Sneak Peek of the New ActBlue Fundraising Pages

by: KTatActBlue

Tue May 01, 2007 at 04:29:10 PM EDT

Fundraising pages are the most important component of ActBlue: the vast majority of visitors to the site arrive directly on a fundraising page because a friend, an organization, or a campaign has channeled them there.  We pride ourselves on these pages' simplicity: donors can show up, immediately understand what's going on, and contribute with no distracting bells and whistles. 

But we harbor a dirty secret (or, not-so-secret if you've been with us a while).

Over the past three years, $22 million raised, and 200,000+ donors, these pages haven't actually changed all that much.  For a bit of nostalgia, check out the DailyKos dozen page as it looked back at the end of 2004 (compare to the same page with today's look).  Yeah, the site framework has changed a little, but the makeup of the fundraising pages is remarkably similar.

Next week, all that is about to change.

Motivated by a strong sense that we could do better (and by a desire to burn down HTML code approaching its second anniversary), a few weeks ago we got to work putting together a new design with the help of the excellent Steve Ofner of Liberal Art.  The result is the new design that that you see at right.  (Click the image for a full-size mockup.)

In putting the new design together we had several aims:

• A sharper, more dynamic look & feel
• A simpler user experience
• A clearer presentation of the dollar and donor numbers
• A more attention-grabbing "contribute" button at the top

The result is an improved page design that looks good with long candidate blurbs, short candidate blurbs, no candidate blurbs, or all of the above.

We'll be rolling out this design next week, and will continue to refine it in the coming months -- so please let us know what you think!