Notification Business Requirements

Email notifications

These are suggestions, in order of priority. There is an issue open relating to this page: https://github.com/18f/openopps-platform/issues/76 I'd prefer if we discussed the page there.

If you must please put comments/suggestins in (()) after the relevant point, like this:

((I think we should change suggestins to suggestions in the sentence above))

P1

• Clicking on the email button for projects generates an email with the project title, description and a link to the project. Text: Your colleague wanted to let you know about this great project. Click on the link to find out more.
• Clicking on the email button for opportunities generates an email with the opportunity title, madlibs info and a link to the opportunity. Text: Your colleague wanted to let you know about this great opportunity to help a colleague. Click on the link to find out more.
• Clicking on the email button for profiles generates an email with the user's name, title, office and location and a link to the profile. Text: Your colleague wanted to let you know about this interesting person. Click on the link to see their profile.
• Replies to your topics or comments generates an email with the project/op title, the comment and a link to the page. Text: Someone replied to you! Click the link below to see the entire discussion.
• (after application/acceptance process is implemented) requestors get an email when a volunteer applies to their opportunity. Email shows the volunteer's name, title, office and location and a link to their profile and link to the opportunity. Text should say something like: Congratulations! xyz has applied to work on the opportunity [op title]. Click on the link below and [ do acceptance procedure] to accept this volunteer. ((Since the application/acceptance process will not be implemented in the next sprint - Recommend a simple email notification to the requestor if a user clicks "Volunteer". Suggested text: Good news! You have a new volunteer [Full Name of Volunteer] for the opportunity [op title].Click the link below to visit the Opportunity page."))
• (after application/acceptance process is implemented) volunteers get an email when the requestor accepts or declines their application. Email should contain a link to the opportunity. Acceptance text says: Congratulations, [requestor name] accepted you to work on [opportunity name]. Click below to start! Rejection text says: Unfortunately you weren't selected to work on [opportunity name]. But feel free to add your suggestions in the comments section. There are lots of other great opportunities out there. Find one here (op browse/search) ((Suggested acceptance text: "Good news! [Requestor name] has added you to team to work on the [opportunity name]. Click below to start!" ((Suggested rejection text "Thanks for volunteering but it looks like this opportunity was not a good fit. You have not been added to the [opportunity name] but feel free to add your suggestions in the comments section. Here are some similar opportunities:"))

P2

• Project owners should get an email whenever an event is added to their project, an opportunity is added, a file is attached, status changes, or a topic/comment is made (warning:email proliferation) Email should contain the title and description of the project, a statement about what changed (e.g 'A new file has been uploaded to the project xyz', a link to the project and a message saying why the email came 'you are receiving this email because you are an owner of project xyz.'
• Requestors should get an email anytime a file is added to their opportunity, comments or topics are added, (warning:email proliferation). Email should contain the title and description of the op, a statement about what changed (e.g 'A new comment is available for op xyz', a link to the op and a message saying why the email came 'you are receiving this email because you liked op xyz.'

P3

• if you've liked a project, the system will send an email anytime an event is added, an opportunity is added, a file is attached, status changes, or a topic/comment is made (warning:email proliferation). Email should contain the title and description of the project, a statement about what changed (e.g 'A new file has been uploaded to the project xyz', a link to the project and a message saying why the email came 'you are receiving this email because you liked project xyz.'
• If you've liked an opportunity, you will get an email anytime a file is added, comments or topics are added, or the status changes (warning:email proliferation) Email should contain the title and description of the op, a statement about what changed (e.g 'A new comment is available for op xyz', a link to the op and a message saying why the email came 'you are receiving this email because you liked op xyz.'

P4

• Users that follow another user get emails whenever the followed user creates a project or op, makes comments/adds new topics to an op, or changes their profile information. (warning:email proliferation)
• Users should be able to configure saved searches that then generate emails whenever new ops or projects are added that match their criteria.
• Administrators can configure the system to send emails upon various events: project/op has no activity after a set period of time; user hasn't visited the site for a period of time; etc.

P5

• Users should get emails whenever new projects or opportunities are added that match their tags (user configurable)

Questions

• Should every email include an explanation why it came (e.g 'you are receiving this email because you liked op xyz.')? I vote yes.
• We should talk about the cost/benefit of building a settings panel where the user can determine the frequency of emails

(warning:email proliferation - ideally we would not implement these without the ability to designate whether you want notifications instantly, as a daily digest or as a weekly digest. Otherwise there is a big disincentive to like a project/ op/person as you may get many emails.)

P6

Meghan's Research

Email Notification Best Practices Do we dislike e-mail as much as we claim? According to a New York Times article, e-mail disruptions are constant and prevalent in nearly every workplace. Approximately 40% of e-mail interruptions cause workers to change course completely after the distraction and couldn't remember what they were doing previously. Despite perceived negative impact, most workers appreciated the "increased situation awareness " caused by the e-mail and felt that the gains were worth the decrease in overall concentration.

Types of E-mail Notifications In order to start thinking about the types of notifications that should be built into the platform, I've outlined a variety of necessary notification e-mails.

Summary E-mails: While summary e-mails are self explanatory, I think it makes sense to have a summary option that allows for both project notifications, for current projects the user is subscribed to, in addition to group notifications, which correspond with project tags and interests and is outlined further below. -Daily -Weekly

Global Notifications: Notifications about the CrowdWork site including announcements, newsletters and site maintenance notifications.

Project Notifications: Notifications about specific projects the user has signed up for. Anyone who joins a new project will be automatically subscribed to updates about the project, including when there are comments in the discussion or other project elements are updated. Using Basecamp as a model, it is a best practice for an update to be automatically sent to everyone in the project, with the option to deselect certain individuals from receive the update.

-Project X -Project Y -Project Z

Additionally, Basecamp makes it very clear what types of e-mails people will receive. I would recommend using very clear and specific language when creating the copy for e-mail notifications. Below is the copy 37 Signals users to notify Basecamp users about the e-mails they can expect.

Basecamp will send a notification when:

• You're invited to join a project or calendar
• You're assigned a to-do task by another user
• Your assigned task is given a due date and when that due date is changed
• The day before a task assigned to you is due
• Someone completes a to-do you created or assigned, unless you opt out
• When you're included on a message, comment or file notifications

Notifications for discussions and comments:

• Who gets a notification: When you create a new discussion, you decide who will receive an email notification about it.
• Follow-up comments: Basecamp will send notifications about new comments to the same people who received the original message. Update that by clicking "Change" ...... and then selecting or deselecting folks.

Alternatively, Yammer doesn't categorize e-mail, but has a list of what types of notifications the user can choose to receive. A list like this provides clarity to the user so they are not surprised by the e-mails they receive.

Preference Notifications: Preference notifications inform the user about specific skills, topics, agencies, locations. Users should be able to select their own preferences based on project tags.

Opt-Out Project Specific E-mails

• Project X
• Project Y
• Project Z

All Notification E-mails

Default options Because the e-mail notification reminders are robust, it makes sense to have default options pre-selected for which e-mails should be sent. Below are what I suggest for a default:

Weekly Summary Global Notifications Project Notifications

• Project X
• Project Y
• Project Z

Alternative Notification Options As an alternative to e-mail, it also makes sense to have a dashboard with notifications. There could be a notification feed built into Midas Open Opportunities to help cut back on e-mail, and then users could simply rely on summary notifications.

Additionally, there are other options for notification including instant messaging, SMS, desktop alerts and RSS feeds. These options are worth noting, but are not necessary for a minimum viable product.

E-mail Elements Design

• Faces: The Midas Open Opportunities site already uses faces, but I wanted to point out the research that says, "the mere presence of others dramatically changes our behavior." Faces can be used to reinforce social proof. When designing e-mail notifications, it might be helpful to include faces of people who are actively using the site or influencers who are organizing projects.

Content to (Re)Engage Users

• Curiosity: To increase open-up rates, curiosity could be used in both e-mail subject lines and content. The copy could tease user with a small amount of information and then they would have to log-into the CrowdWork site to find out more.
• Normative Updates: The concept of nudging says “either desirable or undesirable behavior can be increased, at least to some extent, by drawing public attention to what others are doing.” By drawing attention to the number of project the average user completes, or an "elite" user (say the top 2% of users), we might be able to motivate people based on comparison. Profiling elite users and project successes on a blog or newsletter also falls under this idea.
• Status Bar and Profile Completeness: LinkedIn has used the concept of profile completeness as a % to motivate users to fill out their entire profile. To motivate inactive users or those with incomplete information, LinkedIn sends e-mail reminder that prompts the user to take a next steps, but specifically suggests one action at a time. This sequencing concept helps to motivate people to do things by breaking down into tiny actions. A profile completeness or status bar could also be built into the profile page itself.
• Projects You May Be Interested In: To engage users who have registered, but are not currently active on the site, periodically sending emails on projects of interest. Again, this could be incorporated into the site itself.
• Deactivation E-mail: Drawing on a lesson from Facebook, it makes sense to add faces (i.e. you will miss updates from x, y and z) to a deactivation page or e-mail. "According to Julie Zhou, design manager at Facebook ,this has reduced the deactivation rate by 7%. At least a million fewer users have deactivated their accounts!"