The might not be the biggest party in the UK, but The Scottish National Party are easy to find in Google. Being one of the smaller parties I'd expect big things from their web presence as this is a great way to get information and answers to people that are looking for your stance on issues.

Website

Their first page is pretty straight forward. There's a fireside chat with Alex Salmond and some nice big links to areas people will want to dive straight into. There's a lot more visually that could have been done here, but it is what it is. My only concern is I normally associate big Xs in the top right of something on my PC as CLOSE or EXIT.

Inside the site is mildy unspectacular. Each of the sections of the site has a nondescript grey image running across the top, and as you navigate round, not much else changes, except the text.

The primary navigation runs across the top, and is repeated down the lefthand side. The secondary navigation only appears in tabbed list format down the left. If you didn't notice this you'd miss most of the site content. There are no sub links running across the top. Bit of a #FAIL.

My next complaint is only about a third of the pages seem to have pictures of any kind. It makes for dull browsing. I'm not drawn to click on anything, and tended to aimlessly wander around.

Not only that, it was easy to get stuck in the dark corners of the SNP's website e.g. if you click on Shop or through to their Union Group website, there's no clear way back to the SNP site. The link didn't make it clear that it was taking you off into the wilderness, so this could be pretty confusing for most people. All the pages have a 'Home' link, but they don't all take you to the same place.

There's not much more to say. The website is not that great, it's not that engaging, and it's not that... anything.

Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube... Anything!

I wasn't the only one thinking this. On their Ask a Question page someone wondered (in 2008):

When's the SNP going to have a twitter account and official facebook prescence?
Submitted by siliconglen on Sun, 27/07/2008 - 21:34.

One year later, a month before an election, the SNP don't seem to have bothered with any of that Interweb jiggery pokery. If they do have any of these, they don't mention them on their website.

I did however notice that their SNP Trade Unionists page does have a Twitter account! A month after setting it up, they're not following anyone and they already have 9 followers.

All in all, it's a bit rubbish really. All of it.