Criteria for evaluating political campaign webpages

Political candidate Web pages have become de rigeur in presidential campaigns. However, no set of standards have emerged for analysis and evaluation of this new and increasingly important electronic medium for political communication. We articulate a set of design criteria that address both the function (political communication: issues, character) and form (e.g., navigation aids, Web page layout) of these messages. These criteria are then applied to the Internet pages of the Bush and Gore campaigns two weeks prior to the 2000 election. Gore's site was more cluttered and less well‐designed than Bush's. The criteria could be used to analyze and evaluate other campaign Web pages.