Design to Win: Labor Unions Need More Professional-Looking Web Sites

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.seattlepi.com/trevorgriffey/archives/224270.asp

I'm not going to speculate on why labor unions have such bad web sites. But it's time to ask our brothers and sisters in the labor movement (I'm a member of UAW Local 4121) to put their creative energies into developing a simple wordpress theme that could be adapted to the needs of various labor union locals around the country.

Many if not most labor union web sites are design disasters that look like they were created in the late 1990s and haven't changed since. Web 2.0? Forget it. Most labor unions still don't utilize the kinds of web tools that non-profits and corporations have been using for the last 5 years to increase the interactivity of their sites and enlist their users in creating a broader community of interest and support. Which is fine if labor unions don't want to use the internet to create allies outside their own ranks or facilitate solidarity among their members. But even a move away from clunky, text-heavy web sites seems too much to ask from many labor union locals.

It may be superficial, but design matters. In a world where people increasingly get their information and even mediate their participation in politics, commerce, and entertainment through digital technology, an unattractive web site projects an unprofessional or out of touch image. It predetermines how people experience the text they read and the images and video they consume, and makes readers suspect the credibility of the source they're reading. And it discourages supporters from finding what they need or sharing their support for the labor movement with their digital personal and professional communities.

Here in Washington state, the Change to Win unions-- those that broke with the AFL-CIO and tend to emphasize electoral politics and organizing the unorganized-- seem to care more about graphic design. SEIU Locals 775 and 925, for instance, have simple, good-looking web sites. So does UFCW Local 21.

In contrast, the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC), which has the best labor issues blog in Washington state, has a web site that looks like it was designed ten years ago and hasn't changed since. Its blog served as an indispensable source of information for me when I was a writer on state politics, but I preferred to access it via the WSLC's email updates. To even find the WSLC's news roundup and links to its latest opinions on its web site, you have to click on non-intuitive buttons, starting with "what's new" and then clicking on a small button on the left that says "WSLC reports" (which could mean anything). Many AFL-CIO affiliated locals in the state are just as bad if not worse, including the powerful International Association of Machinists 751 (which represents most Boeing workers in the state).

Meanwhile, WSLC arch-rivals Association of Washington Business (AWB) and Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) not only have better-designed web sites, but also have separate web sites just for their blogs and links to them on their main pages.

FULL story at link.

[geckosfeet]

1. Design is NOT supreficial. It is fundamental. The unions need to loosen the

purse strings and hire some pro's.

The 90's are over. So are websites built by a friend of a friend who read a book on html.

[iamtechus]

2. The purpose of a union's website is to communicate with the members.

Those very same members usually don't want a lot of their dues money spent on things like pretty websites. Steward training and legal representation, for instance, are much higher on their priority lists.

http://ualibt-den.org/blog1/