CivicActions

WARNING: This blogpost has absolutely nothing to do with the World Wide Web. Now get off that chair and say hi to your neighbor.

One person who's been an inspiration to me in thinking about neighbors is Fritz Haeg. Fritz is an architect and artist whose recent book Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn documents his experiences collaborating with American families to transform their pristine green lawns into fertile vegetable gardens. In the past few years I have joined the ranks of the urban farmers. I now know who in my neighborhood prefers mustard greens over collards, who knows how to cook with bitter greens, and who's spent a good chunk of their life in the country. If you have a lawn, please grow food on it. It's so incredibly cool.

Yesterday I met CiviCRM co-founder Dave Greenberg to discuss potential usability improvements to CiviCRM, an open source constituent relationship management system. Dave is heading to Australia for the CiviCRM retreat and wanted to have wireframes in hand. Dave suggested we start by focusing on two specific pages: the Contact Summary and Search Results pages. A newbie CiviCRM user, I hoped my "beginner's mind" would help me understand the "pain points" our clients feel in using the new system. I quickly realized that I'd need to have a better sense of how people typically use CiviCRM in their daily workflow.

Here's a call-out to those who regularly use CiviCRM:

1. What do you use CiviCRM for?
For example: I use CiviCRM for our contributions database, our donors database, and our customer database.

2. What are the most common scenarios in which you use CiviCRM (that specifically involve the Contact Summary or Search Results pages)?
For example: After receiving a few contribution checks, I go to the specific contacts to record their contributions.

3. Describe the click path you use to accomplish your actions.
For example: Home>Search Results page>Contact Summary>Contact: Contributions tab>New Contributions

4. What are your "pain points" on the Contact Summary or Search Results pages? Do you have any specific recommendations as to how to improve them?

For example: I think the "select records" radio buttons should be ABOVE the "print" and "more actions" buttons/drop down.

For example: I think there should be "Edit" buttons in each section of the contact summary page, not only at the top. Perhaps a "pencil" icon next to each collapsable field set that allows you to edit the date just in that section.

Post your comments here!

What's my connection to mountaintop removal? Quite intimate, as I learned from entering my zip code into ilovemountains.org. The site identified my local electricity company's participation in mountaintop removal in the Appalachian states—showing the specific mountains (I've?) destroyed, as well as testimonials and photos from coalfield residents. Is that the impact I want to make here on earth? Did I do that? ilovemountains' online campaign employs the following smart strategies:

• Brings grassroots organizations together to maximize impact (7 organizations from 5 Appalachian states collaborated on the campaign)
• Personally engages visitors to the site (by showing the far˜reaching impact of daily local actions)
• Provides content that supports the diversity of its users, contributes to coalition-building, and frames issues in new ways ("Go Tell it on the Mountain" is an interfaith page where users can contribute prayers; an online "National Memorial for the Mountains" uses Google Earth; users can absorb their preferred type of content—video, photo, written testimonials, interactive tools).
• Provides clear calls to action (support the Clean Water Protection Act by writing to congress)
• Increases visibility and media coverage with star power (Willie Nelson)
• Uses web tools to support and spread their message (YouTube, Google Earth, online pledges, "myconnection" tool)—note that this strategy supports the other strategies, it doesn't serve as an end in itself!

Help end mountaintop removal: support this important campaign!

Yesterday, I started a Sustainability class at UC Berkeley. Instructor Michael Harris Sammet showed us The Story of Stuff narrated by Annie Leonard. For some clever cartooning and a concise primer on the life cycle of a product and what's up with our consumer-driven culture, check it out and pass it on. Like the Meatrix, this is a great example of a viral video marketing campaign that champions progressive issues.

After another long day scrunching down at my computer, I IM’d Aaron Pava to see if he was still planning to go to the ‘co-hopping’ event that was about to converge at CitizenSpace downtown.

“I’m not feeling very social,”
“Neither am I. And I haven’t showered in a few days.”
“Awesome. I’ll meet you there.”