I like the argument of “people who have skin in the game decide to spend money on this” plus “I observed conversion rates increasing”
I assume most EA websites don’t care about conversion so much, especially not the extra-20% that would be deterred by design.
I do totally agree that EA-websites that care about conversion (like GWWC, 80k, or other intros-to-EA) should care about their design
I don’t think individual orgs that happen to have a website should care much (they’re not trying to convert anyone). Like rethink priorities, or open phil
I don’t think the forum should care much about conversion, but I’m pretty unsure here so I’m giving it a separate point
What do you think? I sort of predict I’m going to learn even more from your answer, but I’m not sure what
Quick preface: I am not completely certain on how important design is for EA organizations, so these comments are an exploratory process of figuring this out, and there are definitely some knowledge gaps to fill.
Re conversions: Immediate conversions may not always be important for EA organizations, at least not to the extent they are for most for-profit organizations. The most important part about mentioning conversions is just demonstrating the power of design.
On that topic, re: websites like Open Phil:
Quick preface: I would need to understand more about the organization’s user base and goals to give the best answer here about how design could help them achieve those goals
However, if an organization is trying to influence anyone’s behavior ever, I would argue that good design at least matters–How much it matters is dependent on a few things, such as how large their user base is, and what other channels they could use to communicate or influence anyone’s behavior
The fact that Open Phil has clearly put more than 0$ into their current website means they also believe it matters, to some extent
The real question to ask then is, is a design that is [this] much better worth [this] amount of money (I concede that the answer might be no in some cases)
It’s also worth thinking about the EA movement as a whole. If every single EA website was brilliantly communicated, inspiring, emotionally impactful, highly (and easily) informative, memorable, convey a sense of trust and professionalism… I believe it would do the movement a tremendous amount of good. In a sense, the movement as a whole wants to increase its conversion rates, right?
Quick guess, for fun: Spending 1% of EA funds on design for the next 10 years would increase the total amount donated to EA itself by 20% (using the average conversion rates from above)
[I just want to say explicitly that I am making up things and I don’t actually know what’s important for those orgs. I’m more trying-to-learn-by-disagreeing than think-I-know-something]
Interesting!
I like the argument of “people who have skin in the game decide to spend money on this” plus “I observed conversion rates increasing”
I assume most EA websites don’t care about conversion so much, especially not the extra-20% that would be deterred by design.
I do totally agree that EA-websites that care about conversion (like GWWC, 80k, or other intros-to-EA) should care about their design
I don’t think individual orgs that happen to have a website should care much (they’re not trying to convert anyone). Like rethink priorities, or open phil
I don’t think the forum should care much about conversion, but I’m pretty unsure here so I’m giving it a separate point
What do you think? I sort of predict I’m going to learn even more from your answer, but I’m not sure what
Quick preface: I am not completely certain on how important design is for EA organizations, so these comments are an exploratory process of figuring this out, and there are definitely some knowledge gaps to fill.
Re conversions: Immediate conversions may not always be important for EA organizations, at least not to the extent they are for most for-profit organizations. The most important part about mentioning conversions is just demonstrating the power of design.
On that topic, re: websites like Open Phil:
Quick preface: I would need to understand more about the organization’s user base and goals to give the best answer here about how design could help them achieve those goals
However, if an organization is trying to influence anyone’s behavior ever, I would argue that good design at least matters–How much it matters is dependent on a few things, such as how large their user base is, and what other channels they could use to communicate or influence anyone’s behavior
The fact that Open Phil has clearly put more than 0$ into their current website means they also believe it matters, to some extent
The real question to ask then is, is a design that is [this] much better worth [this] amount of money (I concede that the answer might be no in some cases)
It’s also worth thinking about the EA movement as a whole. If every single EA website was brilliantly communicated, inspiring, emotionally impactful, highly (and easily) informative, memorable, convey a sense of trust and professionalism… I believe it would do the movement a tremendous amount of good. In a sense, the movement as a whole wants to increase its conversion rates, right?
Quick guess, for fun: Spending 1% of EA funds on design for the next 10 years would increase the total amount donated to EA itself by 20% (using the average conversion rates from above)
[I just want to say explicitly that I am making up things and I don’t actually know what’s important for those orgs. I’m more trying-to-learn-by-disagreeing than think-I-know-something]
Yep it’s been a good exercise and something I will now question with more scrutiny :)