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Fundraising banner obscuring site interface

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MZMcBride

9 Dec 2013 9 Dec '13

2:50 a.m.

Hi. I thought there was an explicit agreement that fundraising banners will not obscure the site interface, as it's bad for usability and annoys users. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/111477931 seems to break this agreement. What's going on? MZMcBride

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MZMcBride

9 Dec 9 Dec

3:52 a.m.

Largely unrelated: it looks like xkcd (<http://xkcd.com>) has spoofed the "DEAR WIKIPEDIA READERS" donation banner as part of its store campaign: <http://imgs.xkcd.com/store_news/store_gd_d5_FyaR.png>. :-) MZMcBride

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Peter Coombe

7:09 p.m.

Love it! Looks like there's more than one banner too: http://imgs.xkcd.com/store_news/store_gd_g1_QG5Z.png -- Peter Coombe Fundraising Production Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation On 8 December 2013 19:52, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:

Largely unrelated: it looks like xkcd (<http://xkcd.com>) has spoofed the "DEAR WIKIPEDIA READERS" donation banner as part of its store campaign: <http://imgs.xkcd.com/store_news/store_gd_d5_FyaR.png>. :-) MZMcBride _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

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User Mono

10 Dec 10 Dec

2:36 a.m.

Related: There are some issues with the design of these banners, especially the floaty thing.Why are you using a <table> element? It's really wrong for this kind of thing. Also, please commit to just one color for the floater - the highlighting thing doesn't make sense in that space. (See a possible solution, if the icon was black with a yellow i, at http://awesomescreenshot.com/0d622k4fb2). Furthermore, that shadow is hideous - it should be blurred out some more or just eliminated - it adds little (without shadow: http://awesomescreenshot.com/0e622k4k3c, blurred shadow: http://awesomescreenshot.com/06d22k4s6f). This a) looks better and b) would probably increase conversions since it's all around brighter (but in a better-looking way). At the top, it's best looking to eliminate the shadow on the right side which looks unbalanced and increase the blur (like box-shadow: 0px 5px 10px #aaa;). See http://awesomescreenshot.com/01022k566a. I highly suggest you adopt these changes. Thanks,User:Mono

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 11:09:59 -0800 From: pcoombe(a)wikimedia.org To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banner obscuring site interface Love it! Looks like there's more than one banner too: http://imgs.xkcd.com/store_news/store_gd_g1_QG5Z.png -- Peter Coombe Fundraising Production Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation On 8 December 2013 19:52, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:

Largely unrelated: it looks like xkcd (<http://xkcd.com>) has spoofed the "DEAR WIKIPEDIA READERS" donation banner as part of its store campaign: <http://imgs.xkcd.com/store_news/store_gd_d5_FyaR.png>. :-) MZMcBride _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

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User Mono

2:43 a.m.

I also forgot to mention those annoyingly ugly 'Credit Card'/PayPal buttons with the double borders. I suggest making the border 1px solid and then reduce the border radius to 5px. User:Mono

From: usermono(a)outlook.com To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 19:36:31 -0700 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banner obscuring site interface Related: There are some issues with the design of these banners, especially the floaty thing.Why are you using a <table> element? It's really wrong for this kind of thing. Also, please commit to just one color for the floater - the highlighting thing doesn't make sense in that space. (See a possible solution, if the icon was black with a yellow i, at http://awesomescreenshot.com/0d622k4fb2). Furthermore, that shadow is hideous - it should be blurred out some more or just eliminated - it adds little (without shadow: http://awesomescreenshot.com/0e622k4k3c, blurred shadow: http://awesomescreenshot.com/06d22k4s6f). This a) looks better and b) would probably increase conversions since it's all around brighter (but in a better-looking way). At the top, it's best looking to eliminate the shadow on the right side which looks unbalanced and increase the blur (like box-shadow: 0px 5px 10px #aaa;). See http://awesomescreenshot.com/01022k566a. I highly suggest you adopt these changes. Thanks,User:Mono

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 11:09:59 -0800 From: pcoombe(a)wikimedia.org To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fundraising banner obscuring site interface Love it! Looks like there's more than one banner too: http://imgs.xkcd.com/store_news/store_gd_g1_QG5Z.png -- Peter Coombe Fundraising Production Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation On 8 December 2013 19:52, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:

Largely unrelated: it looks like xkcd (<http://xkcd.com>) has spoofed the "DEAR WIKIPEDIA READERS" donation banner as part of its store campaign: <http://imgs.xkcd.com/store_news/store_gd_d5_FyaR.png>. :-) MZMcBride _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

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David Gerard

8:07 a.m.

There's a whole site full of possible inspirations: http://tabcloseddidntread.com/ https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/a30bbe8b54a5 Perhaps next year? - d.

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Marc A. Pelletier

2:24 p.m.

On 12/10/2013 03:07 AM, David Gerard wrote:

There's a whole site full of possible inspirations:

And yet: "Our donor services team haven't seen any negative emails about this banner. Moreover adding the floating tab results in an increase in donations of roughly 15%, one of the biggest improvements we have found so far this year." So clearly, while it annoys some people and inspires tumblrs, the practice is clearly beneficial and not universally reviled. Mind you, you are comparing apples (a small floaty reminder that /can/ overlap with part of the sidebar when scrolling) with oranges (a modal dialog that hides contents). -- Marc

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David Gerard

2:57 p.m.

On 10 December 2013 14:24, Marc A. Pelletier <marc(a)uberbox.org> wrote:

On 12/10/2013 03:07 AM, David Gerard wrote:

> There's a whole site full of possible inspirations:

Mind you, you are comparing apples (a small floaty reminder that /can/ overlap with part of the sidebar when scrolling) with oranges (a modal dialog that hides contents).

True. However, do read the blog post on the need for caution in answering such concerns with metrics. - d.

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Isarra Yos

5:48 p.m.

On 10/12/13 14:57, David Gerard wrote:

True. However, do read the blog post on the need for caution in answering such concerns with metrics. - d.

And it's an excellent point to bring up. While I'm sure the fundraising team tries to keep in mind the balance between analytics results and and less measurable effects, reminders like this can be quite useful for everyone. It's like, /don't go overboard! In the meantime it works, but be careful./ Yes. -L

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John Vandenberg

3:01 p.m.

On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 9:24 PM, Marc A. Pelletier <marc(a)uberbox.org> wrote:

On 12/10/2013 03:07 AM, David Gerard wrote:

There's a whole site full of possible inspirations:

And yet: "Our donor services team haven't seen any negative emails about this banner. Moreover adding the floating tab results in an increase in donations of roughly 15%, one of the biggest improvements we have found so far this year." So clearly, while it annoys some people and inspires tumblrs, the practice is clearly beneficial and not universally reviled. Mind you, you are comparing apples (a small floaty reminder that /can/ overlap with part of the sidebar when scrolling) with oranges (a modal dialog that hides contents).

The techs might want to reply to these: https://twitter.com/MikeASchneider/status/409359331377684480 https://twitter.com/nyatagarasu/status/405134111796240384 On the flipside, maybe this will help: https://twitter.com/listrophy/status/380864414145970176 This looks like a complaint, but it is hard to tell https://twitter.com/ItsMalachi/status/408067770048192514 And a request for bitcoins https://twitter.com/DrWeidinger/status/407656789274947584 -- John Vandenberg

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Marc A. Pelletier

3:33 p.m.

On 12/10/2013 10:01 AM, John Vandenberg wrote:

https://twitter.com/nyatagarasu/status/405134111796240384

It's hard to know for sure, of course, but I'm pretty sure "huge" couldn't possibly refer to the minuscule floaty div MZMcBride refered to. :-) -- Marc

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MZMcBride

3:46 p.m.

John Vandenberg wrote:

And a request for bitcoins https://twitter.com/DrWeidinger/status/407656789274947584

For reference: <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Bitcoin>. MZMcBride

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Peter Coombe

9 Dec 9 Dec

7:06 p.m.

I'm not aware that there ever was such an agreement. Annoyance to users is certainly something that we do try to minimise, and we've actually rejected a number of designs so far this year for that reason. However we thought carefully about this banner before testing it and considered it okay for a few reasons: * We've actually heard anecdotal feedback from users that they meant to donate but were missing/forgetting the banner once they scrolled down to read the article. * The floating tab takes up only a very small portion of the screen, and does not overlap with the article. * Fundraising banners are no longer displayed to logged in users, who are the main users of the sidebar. * There is a prominent close button. Our donor services team haven't seen any negative emails about this banner. Moreover adding the floating tab results in an increase in donations of roughly 15%, one of the biggest improvements we have found so far this year. So we hope this will help us to reach our target sooner, and annoy fewer users overall. -- Peter Coombe Fundraising Production Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation On 8 December 2013 18:50, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:

Hi. I thought there was an explicit agreement that fundraising banners will not obscure the site interface, as it's bad for usability and annoys users. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/111477931 seems to break this agreement. What's going on? MZMcBride _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

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MZMcBride

10 Dec 10 Dec

2:35 a.m.

Peter Coombe wrote:

I'm not aware that there ever was such an agreement. Annoyance to users is certainly something that we do try to minimise, and we've actually rejected a number of designs so far this year for that reason. However we thought carefully about this banner before testing it and considered it okay for a few reasons: * We've actually heard anecdotal feedback from users that they meant to donate but were missing/forgetting the banner once they scrolled down to read the article. * The floating tab takes up only a very small portion of the screen, and does not overlap with the article. * Fundraising banners are no longer displayed to logged in users, who are the main users of the sidebar. * There is a prominent close button. Our donor services team haven't seen any negative emails about this banner. Moreover adding the floating tab results in an increase in donations of roughly 15%, one of the biggest improvements we have found so far this year. So we hope this will help us to reach our target sooner, and annoy fewer users overall.

Peter, Thank you for the thoughtful and thorough response. I appreciate it. :-) MZMcBride

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participants (7)

David Gerard
Isarra Yos
John Vandenberg
Marc A. Pelletier
MZMcBride
Peter Coombe
User Mono