Survey of current moveon.org site

Brand/Visual Identity
Body text; Arial, 11px
Headings: Arial Bold, 22px, 18px, 16px, 12px
Color Palette: Red, white, blue, lavender, bronze
Imagery: Screened American flags, stock photography, photos of members participating in political activities
Designer: unknown
Site maintenance: unknown

Overview
Most of this material comes directly from moveon.org's site. On September 18th 1998, Wes Boyd and Joan Blades launched an online petition to "Censure President Clinton and Move On to Pressing Issues Facing the Nation." Within days they had hundreds of thousands of individuals signed up, and began looking for ways these voices could be heard.

MoveOn progressed to its present state as a family of organizations dedicated to developing a motivated and politically active community.

There are several different organizations under the MoveOn structure.

• MoveOn.org Civic Action, a non-profit that focuses on education and advocacy on important national issues
• MoveOn.org Political Action, a federal PAC, which mobilizes people across the country to fight important battles in Congress and help elect candidates who reflect their values.

The fundamental basis for their approach is harnessing the power of the Internet to create real world communities of like-minded citizens who can affect change through the political process.

Current screen shots:










Current User Experience
The current user experience of moveon.org is a bit disconnected from their mission. While it does a good job of presenting issues and offering ways to participate through online petitions, it does not feel like there is a community presence. All community oriented items such as Success Stories and a Member’s Stories module is found below the fold. This is also true in the manner in which editorial content is presented. It has a top-down feel, which makes it unclear as to how or why certain issues are being presented to the viewer.

The most powerful tool available is the ActionForum, where members can submit content on issues, rate these proposals, and agree/disagree with other members. This is the only place a vibrant online community experience is evident. However, this section is very difficult to find.

Because the site is split between the two groups of moveon, there is a disconcerting feeling of jumping between sites. There are other disconnects when the site utilizes flickr to showcase a gallery and a separate site to handle its ActionForum.