Presumably motivated by the realisation that it has slipped behind Labour and the Lib Dems in the world of online, the Conservative Party has today launched its new website.

Foregrounding the mantra “Now For Change”, the website is designed to encourage supporters to become more engaged with the party’s campaigning.

Indeed, the interactivity that has inspired the Conservatives’ internet gaming endeavours is also enshrined by this expansive website. Eric Pickles’ current War Room briefing invites viewers to email questions to be posed at next week’s conference, The Blue Blog is a forum regularly used by party members, and the visually impressive 'wall' successfully implies membership to an army of supporters.

If its goal were solely to boost the morale and motivation of existing party members the site is well designed to do so. However, it is clear that designers are also striving to woo outsiders looking in on the party. Pickles’ Briefing invites non-politicos and "disillusioned" Labour supporters to attend the Manchester conference on an extras pass, while WebCameron currently features recently-defected Lib Dems explaining their reasons for changing sides.

For those contemplating, but not yet decided upon, voting Conservative the wall might seem a bit self-congratulatory – ‘Jonathan’ telling everybody what a "telegenic and fabulously charismatic leader" Cameron is, is unlikely to sit well with prospective voters. However, the website has an extensive and well put-together section on ‘policy’ which might silence some of the party’s detractors.

With the election rapidly approaching, Joe Trippi will conduct an in-depth assessment of the role of new media in the next issue of Total Politics, out on 23 October.

UPDATE: Some people seem to be having problems accessing the full site, for twitter updates use #mycon