The Design of Smear Campaigning - A Look at "Harpernomics"

Harpernomics.ca is a website accessible via the general site for the Liberal Party of Canada, designed to convince the voting public of the Liberal Party’s legitimacy to form a government. The Liberal Party has created "Hapernomics" to systematically criticize the policy and character of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, condemning the party as a whole by singling out Harper for censure. 

Immediately Striking Design Chracteristics

Monochromatic, Black and White Colour Scheme

According to Lidwell et. al, colour can enhance aesthetics, support design elements and reinforce intended messaging when properly applied. One of the first things I noticed about "Harpernomics" was its monochromatic colour scheme – the site uses dark, desaturated colours, which, are generally “perceived as serious and professional” (Lidwell 38). This seems appropriate for a political text that seeks to project a professional, reliable image. Furthermore, a serious tone supports the site’s overall message of earnest urgency: the country, under the Conservatives, is faltering, and needs the Liberal “plan and leadership to stop Canada from falling behind” (“Hapernomics.ca”).

The role of colour in the design of "Hapernomics" is twofold. Besides projecting a serious and professional tone, the site draws on textual codes to deliver a message about Conservative government policy. While Lidwell points out that there is “no universal symbolism” for colours (38), an understanding of cultural context can reveal the semiotic implications of this monochromatic design. Since colour has become expected in photography and film, “black and white tends to be lower in modality, used for representing the past, dreams, fantasies etc.” (Van Leeuwen 168). Use of black and white supports the intended Liberal message that Conservative policy is out of touch with reality, and represents a political methodology of the past. "Hapernomics" leverages a linking textual code – that of visual media colour choice – to facilitate and shape viewer interpretation regarding Conservative policy (Chandler 157).

Gee Mr. Harper; You Don’t Look So Good – Photograph Choice and the Attractiveness Bias

The photograph of Stephen Harper featured at the top of the site was chosen for a reason. The picture selected by Liberal designers emphasizes the dark circles under Stephen’s eyes, and the monochromatic representation only serves to emphasize this less than favourable feature. The angle is unflattering, and makes his chin look poorly defined. Furthermore, this particular expression makes Harper seem particularly unfriendly and unapproachable.
 

The Liberals strive to make Stephen appear unattractive because they are keenly aware of the attractiveness bias, that “attractive people are generally perceived more positively than unattractive people” (Lidwell 26). Designers are hoping to reduce Stephen’s overall appeal by diminishing his visual attractiveness, seeking to make his policy shortcomings less forgivable by emphasizing his physical flaws.

Digging A Little Deeper

Designing for Information Digestion – the 80/20 Rule, Chunking, and Archetypes

In his introductory book about semiotics, Daniel Chandler notes that “[w]ithout mechanisms such as categorization and perceptual constancy, the world would be no more than what William James called ‘a great blooming and buzzing confusion’ ” (Chandler 152). Anyone who has tried to gain an in-depth understanding of government issues knows that Chandler’s observation applies well to the world of politics. The arms of political policy extend into every sphere of life, and potential effects are based on so many variables that choosing a well-informed course of action feels impossible. Average voters have even less of an understanding of complex issues than do the politicians; the public needs the endless continuum of information divided into categories, and limited according to relevance. Voters require that designers draw on understood genres and assumptions to facilitate an understanding of politics, and create what Chandler calls “perceptual constancy.”

For those who design political campaign information, the 80/20 rule is crucial. The 80/20 rule states that “a high percentage of effects in any large system are caused by a low percentage of the variables” (Lidwell 12). In politics, a high percentage of people vote based on a relatively diminutive subset of political knowledge. The implication, then, is that campaigners should avoid overwhelming busy people with too much non-critical information. It is because of the 80/20 rule that “Harpernomics” uses quotations, rather than entire political speeches or newspaper articles. For each political issue featured on “Harpernomics”, the designer chooses quotations to represent Harper’s view, paired with a few dissenting quotations from the media that slam Stephen’s opinion. 

Related to the 80/20 rule is the concept of chunking. While audiences need the scope of information reduced, they also need it visibly categorized into sections to “accommodate short-term memory limits” (Lidwell 30). The general rule for chunking is “four, plus or minus one chunk” (Lidwell 30). Each individual political issues section follows this chunking principle, presenting information in three distinct blocks:

1) a picture and an overall quotation, expressing the direness of the situation; 
2) a “ ‘Harpernomics’ says” section; and 
3) a “the reality is” section

However, information overall is chunked into nine categories – far too many to enable easy information recall. 

This is not a design flaw, but  a deliberate disregard of the rules to gain a “compensating merit” (Lidwell 11). With so many categories presented, the resulting user perspective is that Harper’s policy is seriously flawed, and  his mistakes span a number of distinct areas rather than just a few.

Finally, the name of the page – “Harpernomics” – cannot go without mention. Consider the austere font, and the choice to capitalize the word. Compare “Harpernomics” to the title gracing the cover of a typical textbook. The two share a “visual identity” based on genre (Van Leeuwen 136), with “Harpernomics” drawing upon the established, understood medium of the textbook. 

Using the textbook genre calls to mind the cultural archetype of formal education, which many consider strict, cold, inflexible and inapplicable in “real” circumstances. Leveraging the formal education archetype lends such characteristics to Conservative ideas, and does so on “an unconscious and primarily affective level” (Lidwell 24).

The Overall Aim of "Harpernomics" – Creating and Providing Mechanisms to Resolve Cognitive Dissonance

 “Harpernomics” creates a state of viewer discomfort by inducing cognitive dissonance. For people who support or are neutral towards Harper politics, “Harpernomics” introduces cognitive dissonance within each topic by featuring a positive quotation from the current Prime Minister, and disproving each using excerpts from newspapers, magazines, and other sources. Voters have the option of “reducing the importance of dissonant cognitions” (i.e., asserting that all politicians are crooked, so none of the information on the site matters); “adding consonant cognitions” (i.e. recognizing the site is biased and manipulative); “or removing or changing dissonant cognitions” (i.e. choosing to support another party as a result of the information) (Lidwell 36). “Hapernomics” wants voters to alleviate cognitive dissonance by throwing support behind the Liberal Party, and features that solution on the webpage so that viewers are not left to misinterpret the intended message by deciding their own course of action. “What you can do” as a concerned Canadian is consider the Liberal plan for Canada, and “[v]isit Liberal.ca to learn more” (“Harpernomics.ca”).

Four More Design Principles Not Addressed in This Entry

1. The Advance Organizer principle of design helps people to understand new information by referencing facts and ideas that are already known (Lidwell 16). Use of the textbook genre bears some similarity to the advance organizer principle – the textbook genre superimposes pre-existing notions about the formal education archetype, onto Stephen Harper’s political platform. Voters understand something new in terms of something old. However, there is an important distinction. Use of archetypes affects readers on an unconscious level, encouraging projection of preconceived notions onto newer content without awareness. Advance organizers are much more explicit and take the form of spoken, written or illustrated content that directly seek to explain the “big picture” prior to presentation of more specific content (Lidwell 16). There are no sweeping overviews of Canada’s political history, or any other types of clear advance organizers on "Harpernomics". All information takes the form of carefully organized factual tidbits, which are presumably all new to the viewer.

2. The Aesthetic-Usability Effect is not irrelevant to "Harpernomics". Photographs, video and organized design make the site easy to look at, and consequently, more usable in the eyes of the voting public (Lidwell 18). Since this site’s persuasive power is grounded in its ability to hold attention, the aesthetic-usability effect is an important one indeed. Simply put, I chose to analyze other principles over this one because there was more to say about them, and more relevant connections between my selected priciples and interesting material that I learned in other courses.

3. Alignment on "Harpernomics" is well done. Boxes containing information are set in relation to each other so that borders are uniform, and a columnar layout is maintained; the overall aesthetic effect is pleasing, and the page feels cohesive and unified. Although alignment is important to the achievement of an aesthetic appearance, there is relatively little to say about this principle when it is executed properly, other than that alignment creates a pleasant appearance and enhances usability (Lidwell 22). Analysis of alignment gone awry is far more interesting, since poor arrangement of elements not only affects appearance, but can also impede a text’s overall communicative goals.

4. Confirmation is an interesting design principle, but not particularly relevant to the website I have chosen for analysis. Erroneous clicks will not result in irreversible consequences or information loss. Since user actions “are completely and easily reversible”  by simply clicking a different link, confirmation text boxes are not only unnecessary, but would be needlessly annoying if put in place (Lidwell 44). Since "Harpernomics" neither uses confirmation, nor would benefit from its implementation, I decided to leave this design principle out in my main analysis.

Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics : The Basics. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Lidwell, William, Jill Butler, and Kritina Holden. Universal Principles of Design. New York: Rockport, 2003.

Van Leeuwen, Theo. Introducing Social Semiotics : An Introductory Textbook. New York: Routledge, 2004.