the internet can be a force to reckon when getting people involved and interested in what you have to say.

Obama’s approach and use of all available online resources (from SEO to Social Media to iPhone applications) reinforces that he is already more in tune with the new media and better yet, capable of leveraging new concepts and ideas to bring out-of-the-box solutions that actually work. 

Not even a week has passed since his election and he has already launched a new website that lets people track his decisions, give feedback and offer help: Change.gov .  The website is an example of “by-the-book” UX best practices.  It is simple and effective and will certainly get him one step closer to achieving his goals.

It seems to me that Obama is set to change how the government uses the Internet and he intends to do it with the best available UX standards and techniques.

That alone should give us hope on how he can bring more people to use the internet as a primary communication channel and, by that, raise the competition and the overall need for better UX.

 
 
UPDATE: Here’s some more data on Obama’s innovative use of the Internet: Read it at TechCrunch