On my laptop using Windows 10 and the latest version of Firefox on full screen, the cause prioritization tool has some obvious formatting issues. The text stating “OK, got it. Tell me how to help” extends past the right edge of the button, the text in the modal window seems intended to fit on one screen but just exceeds the space allocation, requiring a scrollbar, and when you do scroll down the flowchart does not scroll with the text.
Links should open in a new window so that you can easily get back to the flowchart after getting more information.
I think the ability to follow along with the flowchart as you’re making your choices is cool, but I would suggest that until a professionally-designed version of the flowchart can be created, it would be more effective to omit it if the site is primarily aimed at audiences new to EA. Right now the visual effect is sloppy, with text colliding with lines, etc., and it creates a bad contrast with the relatively more polished quiz next to it. I doubt that most new-to-EA folks will get that much out of having the flowchart there if they already have the quiz to work with.
Let me know if you need me to email screenshots of any of this—I couldn’t figure out a way to upload them in the interface here.
I think there’s some merit to Reid’s 2nd point, although I would frame it differently. The most efficient giving opportunities typically are not local, it is true. However, the relative efficiency of giving opportunities for EAs is defined in part by an assumption that other parties’ giving will remain the same (this idea is at the core of GiveWell’s “room for more funding” calculations).
EAs do not have the ability to control all or even a majority of donations within their local communities. There’s lots of research (e.g., http://www.hopeconsulting.us/pdf/Money%20for%20Good_Final.pdf) showing that most donors are tied to specific causes, contexts, geographies, etc., and don’t see any reason to change that. However, EAs might make more headway with this audience by pursuing EA principles within boundaries that they care about. So you’re not asking a donor to give up on supporting (say) Seattle, but simply to direct his or her giving in ways that help Seattle more effectively. That approach is much more likely to actually move the needle on donating behavior in the short term, and it’s a way to make all of giving more efficient and effective through a network of domains. It may even eventually make some of those inefficient giving opportunities much more competitive with the most efficient giving opportunities.
Remember, I’m suggesting this as a supplement to cause/geography-agnostic giving advocacy, not as a replacement for it.