Thanks for your effort. As with many PR efforts, I would classify this one as either positive or negative; I would not intuitively expect a neutral result to occur (unless you had very few unique visitors), but that the website would shape visitor’s perceptions of x-risk, either positively or negatively. Just something to keep in mind. On a more concrete level, I have trouble parsing the banner shown behind the “Existentially Risky” title in your screenshot. The combination of font and banner seems sketchy to me.
Yes, I am also concerned that the banner is too visually complicated—it’s supposed to be a scene of a flooded garage workshop, suggesting both major problems and a potential ability to fix them, but the graphic is not at all iconic. If you have another idea for the banner (or can recommend a particular font that would work better), please chime in.
I am not convinced that www.existential-risk.org is a good casual landing page, because (a) most of the content is in the form of an academic CV, (b) there is no easy-to-read summary telling the reader about existential risks, and (c) there is no donate button.
Do you know anyone who has done website design, like as an actual job? May want to ask them. I can really just say whether something does or doesn’t look right to me—honestly wouldn’t know where to start recommending fonts and stuff.
Again, fair point—if you are reading this, and you have experience designing websites, and you are willing to donate a couple of hours to build a very basic website, let us know!
I agree with Dorikka—that banner image is, well, not the best. I did not even notice that the workshop was flooded until I saw you point it out in this post; I thought it merely had a shiny floor and a low workbench (and took no particular notice of either detail).
If I may make a recommendation, I would suggest a mostly-black banner, with a few stars (i.e. a view of space) with, on the far right, a picture of Earth blowing up (something along the lines of this image—though, of course, not exactly that image because of copyright, but along those lines).
Have the text white, in one image, with a transparent background, left-aligned; and the space/Earth image as a different image behind it, right-aligned; then your banner will still look good on any screen resolution.
I think that would make a good, attention-grabbing banner.
Sounds good to me. I’ll keep an eye out for public domain images of the Earth exploding. If the starry background takes up enough of the image, then the overall effect will probably still hit the right balance between alarm and calm.
A really fun graphic would be an asteroid bouncing off a shield and not hitting Earth, but that might be too specific.
Thanks for your effort. As with many PR efforts, I would classify this one as either positive or negative; I would not intuitively expect a neutral result to occur (unless you had very few unique visitors), but that the website would shape visitor’s perceptions of x-risk, either positively or negatively. Just something to keep in mind. On a more concrete level, I have trouble parsing the banner shown behind the “Existentially Risky” title in your screenshot. The combination of font and banner seems sketchy to me.
It doesn’t appear to be optimized as you mention, but are you familiar with this page? http://www.existential-risk.org/
Hi Dorikka,
Yes, I am also concerned that the banner is too visually complicated—it’s supposed to be a scene of a flooded garage workshop, suggesting both major problems and a potential ability to fix them, but the graphic is not at all iconic. If you have another idea for the banner (or can recommend a particular font that would work better), please chime in.
I am not convinced that www.existential-risk.org is a good casual landing page, because (a) most of the content is in the form of an academic CV, (b) there is no easy-to-read summary telling the reader about existential risks, and (c) there is no donate button.
Do you know anyone who has done website design, like as an actual job? May want to ask them. I can really just say whether something does or doesn’t look right to me—honestly wouldn’t know where to start recommending fonts and stuff.
Again, fair point—if you are reading this, and you have experience designing websites, and you are willing to donate a couple of hours to build a very basic website, let us know!
I agree with Dorikka—that banner image is, well, not the best. I did not even notice that the workshop was flooded until I saw you point it out in this post; I thought it merely had a shiny floor and a low workbench (and took no particular notice of either detail).
If I may make a recommendation, I would suggest a mostly-black banner, with a few stars (i.e. a view of space) with, on the far right, a picture of Earth blowing up (something along the lines of this image—though, of course, not exactly that image because of copyright, but along those lines).
Have the text white, in one image, with a transparent background, left-aligned; and the space/Earth image as a different image behind it, right-aligned; then your banner will still look good on any screen resolution.
I think that would make a good, attention-grabbing banner.
Sounds good to me. I’ll keep an eye out for public domain images of the Earth exploding. If the starry background takes up enough of the image, then the overall effect will probably still hit the right balance between alarm and calm.
A really fun graphic would be an asteroid bouncing off a shield and not hitting Earth, but that might be too specific.
Yes, that would work as well, as long as it’s clear to the viewer what is going on.