I have often been told that the easier you make something to understand, the more successful it will be. Successful designs of the past lend this statement to be true. Online petitions have been around as long as the internet has, and although they are pretty simple to understad the value of them as tools is debatable. I myself am never too sure that an online petition can do more than old fashioned writing and a telephone call. A new method helps to add a level of design that I have never seen before on a Petition, but whether that will help or hinder the validity of the petition remains to be seen. Even if the cause is just, the viewer may simply submit just to see their dot on the map.
What am I talking about? Well, I was working on updating the author profiles on Gothamist and I decided to checked out one of their contributors websites; therealjanelle. On this website I came across this posting which discussed a petition website that visually satisfied and relayed the data in a new way. The website, designed by eyebeam, asks the viewer to sign a petition on a pretty heavy subject, the renewal of the assault weapons ban that will be expiring pretty soon. The organizer behind it is the father of a child who was killed at Columbine.
It's not a straight forward sign and thank you form, it has a bit of creativity behind it. When the visitor signs via the below link, a visual line is traced from the originating source to the poster. The flash site is updated on the fly and dots litter the American landscape with markings of it's signatures. It's pretty impressive and very powerful technique. But there is a lot of white space that needs to be filled.
