While checking my personal e-mail on Yahoo! today (another) flash overlay advertisement disrupted the simple task that I was trying to do. Sure, this happens now and again but what was different about this one? Well, when I clicked on the ‘close’ button it opened the link to the product that was being advertised in another tab. So, I closed that and clicked ‘close’ again, thinking that I must have made an error and have missed clicking the ‘close’ button the first time (I was clicking ‘close’ quickly in frustration afterall). But no, it did exactly the same thing. While I’m not a fan of pop-up flash advertisements that cause me to be distracted from what I was originally doing, when I click close, I expect the ad to actually close! (more…)

Social networking is not exactly new to politics but as the web has evolved so have the strategies and tactics of political campaign teams and the online profiles of politicians. One thing that has struck me as very interesting throughout the U.S. presidential campaign this year was the overall design factor behind each candidate’s brand, graphic identity and website. A topic that I will be looking at in greater detail in a later post but for now I want to focus on the way in which Obama in particular has utilised the web and social media to promote his campaign. (more…)