EXTREME MAKEOVER: WHITEHOUSE.GOV EDITION By Matthew Battles

February 1, 2009 by Alice Gebura

Today’s Boston Globe has a web design comparison between the Bush and Obama versions of whitehouse.gov. The article is very informative for those of us working in visual design and for those who are thinking about designing their own web site. I’m including a link to the article here. And, I’d like to add my own 2 cents.

Layout

The Bush layout for whitehouse.gov used a typical three column layout underneath a horizontal banner.

3 columns

The Obama layout has a large top section divided into two distinct areas over a three column layout. Obama’s designer knows about Fibonacci based proportions which we see here as 1:2:3.

whitehouse2

The result is a much more visually appealing layout because the eye tends to prefer proportion to symmetry.
Obama's Whitehouse

Analysis by Smart Alice Web Design, smart web design for people who want a unique and effective presence on the internet.