Small EA-based design studio seeking talent (particularly a Wordpress theme developer)

melissasamworth

Hello altruists,

My name is Melissa, and I'm in the process of opening a small design studio targeting high-impact non-profits. The provided services will be website design, UI/UX design, and branding. I'm looking for talented altruists to work with on a freelance basis.

Here are the positions:

Wordpress Theme developer

Short description: Work closely with a website designer to build and deploy responsive Wordpress themes for basic small to medium websites based on provided mockups.

Requirements:

1+ years of professional experience developing Wordpress themes
A portfolio of Wordpress themes
Very strong attention to detail–the ability and desire to achieve pixel perfection
Strong code organizational habits, and willingness to follow instructions from project lead regarding how to organize code

Compensation: Compensation will vary based on experience, but will be aligned with standard market rates (fair compensation is very important to me!).

Steps: If you're a good fit, send an email to melissasamworth@gmail.com (me) with some links to work you've done. Any comments regarding the requirements and your relationship with EA would also be nice! Also, if you have any questions, please send them my way.

Illustrator

I'm not in immediate need of this position, but will be in time, so if you're interested, please send me an email at melissasamworth@gmail.com

UI/UX designer

I'm not in immediate need of this position, but will be in time, so if you're interested, please send me an email at melissasamworth@gmail.com

React developer

I'm not in immediate need of this position, but will be in time, so if you're interested, please send me an email at melissasamworth@gmail.com

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Yonatan CaleJun 6 20233

Hey!

I sometimes speak to devs who want to work at EA orgs, and EA orgs that want devs, here's stuff I'd suggest if you'd be interested in my opinion:

Compensation matters. Consider finding a first 1-3 clients, figure out how much they're willing to pay, so you can post it here
1. It's unclear if your target audience is "people willing to work for free" or "people who want this as their half-main thing and need a salary"
2. If you already have concrete projects to work on, that will attract people much more than being "on watch" for incoming projects (based on my experience. I didn't expect this)
Consider writing (if?) that you're open to questions. For example, if someone won't apply to this because they don't know the compensation, you probably want to hear about it
Consider posting in the EA Software Facebook group
More thoughts here
This is a similar org (person), maybe you can get clients from there, and/or get other useful info (like "all EA orgs have an existing annoying wordpress template, if we could just switch that we'd solve everything!" (I just made that up, not sure what you'll hear))

Thoughts based on being a bit related to your target audience (and not on conversations with others), so this is weaker:

"Strong code organizational habits, and willingness to follow instructions from project lead regarding how to organize code" - Do you expect to hire someone who'd need to follow your directions on how to organize code? Because if not, then this might deter people who are already able to organize code and would like to own this part themselves (as I would personally prefer if I'd apply)

Stuff I'm way less confident in since I'm not a designer at all:

building a custom wordpress theme seems like a bit of an overkill for most orgs
1. "desire to achieve pixel perfection" - also seems like something most orgs wouldn't need, I'm guessing that something out-of-the-box would be better (while using the correct fonts+colors) (?)

melissasamworthJun 7 20231

Thanks for the feedback 🙂

That makes sense. Although it's hard to state compensation, because it's so variable! I have a good idea of a fixed price I think is fair (and will try to negotiate for with clients), but varies a lot based on size of project, so maybe $1,200–$2,500. I would prefer fixed pricing and think it is more transparent for the developers, since I plan on charging the client a fixed price. Hourly is even more variable, because I would pay $90 an hour to a developer who is 3x faster than a $30/hour developer!
1. Yes, I could make that more clear. My intuition is to start with those truly making money this way, as that is the business model from which I am coming from myself.

Regarding "building a custom wordpress theme seems like a bit of an overkill for most org", James Odene of User Friendly and I are hoping to convince EA orgs that custom solutions are absolutely worth the bit of extra money. So, I believe out-of-the-box is often not better, and this is why I've created a studio specializing in custom design! That said, it's still experimental: we'll see how many EA orgs out there agree.

All the other links are gold, thanks again!

Yonatan CaleJun 7 20232

Cool!

I definitely defer to you on design.

If you write a pitch about it, btw, then perhaps I'll refer orgs to it. (and if I hear about an org that wants a website anytime soon, I'll refer them to you directly)

melissasamworthJun 7 20233

That (a pitch) could be a good idea. Curious as to if you have any thoughts about the best format (e.g. PDF, forum post), and in which contexts I could present this generalized "EA organizations need better marketing" pitch.

Of course would deeply appreciate any referrals 💛. You can check out my website if you wish, and I'm always an email away melissasamworth@gmail.com

Yonatan CaleJun 7 20233

Whatever's lowest effort for you. A comment here maybe?

melissasamworthJun 14 20233

Here’s, so here's my initial pitch:

I’m a designer coming from the for-profit space, in which companies invest heavily in design and marketing. The role of design–particularly skilled, quality design–has grown in the last, say, decade, due to growing evidence in its ROI. For instance, for myself and friends of mine who specialize in web design, a website’s conversion rate will jump 10%–25% from a redesign (typically a more out-of-the-box or low-skill solution, redesigned to a customized and professional solution). Name any successful tech company–Stripe, Slack, Github–they have invested tens to even hundreds of thousands on their marketing website. Many others invest similar amounts in logos and branding.

The EA world has not picked up on this very important “secret” of the for-profit world, and there’s no clear reason why. After all, EA organizations have just as much an incentive to inspire, persuade, and communicate to their audience as do for-profit companies. When I, for instance, look at an amazing for-profit company websites, I:

- Feel a sense of trust–this organization has it together

- Understand quickly what the organization does, why it’s important, and why they are amazing at it–I’m more sold

- If the topic is inspirational, I feel inspired and called to action

- Leave with a more memorable impression of this organization

When I look at even the best EA websites, I don’t feel particularly inspired, nor do I quickly understand what the organization does and why it’s important, nor do I leave with a memorable impression, and so on. And really, these should be the most inspiring websites in the world! Our bar should, if anything, be even higher than non-profits–our work is as important as it gets, isn’t it? If I was a billionaire thinking of getting into Effective Altruism, for example, and taking the first step by looking at an organization’s (or a few organizations’) website(s), I would definitely want to feel more inspired (plus other aforementioned things).

TLDR: I got into marketing and design ten years ago because I believe it is very important for an organization’s success (in whatever terms that means)! I’ve been pleased to see the for-profit world more and more learn of and integrate the power of design. I am a bit saddened that the EA world–the place where the most important things are happening–haven’t yet learned this.

Yonatan CaleJun 16 20233

@JP Addison , any chance you know an EA org that could use design help? (including CEA maybe?)

(wow, so fun to tag people! I love this feature :) )

Yonatan CaleJun 16 20232

Interesting!

I like the argument of "people who have skin in the game decide to spend money on this" plus "I observed conversion rates increasing"
I assume most EA websites don't care about conversion so much, especially not the extra-20% that would be deterred by design.
1. I do totally agree that EA-websites that care about conversion (like GWWC, 80k, or other intros-to-EA) should care about their design
2. I don't think individual orgs that happen to have a website should care much (they're not trying to convert anyone). Like rethink priorities, or open phil
3. I don't think the forum should care much about conversion, but I'm pretty unsure here so I'm giving it a separate point

What do you think? I sort of predict I'm going to learn even more from your answer, but I'm not sure what

melissasamworthJun 18 20231

Quick preface: I am not completely certain on how important design is for EA organizations, so these comments are an exploratory process of figuring this out, and there are definitely some knowledge gaps to fill.

Re conversions: Immediate conversions may not always be important for EA organizations, at least not to the extent they are for most for-profit organizations. The most important part about mentioning conversions is just demonstrating the power of design.
On that topic, re: websites like Open Phil:
1. Quick preface: I would need to understand more about the organization's user base and goals to give the best answer here about how design could help them achieve those goals
2. However, if an organization is trying to influence anyone's behavior ever, I would argue that good design at least matters–How much it matters is dependent on a few things, such as how large their user base is, and what other channels they could use to communicate or influence anyone's behavior
  1. The fact that Open Phil has clearly put more than 0$ into their current website means they also believe it matters, to some extent
  2. The real question to ask then is, is a design that is [this] much better worth [this] amount of money (I concede that the answer might be no in some cases)
It's also worth thinking about the EA movement as a whole. If every single EA website was brilliantly communicated, inspiring, emotionally impactful, highly (and easily) informative, memorable, convey a sense of trust and professionalism... I believe it would do the movement a tremendous amount of good. In a sense, the movement as a whole wants to increase its conversion rates, right?
1. Quick guess, for fun: Spending 1% of EA funds on design for the next 10 years would increase the total amount donated to EA itself by 20% (using the average conversion rates from above)

Yonatan CaleJun 18 20232

[I just want to say explicitly that I am making up things and I don't actually know what's important for those orgs. I'm more trying-to-learn-by-disagreeing than think-I-know-something]

melissasamworthJun 19 20231

Yep it's been a good exercise and something I will now question with more scrutiny :)

melissasamworthJun 12 20233

Actually, this is something I've been meaning to look into more deeply. I'm going to look up some research and stuff, and then I will come back to you 🙂

Benny SmithJun 6 20232

I think Vegan Hacktivists does some similar work. Perhaps someone in their orbit would be interested in working with you!