The web site of the Reform Party is a typical example of the use of the Internet by political candidates and parties in the 1996 election cycle. The site served a variety of functions for the party, from organization of state petition drives to providing press information to allowing for on-line interaction between party and voters. In the broader view, however, the site existed to provide voters with information about the Reform Party and its candidates. As with most web pages, the Reform Party site's primary goal was to communicate a body of information to an interested audience. Unlike television and newspaper advertising, web sites must be sought out. Thus, the builders of such a site can begin with the assumption that those who visit are both interested in the information they will find there and well-educated enough about the subject that they will expect detailed, factual and accurate information.
Thus the Reform Party site, like most others, was designed under the assumption that its visitors had at the very least a rudimentary knowledge of the subjects covered by the site. As mentioned above, the site was designed to meet several quite different communication goals for the party. However, in order to be effective as a communication tool, all aspects of the site had to remain accessible to all constituencies. This and the relative anonymity of the web make it virtually impossible to target a web site, or any part of a web site at a particular block of voters. This drives information on the web to be largely fact-driven and accurate. When everything is in writing for all to see, there is very little room to tailor custom messages on any topic.

The Reform Party site, because of its breadth of information and clear, logical layout is an ideal venue for studying how users actually navigate political sites: which information they seek out and which features they return to. The Reform Party site is divided very clearly into six main sections all of which are clearly identified and easily accessible from the main page:

1) Principles of Reform⁹. This section laid out the Reform Party's positions on a number of key issues, ranging from a balanced budget to term limits to lobbying restrictions. As the main page of the section notes,

These are the Principles of Reform that the Reform Party and all of its candidates pledge to follow. Party platforms will adhere to these principles. These are designed to focus attention on the governmental and economic reforms that this Party and the majority of Americans want accomplished.¹⁰

Links point to pages containing details about each of the nine major issue areas. Each page however, provides little in the way of specific substantive information. A bulleted list highlighted the major points of each principle, but failed to provide the sort of detailed platform which is perfect for communication via the Internet. This section is mostly aimed at users who do not know much about the Reform Party, what it stands for and what it intends to do.

2) Lend Your Support¹¹. The support section gives prospective party members two options for signing up on-line to help the Reform Party. The first option was part of a registration drive, in which voters could sign up for the party to send them registration materials. A second form allowed people to sign up to volunteer for various Reform Party activities, including receiving e-mail updates and notification of local party events, volunteering in a local office or contributing to the party. The support section is geared toward Reform Party supporters who may not yet have registered to vote as a member of the party or who may be interested in becoming more a part of the party.

3) State By State¹². This section served two main purposes: to inform voters of the Reform Party's ballot status in their individual states, and to provide contact information for local party organizations. The main page of the section provided a color-coded map indicating the party's ballot status in each state. Clicking on the outline of any state took the user to that state's information page, which included contact names and addresses for state party organizations, links to state organization web sites, and tips for forming local chapters of the Reform Party and registering Reform Party voters. This section is generally aimed at those wishing to join the party, although it is also a useful resource for those who merely wish to find out more about the Reform Party in their local area.

4) In the News¹³. The news section of the site provided a continually updated collection of Reform Party press releases from October 1995 up to the most recent information. This section provided users with a valuable wealth of current information direct from the party spokespeople, much of which did not make it to the evening news or the major front pages of the major newspapers. While new releases after September 18 were not added to the permanent archive, the site continued to provide an up-to-date resource covering the day-to-day activities of the Reform Party. This section provided an excellent resource for those users wishing to learn more about the Reform Party, as well as for supporters who wish to keep informed of the party's activities on a daily basis.

5) On-line Headquarters¹⁴. The On-line Headquarters seems to be a "miscellaneous" section, containing pages that did not fit into any of the other categories. This section included a brief history of the Reform Party, links to the web sites of the College Reform Party and Ross Perot's `96 campaign site, and press clippings about the Reform Party. Also situated in this section was the party's on-line convention information, including on-line voting instructions, convention schedules, and candidates' speeches. Because of its miscellaneous nature, most of the pages in this section were useful for both supporters of the party and those seeking more information.

6) Interactive Gallery.¹⁵ The interactive section of the site contained little substantive information, but acted as a resource for party members to interact with others and to show their support of the Reform Party. This section included a number of live chat rooms, a user survey, a photo gallery and downloadable images that users could include on their own web pages. This section is aimed mostly at users who already know what the Reform Party stands for and are interested in supporting the party and becoming more involved.