"Smart power meets smart design." How's that for killing two messaging birds with one stone?

Secretary Hillary Clinton's State Department and its new media team, led by Clinton presidential campaign veteran Katie Dowd, has just launched a revamped State.gov website. Driving the redesign was the idea that the State Department's online presence could do a better job of handling the more, well, boring part of its responsibilities -- assisting travelers with passports, circulating travel advisories -- while also boosting the profile of the more exciting elements of its mission: namely spearheading U.S. foreign policy around the globe.

Gone are the old pro forma website verticals like press information, career postings, and resources for kids and other young one. Now, State.gov's site navigation draws attention to the ambitious policy thrusts that Secretary Clinton would like to make the centerpieces of her tenure at the department. Headlining the site now are tabs for Economics & Energy, Arms Control & Security, Democracy & Global Affairs, Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs, and similarly weighty topics. And, reflecting Clinton's rather remarkable public embrace of all things social media since she's become Secretary of State, the site gives prime homepage real estate to both Twitter and the department's frequently updated DipNote blog.

"Secretary Clinton has long recognized the power of the Internet and its embodiment of the fundamental democratic principals of our nation," Dowd tells techPresident, echoing a recent push by the State Department to embue digital technologies with political meaning under the banner of 21st Century Statecraft. "She is devoted to growing worldwide public engagement, with State.gov serving as a vital component of this effort."

Now maybe Clinton can have a word with her old colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee about their website -- which looks like it hasn't been polished since 1998.

A message from Secretary Clinton about the new site:

Via Andrew Sullivan, this not-overly-safe-for-work microsite answers the question of whether the Human Rights Campaign is doing a poor job advocating for the rights of gay folk. As simple as these are to put together, and given that they're total link bait, you'd think we'd see more single-serving sites in politics and civic life.

That said, there are a few good ones out there, like Are We at War with Iran? and one awesome data-driven one we've mentioned before: Is Alternate Side of the Street Parking in Effect?

In the contest to fill Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat, Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown rides to the Republican nomination on the back of the crisp yet welcoming Gotham font made famous by the Obama campaign. The blue gradient fills and radiant starburst backdrops look pretty familiar, too.

Is President Barack Obama's silhouette against a field of beige more appealing than his visage framed by a sea of blue? And for that matter, is the passionate "Ready to Go!" a more compelling call to action than the placid "Learn More"? Organizing for America is engaging in classic A/B testing to examine which splash page elements on BarackObama.com are more successful at getting potential supporters to contribute their email addresses to the cause. Patrick Ruffini repeatedly hits refresh on the site, and has a video essay exploring the testing technique. The mix of design choices and word usage might mark the fact that OFA has the option of appealing to both once-supporters who have skittered away from the organization post-election and new allies who might be more impressed with a formally presidential Obama than a boldly passionate one.

For what it's worth, Obama campaign manager (and OFA advisor) David Plouffe suggested on a recent blogger conference call that the Organizing for America email list -- reportedly some 13 million addresses at its election season height -- has grown a bit in the days since Obama's victory, contra the conventional wisdom that OFA would have a difficult time keeping up the campaign's momentum.

To a web designer, IA stands for Information Architect. To a busload of Obama campaigners bound for swing states, IA meant Iowa. Thankfully, Scott Thomas, the former Design Director for the Obama election web site, was on hand to bridge that gap in the months leading up to last November 4th.

Within a week of polling day, Thomas had boarded a plane for Japan, to rest his eyes from screen diagrams, escape from the 24-7 network news treadmill and spouting election coverage. Little did he realize he'd stepped right into a country where the leading cigarette brand is called Hope and every storefront was plastered with billposters of domestic electoral candidates, with way worse graphics than those he'd overseen back home.

Last week, Thomas, who is launching a new book project, Designing Obama, presented to the Interaction Design graduate students at the School of Visual Arts here in New York city, not just to share his vacation photos of Tokyo, but to share lessons from the preceding months designing and endlessly refining what showed up on browsers for Barack.