Working for Change...now Credo Action

I'm going to talk about a website I've never seen before, Credo Action. I had intended to go to a site called Working for Change (which I obviously haven't visited in a while), and I was rerouted to this site automatically. It looks like "WorkingForChange and ActForChange are now CREDO Action, a new tool for change from Working Assets." The site design is totally different from Working for Change, so I'd like to talk about it in contrast to the old site. (The change over must have happened in later August, since that is the last archived date for the site on the Wayback Machine.)

Intended Audience:

• Readers who want access to prescient political commentary for a variety of op-ed contributors, political cartoons like This Modern World, and links to other political action sites.
• Potential contributors to Working for Change or any of the other organizations sponsored on its page.
• Now, surprisingly, a potential customer of CredoMobile, apparently a cell phone plan for the modern-day activist.

Usefulness of Content:

Now that Working for Change has morphed into this site, the content is a lot less useful to someone mainly interested in the wealth of available content. I notice there are only 5 or so commentators now; Maureen Dowd and Molly Ivins are gone, as is Sean Gonsalves, a great columnist from my local paper. All of the comics except for This Modern World are also gone - no Boondocks and no Mark Fiore, among others (not that I'm not thrilled with TMW - I just like variety). Finally, the media clips (usually links to CNN, Stephen Colbert, or videos on things like net neutrality and local political campaigns) and large archives are gone. In contrast, Credo Action has fewer commentators, fewer articles in its archives, fewer comics, and no media clips. It's content is still useful for someone looking for what it offers - I just fear its universe may have narrowed more, now.

Consistency of Design:

In contrast to Working for Change, the design is a lot more consistent: white background, black text, light blue blocks of color, and orange to frame or highlight headlines and important text. I like this color scheme a lot, and the new site a lot less cramped (and therefore easier to browse and read), but it somehow seems...antiseptic. In contrast to the homey old site, which had lots of color and a lot less white space (but was nevertheless relatively easy to navigate), Credo Action almost resembles a website for a new spa or pharmaceutical. I'm not a fan. Within the site, design is not too consistent. All the linked pages under the "Action" tab look slightly different from each other, or go to an entirely different site. The inconsistencies come from not sticking to the color scheme, or using different font sizes and weights or margin sizes.

Ease of Navigation:

Considering there's a not a lot of content now, the site is pretty easy to navigate. There are only three menu tabs across the top, and the content below is arranged in intuitive blocks: commentary, take action, blogs, This Modern World, mobile. When you start to explore the site, though, it is sometimes frustrating because some pages open in new windows with no back button, some pages open in the same window but still don't have a back button, and other pages function totally normally (i.e., look the same as the page you just left, and have a clickable link back to the homepage).

All in all, I was a bigger fan of the old site, and doubt I'll be coming to this one much more.