Review: Electoral Commission Website And Logo

Today, we’re going in an interesting direction. I don’t really go into political debate or anything to do with nationality but I felt like this would be a good opportunity to ward into tech and software in government.

So today, I’m going to talk about the new Electoral Commission of Ghana’s website and it’s design. Then I’ll offer my opinion about their new logo from a design perspective and state if I like it or not (Spoiler alert: I don’t)

Electoral Commission Website Review:

First off, I like the website design. It’s clean. It’s light. Easy on the eyes and doesn’t have too much “noise” on the website. A bit of too much animation when it comes to the slideshows but it’s not too bad.

I like the button on the top marked “Register To Vote” and how it’s highlighted in green. It’s eye catching and points out an important feature of the EC website which is intended to show people how to register and vote.

The site features a sticky menu, which basically means the menu sticks to the top of the page as you scroll down. Some people like it, some don’t. It’s not a major issue.

But the homepage is well done. The website even features responsive design which means you can resize the website and it still fits whatever screen you are viewing it from.

Kudos for following modern design principles.

But it’s not all rosy and fireworks. For instance, clicking on the “Voting”, “Media”, “Resources”, “Political Entities” and “About” menu items which have dropdown options doesn’t do anything. But the other menu items do feature a page even though they also have dropdown options feature a page. It’s not consistent.

Also, I think the some of the font is too thin and might be a bit difficult to read. I’m using a Macbook Retina and I found myself squinting at times.

Another issue is trying to select the “1996 Presidential Election Results”. The file which downloaded was gibberish. So that needs to be fixed.

Overall, the Electoral Commission Of Ghana’s website is good. It’s modern looking and responsive for mobile devices. Hopefully, it’s maintained and updated regularly.

Ok, let’s talk about the controversial EC logo.

Logo Design: Plagiarism or Coincidence?

Honestly, the first time I saw the Electoral Commission logo, I can’t say I was impressed. It looked very meh in my opinion. Not inspiring and not impressive.

Then some news stories came out that the new EC logo was plagiarized. They said the new EC logo was ripped from a Turkish educational institute called “Yedi Sistem”. Hmmm… that’s a serious accusation. So let’s see if the accusations are valid. Let’s look at the logos side by side:

Well…that’s….interesting. They do look similar.

Ok, let me give you my conspiracy theory about the new EC logo. The EC wanted a new logo and they contacted someone to do it. The person looked for inspiration for the logo. He came upon this Turkish logo and decided to use that logo as inspiration. But it looks like that person used TOO much of that inspiration.

As it stands now, the logos look way too similar. The only difference is the colors, the fact that the figures in the Yedi logo are a bit curvier and connect at the very end while the EC logo figures are sharper and have a bit of space at the center.

So was it plagiarized? Maybe. Maybe not. Similarities to the Turkish logo doesn’t mean it was a rip off. It could be pure coincidence.

But that’s a debate for another day.

Let’s talk about the logo design. Honestly, I think it’s a bit bland and boring. The dull colors don’t inspire one bit. People are complaining about this logo missing the Ghana coat of arms but I think there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just concerned how unoriginal it is. From what I heard on the news, it looks like this was an in-house vetting process. No disrespect to the wonderful people working at the EC but perhaps, this logo should be looked at by a pair of younger eyes for a different perspective.

I think it would be nice if some guys who are into design work would offer up their own concept for the EC logo. They could probably come up with a better look than the one featured.

In the end though, does it really matter? Not really. All most care about is if the EC can deliver a smooth election process. That’s a topic for another blog.

So for the EC website. I have high praise. They just have a couple of things they could fix up but I like it and think it’s a good modern website with relevant information.

But for the EC logo….the least said, the better.