[Foundation-l] Site Notices Phase 2 - Annual Fundraiser 2008

[Robert Rohde]

Will the "Why?" design link to something?

I realize that the Phase 2 set of banners seems to be an experiment to
see what works, but a giant "Why?" in ~30 point font strikes me as an
empty or even counterproductive message:  Why... bother?  Why...
attack people with huge font?  Why... don't they take this seriously?
I don't think the natural answer to "Why?" is "Donate now" for any
interpretation I would come up with.  Maybe you plan to link it to
something informative, but initial reaction is that this is too avante
garde and not enough substance to attract donations.

I'm willing to go out on a limb and predict that "Why?" will be the
worst performer of the five.

Some people are already testy about the size of the banner.  Using
that large space simply as an excuse to beef up the font is likely to
offend more people.  I realize there are only a finite number of
things one can test, but I would like to have seen a test that
compares an existing banner to a similar banner having ~2/3 the
height.  I suspect the increased real estate probably hasn't bought us
much (i.e. increased attention gets offset against increased
irritation).

-Robert Rohde

P.S.  I would also like to note my fascination that 7 of Rand's image
uploads on Meta are tagged for deletion as "no source/no license".

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 4:19 PM, Rand Montoya <rmontoya at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Hey All--
>
> There has been a lot of good feedback on the first set of site notices and we've taken those ideas and, I think, done a pretty good job of implementing fixes across projects and languages. The tech team has done fabulous work.
>
> You can see a brief statistical summary of the Phase I notices here:
> http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/11/25/wikimedias-fundraiser-which-banners-click/
> Please feel free to comment in the blog. We're going to be doing some short term testing of some minor tweaks to the Phase I notices soon.
>
> Which brings us to Phase 2. We are trying to juggle two separate concepts in designing the site notices: 1) we want our viewers and visitors to see and understand that their donations are important to the mission of Wikimedia Foundation and 2) we want our visitors to be stimulated into giving without being too disruptive.
>
> As such, Phase 2 drafts can be found here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2008/design_drafts. We are
> attempting to re-define the space in a different manner to encourage those who have not yet donated. The Quotes site notice will have 6 different quotes (all translated, we hope) rotated in.  We will continue the same wiki project specific coding and current collapse/expand features that we have now.  These are just drafts.
>
> Please comment on the page or in the discussion section. I'm also happy to hear any suggestions that you might have. Post your designs or drafts as well.
>
> Phase 2 notices will go live the week of December 1st...pending the time needed by our volunteer translators and the tech team.
>
> Phase 3 (slate for mid December) will focus on an end-of-campaign push and might include video elements.
>
> On a side note, we updated our comparative statistical presentation: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Special:FundraiserStatistics.  These charts compare 2007 vs. 2008 including only gifts of less than or equal to $10,000.
>
> -Rand Montoya
> Head of Community Giving
>
> --
> Rand Montoya
> Head of Community Giving
> Wikimedia Foundation
> www.wikimedia.org
> Email: rand at wikimedia.org
> Phone: 415.839.6885 x615
> Fax: 415.882.0495
>
>
>
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