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Visual (and other) elements of the Social Actions' website

Page history last edited by Mariel Garcia M 13 years, 6 months ago

The purpose of this page is to compile suggestions related to the visual (and other) elements that should be featured in the Social Actions website.

Done

Couldn't be done

Needs to be done

 

ALL PAGES

Joe Solomon: Work on linguistic personality, and pay attention to the key terms you use. You've created the perfect skeleton for fun, clear, and even quirky language. Think about going in with your re-write pen and playing with words and phrases that show a bit more personality. Maybe be wary of buzz words like "philanthropic web" and calling web innovators  "IT" people (IT is a very different field & philanthropy is primarily affiliated with just giving money).  I found the line "Social Actions also tries to beat the creativity block." rather refreshing in this context."

Joe Solomon: Try 'us' perspective rather than 'you' perspective. "Currently, the voice is very centered around "you" (used 27 times). People, including developers, like to act in unison, and in groups powerful enough to make an impact. Consider writing it more from the point of view from a fellow developer and weaving in more language that is about "joining us" into the piece. This should also help you break down the idea that there's a social actions team that's separate from a volunteer developer crew." 

 

GUIDED TOUR

Landing page

Romina Oliverio: Work on the name of the page for people who work in campaigns, projects, etc. Suggestion: "I want to share information about projects, campaigns..."

 

Description of Social Actions' three projects on the page for each audience

Ehren Foss: A graphic of like... 50-60 logos of actions sources going through a social actions funnel. It helps with recognition of the scope of what you're doing.

(Graphic options aren't really doable at this point, but it's something to be considered in the future) 

Romina Oliverio: Work on the link to people - who lurks behind the organizational curtain at SA?

 

Technologists' page

Ehren Foss: Translating it into tech language (sort of!!!)

Romina Oliverio: "I've never heard of Social Actions before. What is it?"  I can't decide if this info on top of each page is redundant or not... I understand that site visitors will not navigate chronoligically as I'm doing with this review, but maybe have this text as a drop down menu in case someone has already read this info on other pages and is not again encountered with it."

(I couldn't implement this great idea because we can't do drop down menus on the wiki)

Romina Oliverio: "What does Social Actions do with IT to make it easier for people to make a difference?' which lists the API, XML, etc. is very well explained (and let's face it, techie-talk isn't always the most tingle-inducing, but your approach made it light and informative at the same time!). Might it also be useful to add this text under 'Sources of online actions' perhaps in a 'Read More' link for ppl who really want to dive into the details (that page seemed to lack a bit of the detail behind the actions). "

Joe Solomon: Make it shorter. "Try shooting for 500, with a third or less as many links. Or even less, if you're up for the challenge. One solution might be to break the page up into multiple pages, so the front page fits mostly above the fold. Maybe use this as a blueprint? http://socialactions.com/developers & http://netsquared.org/innovators "

(I tried to cut down a bit and make things less clunky, but I think we do need to have all that information in the 'landing' pages; that's the one chance we can assume we have to explain what Social Actions is, since many people won't click to read more. Ideally, we would be able to condense that information in the same page by using a drop down menu, like the one Romina suggested; you see the link and see it will appear on the same page when you click on it. However, it doesn't seem to be built in)

 

 

(Philanthropy/activism/service delivery) project leaders' page

Romina Oliverio: Work on the name of the page for people who work in campaigns, projects, etc. Suggestion: "I want to share information about projects, campaigns..."

Romina Oliverio: Work on "Why is an API useful" - it's clunky and long. Suggestions: diagram, break down what an API is, link to another page. (Tried to break it down some)

Romina Oliverio: "I think it may be useful to have a detailed example of the arc of how an organization becomes featured on Social Actions - from the onset (i.e. how the organization can register) to matching of an action to volunteer, or even to completion of one specific task/project. Potentially enable organizations with similar mandates see how their peers are featured, i.e. if Amnesty is interested in being featured, link them to an example of another human rights organization...I know, as per NABUUR, we were interested in learning how other intl. development organizations benefited."

 

More information about the tech related to their participation in Social Actions: APIs - what they are, why it's a good thing to use; RSS feed - how much time it takes to build one, how to construct their actions so that they get the best possible exposure on Social Actions; Metrics - what metrics are provided by Social Actions (click through, conversions)? 

 

Other details for submission: What happens if I'm not representing an organization? Can my action opportunities still appear in the Social Actions API?

 

(I think this information needs to be produced for the wiki or the main channel for SA communications with the audience once the transition process is over, since it will take time, and the answers to those questions will have likely changed from what they are now)

 

Discussion taken from the page:

Questions for the reviewers:

 

  1. Question for the reviewers: Do you think that the information about the API that I include will allow people who have no idea about what an API is to understand how they can benefit from it?
    1. This section might work best as a diagram-only. I'm finding the text above confusing, and we would only need to illustrate that feeding an RSS into the Social Actions API is an easy way to distribute their actions globally. At the same time, we want to avoid language that describes the Social Actions API as an alternative to other distribution mechanisms (other APIs, other technologies). It complements other ways to distribute actions. No either-or here :) - CDEgger, 4/6/10
  2.  Do you think that [online action sources] would like to find out about more aspects of Social Actions before becoming involved with their tools? If so, what aspects do you think are important for this?
  3. Also, do you think that [online action sources] reading this page will feel like it's made for them? Or do you think they'd use different terms, structures or ideas?
    1. I think we'll need a different term than "project developers" and have replaced it with "[online action sources]" as a placeholder. Need a more graceful phrase, but want to distinguish "action-distribution" from project-distribution" for as long as it's important to do so. Looking forward to brainstorming collectively on the best terms, structures, and ideas to present here - CDEgger, 4/6/ 10
    2. I agree with the change of the term 'project' developers for the reasons mentioned by Christine above. I think the problem with "Sources of online actions" is that it's a very Social Actions-centric term that may not make a lot of sense to people who are reading an introduction; also, they're not necessarily online actions. They may be individuals of a largely offline organization that uses the internet only to talk about it.

       

      A problem in this phrase is that it sounds like we are communicating to them only because of their actions, rather than because we ultimately want to support their efforts to make a positive impact in the world. Something to ask to ourselves is if we should direct any person who works in the field of philanthropy/activism/service delivery, no matter if they are sources of actions or not, to this page... and explain on it that Social Actions works by doing 'action-distribution' rather than 'project-distribution'; or if we should make this clear starting in the front page options, and just include a reminder for people involved in philanthropy who aren't sources of action to check out the media/casual visitors page instead. - Mariel, 4/7/10.  

    3. More information about the tech related to their participation in Social Actions:

      APIs - what they are, why it's a good thing to use;

      RSS feed - how much time it takes to build one, how to construct their actions so that they get the best possible exposure on Social Actions;

      Metrics - what metrics are provided by Social Actions (click through, conversions)? 

      Other details for submission: What happens if I'm not representing an organization? Can my action opportunities still appear in the Social Actions API? 

 

 

Engaged citizens' page

Romina Oliverio: Suggest organization-based search, too (not only cause-based)

 

REST OF THE WIKI

Christine: A more robust 'About Us' page that includes answers to the basic information that is presented on all the pages of the guided tour

(what I did about this one was add more links to the About Us page, including the ones to the landing pages that we created for each audience. Once the transition process is over and the 'About Us' needs to be updated, it will be time to see what needs to be answered in that page and what can be left only in the other pages)

 

Joe Solomon: Think more about moving everything into the wiki (more in e-mail)

 

Social Actions' Communications Review - Navigation

 

Wiki pages

 

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