Websites/Mozilla.org/Archive/Contribute/Get Involved Evolved
This is a planning page for what we want to do with the mozilla.org/contribute section in 2011 to make it a better portal for contributors. The work done in 2009/2010 was a good step but we need to further evolve this section to make it more useful.
Contents
Phases
Some thoughts on a phased approach to expanding and improving these pages.
Current
Newsletter Sign-up
Problem: We have a newsletter that has relevant information for people who want to contribute to Mozilla but it is not very easy to find this and subscribe.
Tasks:
- Move subscribe page into Get Involved section
- Promote subscribe page more: in Get Involved side-nav, in Get In Touch form as opt-in, on nightly first run page
- Redesign/update newsletter email template/blog?
Find A Task Tool
Problem: Finding good bugs to start working on in bugzilla is hard. Let's create a wizard that helps people drill down to the right bug based on skills, interest, etc.
- See jdm's prototype
Get Involved dashboard
We don't have much information about what areas people are interested in and what areas people are able to contribute in. We need to build a metrics dashboard to give us better information.
How To Videos
How to contribute to certain areas videos, explanations about what different areas are, etc.
- Bugzilla For Humans video a great intro -- a bit long though so other how to videos might just be 1 or 2 minutes.
Future
Content Refresh
Problem: There are other contribute related pages we'll need to either make sure we're linking to or creating entry points for, for example the Student Reps site. Older content that has been on the site for over a year should also be reviewed and refreshed as needed.
Tasks:
- Create additional sub-pages or promos for other key contribute resources hosted elsewhere.
Get In Touch System
Problem: The current Get In Touch form has been shown to be a promising way of getting people who want to contribute to introduce themselves to us, but there are many improvements we can make to this system to improve the experience for the user and to make it possible for us to handle responding to the inquiries.
Note: this may be something we can build on top of FuzzyFox's Affero project.
Tasks:
- Improve Get In Touch functionality (see brainstorming notes for suggestions)
Timeline:
- Live by end of Q3?
New Sub-Pages
Problem: There are many different ways to get a view into all of the different contribution opportunities (by skill, by community area, by time required, by location, by open bug, etc). We should review these choices and build content accordingly.
Tasks:
- Review existing Area of Interest and Time Available pages and update or remove
- Add new pages as needed
- Events page (based on this feed maybe?)
- A feed of helpwanted bugs?
- Skills page?
Timeline:
- Live by end of Q2?
Localization
Problem: The current pages are in English only and are not easily localizable as is. We'll need a strategy to localize these pages that takes into account how contribution options change in different locales and is not just a translation of the English pages.
Tasks:
- Localize some or all of Get Involved pages into ??? locales?
Timeline:
- Live by end of Q3?
In Product Get Involved Page
Problem: An out of date page has been used as the in product Contribute page.
Tasks:
- Replace in-product Contribute pages with mozilla.org/contribute
Note: the en-US version of the in product page now redirects, but the localized versions are still in place and can't be redirected until we localize the /contribute pages.
Survey
Problem: We have little data beyond site traffic to understand what is and what isn't helpful for people trying to contribute. We can set up a survey that reaches out to people who have used the Get In Touch form to ask them about this to learn more.
Tasks:
- Set up a survey (one-time, ongoing?) that follows up with people who have contacted us about wanting to contribute.
Contributor Profiles
Recognition of contributors.
Completed
Landing Page
Problem: The current main page is not very effective as a landing page for the Get Involved section -- it throws a lot of information at a user, it is locked into one view on how people want to find contribution information and it limits our ability to promote a range of opportunities.
For reference see: The Anatomy of a Perfect Landing Page
Tasks:
- Add a new landing page
- Move existing mozilla.org/contribute page to an Area of Interest sub-page
Timeline:
- Live by end of Q1
Content:
Design:
- Initial wireframe of a v1 landing page that reuses existing sidebar and replaces body content with more friendly intro content
Download Buttons
Problem: The current affiliates page on SpreadFirefox can not be updated easily and the site may need to be turned off temporarily while a security issue is dealt with, so we need to find a new home for affiliate content.
Task:
- Create a download button page in the Get Involved section (can be very simple at first)
Timeline:
- Ideally by Firefox 4 launch
Content: http://www.mozilla.org/contribute/buttons/
Regional Pages
Problem: One of the key ways people can get involved isn't represented currently. We should add information about how to plug in to local communities around the world and we should provide a place where we can promote exciting things going on in different regions.
Tasks:
- Create sub-pages for Europe, Asia, Africa and Americas communities
Timeline:
- Live by end of Q1 (some or all of the maps)
Content:
Design:
- Initial wireframe showing a regional page for Mozilla in the Americas. There would be an interactive map showing countries that have an associated local site as well as showing cities where there is a Mozilla space.
Firefox Nightly and Alpha Pages
Problem: There are many people still using old developer versions of Firefox (such as pre-3.0 builds) and those old developer release pages, such as the Namoroka Start Page still get lots of traffic. The audience to these pages are presumably people who did testing and development for us once, so we can update these pages to try to re-engage people in testing and development contribution.
Note: we may just be able to redirect traffic to the relevant new pages being set up to handle the new nightly/experimental/beta/release infrastructure being set up.
Tasks:
- Redirect old alpha pages (eg Namoroka start page) to new Channel Selection page
- Update nightly First Run page with new nightly branding and current QA and other contribution opportunities (newsletter sign-up, QA get in touch form?...)
- Redirect no longer uses Minefield start page to updated nightly First Run page
Timeline: Live by end of Q2?
Notes
- Create a "site map" of our mini web universe, i.e. Remo, Student Reps, Community Map, etc.
- How can we promote from mozilla.com until transition + after?
- Localized snippets?
- How can we promote from mozilla.org (Community Map page, Firefox pre-release pages...)
- What webdev + design resources do we need? Mary to set up overall heads up meeting with Webdev.
