WiserEarth Editors
Collaboration in serving the greater WiserEarth community
As active community members, we would like to make this group into a gathering point where we can work together to transform WiserEarth.org into an effective platform of support for the global community of concerned citizens and organizations who are working to create a more just and sustainable world. ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Nov 20, 2007
Updated: Nov 27, 2009
Membership: Invitation Only
Semi-Private
New email designs - please send us your feedback
WiserEarth seeks your feedback
As part of our redesign of the site, we're re-designing the look of our emails. In the past, we stuck with a very vanilla, very plain-text format to ensure the greatest compatibility. But it made for some rather poor readability, and made our users really have to work to read through the update emails.
However, these days, almost every email client and email system accepts HTML emails, and allows them through without too much restrictions. We've decided to then upgrade the look of the emails, as well as organize their content better. We are making sure to keep the use of graphics to a minimum, so that users on low-bandwidth connections or mobile devices won't have to deal with a slow loading email.
In the attached PDF file, you'll see 4 different emails:
- Welcome email to new users - the email that a new member receives upon joining WiserEarth
- Daily Network Activity Update email - this summarizes the activity of people in your network on WiserEarth. It works very much like the "friend feed" we have now, but in email format
- Daily Group Activity Update email - One of the bigger changes is that we'll now be separating out the watchlist emails by each group. So instead of having one big watchlist email for all your groups, you will now receive separate watchlist emails for each group. This allows our users to better customize which groups they want to have email updates from, and separates out the content for a much cleaner read.
- Recommended groups email - this email suggests groups that a user may be interested in, based on what they've stated for their interests and their activity on the site.
So take a look at the design of the new emails, and let us know what you think. Does it make it more readable? Would you prefer to have your emails sent looking like this or go back to the previous plain-text only format? Post your comments below, as we want to know what you think!
New email designs - PDF (156kb)
Comments (1 - 10 of 10)
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@Camilla: I love your welcome email, especially Where do I start!
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@Camilla: Great wordsmithing. Otherwise, I'm thinking we need to revisit our positioning and specialize more. This would of course impact the welcome email amongst others. We are going to have a chat about this at some point.
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Great stuff - these look much better in HTML. I enclose some feedback below.
1. Welcome email: The opening sentence is not easily scannable and quite repetitive (there are links later in the email to orgs, groups and people and we say how many orgs are on the site in the text section). Here are some suggested text changes:
-- Hi Landon, Welcome to WiserEarth. I invite you to participate in and shape our community so it reflects your interests, your passions and the issues you care about. Every time you use WiserEarth.....etc etc (stet) ....
Where do I start?
1. MyHome page - Go to your MyHome page to start finding groups you may be interested in joining or invite your contacts to join the WiserEarth community (even better if we can include these links in this email).
2. Build your network - Browse the people pages and invite others to your network by sending them a message on their profile pages. Start a group or invite your contacts to join an existing group working on your issues.
3. Find out who's working on what and where - Search the directory of 100,000+ social justice and environmental organizations. Is your organization listed? Is the information correct? Any edits you make to improve the WE directory helps everyone in the WiserEarth community.
4. Link to FaceBook....Simplify your online life by using the WE FaceBook application. Let your friends know about the important work you are doing, the organizations and the issues you care about. Download the application now or visit WiserEarth's FaceBook page. .....
Last paragraph;
There's a lot happening in the WiserEarth community which can make it a bit overwhelming for newcomers. To prevent information overload, we have an amazing team of international volunteer editors who are here to help you use and get used to the site. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you get stuck or aren't sure where to start.
If you have any questions, you can also post them to the Help Desk.
With thanks for the work you do.
WiserEarth Executive Director
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It would be good if this email told the new member where to start. and for it to be more customized if at all possible...e.g. Find some groups that you may be interested in (links to the groups on their MyHome page) rather than just having links to the directory, groups and people pages which are not easy to use and not customized to that members interests.
2. Daily update: it would be good to see a description of what Daily Activity Update means somewhere or have a link to this and also something that tells me why I'm subscribed to this email.
Edit final sentence to: If you have any questions, please send an email to support@wiserearth.org (instead of enquiries...which doesn't sound quite right)
3. Daily group activity update:
- Ditto for the daily update i.e. informing me what a group activity update is
- Could we make the group name a link (when i get an alert, I often find myself wanting to just visit the homepage of the group to add something to it rather than visiting any particular change made to the group - the current alerts don't let us do this).
- Could we group all of the new people who have joined the group at the top of the email?
e.g. New members:
Mary Pattinson has joined the group John Read has joined the group
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Group Updates .... - Edit final sentence to: If you have any questions, please send an email to support@wiserearth.org (instead of enquiries...which doesn't sound quite right)
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@Honore: I guess so...
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Hey Bowo, in terms of hyperlinks, we'll probably actually cut them down more than add them on. If you look at the welcome email as is now, it's pretty dazzling in the number of blue links that a person can click on.
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Thanks Angus. Good to know how a new user would get all this.
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@Bowo: You are right the default email would be first the 'Group Recommendations', then if they have friends their 'Network' and finally if they join a group the 'Group' digest. So the average person that joins WE will probably only get a few emails every so often. Heavy users may want to opt out of specific emails. I don't think we would send the Group Recommendation email more than once a quarter at maximum.
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Some more:
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Looks nice!
The only feedback that comes to mind immediately is the 'unsubscribe' message at the bottom. The hyperlink should be on the phrase "Click here" instead of 'unsubscribe'.
Still trying to imagine how a new user will comprehend all the options. I wonder what's the default for them? I suppose it'll be the welcome email and group recommendation email?.
Oh, another one: in the welcome email, I'm hoping that the "create one of your own" link in "Raise awareness and share your knowledge" would point to the About WiserEarth groups page instead of straight to the group creation page. |
Greetings -
Love it - a few thoughts:
- Access: I think it may be an overstatement that almost everybody can open html mail. I know that those w/ older computers can't & it's also restricted from many govt computers.
I often get emails that say - "if you can't read this msg, click here" & it takes me to a text version. That would be a great fix if it's possible.
- Content: Shorter, remove Facebook.
- Color: Great to see more color. I could go for even more!
- Signature:
Peggy Duvette
Join my network on WiserEarth <Profile link>
Follow WiserEarth on Facebook <hrrp://www.wiserearth.org/wiserearth> and Twitter @WiserEarth <http://www.wiserearth.org/twitter>