Evaluations of other sites

gregjd commented 6 years ago

Add comments to this issue with evaluations of other brigade/civic-tech websites.

Things to think through:

User personas:

Interested non-technologist: “I heard about Code for DC, and I want to learn more about what it is. What kind of work are they doing?” (They may have assumed that Code for DC is not for non-technologists, and thus may not go in wanting to hear about how they can get involved, so keep in mind that we want these people to understand that non-technologists are welcome.)
Interested newbie technologist: “I’m in a coding bootcamp/am trying to teach myself how to code. I heard about Code for DC on Meetup. Is Code for DC a place where I could sharpen my skills? I’m not sure what skill level those people have, or what they expect from attendees.”
Interested experienced technologist: “I have skillz. I heard about Code for DC and that they do some sort of civic-minded stuff. I’m civic-minded. Are there opportunities for me to contribute to my community?”
Person who wants to pitch a project: “I’ve got a project that I’m working on / trying to get off the ground, and someone told me that if I come to Code for DC, I can get people to work on it. How does that work?”
Person attending a hack night (in the moment): “The organizers said I can find a link to join Slack on the website. Where’s the link? Also, I forgot about the projects that were pitched at the beginning of the night. I want to look at the site to see what the current projects are and what they involve so I can decide which project group to check out.”

Desires to be met:

Make it clear a newbie can jump in!
To be able to see a schedule of upcoming meetups
To learn what the projects are
Find a link to slack

No need to write out details for every single thing! But focus on what aspects of other sites are good inspiration for our own, thinking through the issues above.

yellinben commented 6 years ago

URL: http://www.hackforla.org/ Organization: Hack for LA Date: March 5, 2018

Initial experience

welcome

Hack For LA has a great intro, particularly for personas 1 and 2. Welcoming, inclusive intro text (and banner image) that succinctly describes the overall mission of a Code for *. Many sites assume visitors are already familiar with the concept.

Dates

Most user personas share the need for easy-to-glance meeting dates/location. Hack for LA has a well-designed dates section that includes useful social-outreach links (Meetup & Slack).

Projects

This section includes nice banner graphics for each project along with minimal textual information. Other sites overwhelm with details better reserved for project repos.

gregjd commented 6 years ago

URL: https://chihacknight.org/

Organization: Chi Hack Night

Date: March 5, 2018

It's very easy to figure out what Chi Hack Night is, because they have a sentence at the top of the page: "Chicago's weekly event to build, share & learn about civic tech."

Home page has other key info too: next meetup, most recent blog post, introductory video, a little more introductory info.

It's very clear that everyone's welcome and that you don't have to be a techie.

The site serves as a great hub for people who are in the meetup. It has a link to the specific meetup's agenda/notes. (Example)

The About page has a description of the different components of what happens on a hack night.

There's a list of breakout groups, though it's so long that it's unclear if all those groups are active.

There are minutes posted for every Leadership Council meeting.

The overall design is very clean and attractive, and serves the content well.

One note — for persona #2, it's maybe not totally clear as to what type of learning opportunities there may (or may not) be.

One potentially big drawback! If there's a Chi Hack Night slack, that's very unclear and I can't find anywhere with a link.

gregjd commented 6 years ago

URL: https://opensavannah.org/

Organization: Open Savannah

Date: March 5, 2018

The opening sentence is good but also has an issue. "As a Code for America Brigade, we're part of a national network of civic-minded volunteers who contribute their skills toward using the web as a platform for local government and community service." Good, because it does basically describe what they are. But, the problem is that is seems to assume you know what a "Code for America brigade" is. Which is probably not going to be the case for most people who aren't familiar with them! Later on the home page, there's a sentence that I think is a little better: "We connect civic technologists with project leaders who have ideas for community solutions."

Although there's yet a third introductory sentence further down the page: "We visualize public data and deploy civic apps." By now we've heard three different versions of what Open Savannah is. I'm not sure whether I think this is a good thing (adding layers of detail) or not (different explanations).

There's a box to enter your email to sign up for updates, but it's unclear what you're signing up for.

The event advertised at the top has already passed (it was two days ago). It is also not explicitly labeled as the "next meetup."

For persona #4, there's an "I have ideas" button, which I like.

For persona #2, it's pretty unclear what Open Savannah is like for a newbie technologist. I think the site is fine for #1 and #3 (non-technologist, experienced technologist), as it sounds like Open Savannah is connecting those groups with each other, but #2 not so much.

yellinben commented 6 years ago

URL: https://codeforphilly.org/ Organization: Code For Philly Date: March 19, 2018