In 24 hours, Avaaz.org, an internet advocacy organization managed to mobilize over 20000 Canadians to send a letter to our Minister of Environment to criticize the current government’s change in commitment to the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act. To put this into perspective, Chris Crocker’s recent “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE” youtube video received over 2 million hits within 24 hours. Nevertheless, Avaaz’s campaign has been successful, due to a few crucial factors:

graphic design
The site design is simple, direct, current and familiar, down to its 2.0 friendly colours.

usability design

The design has basically made it extremely easy to send a letter. There’s no research required, the letter has already been written, so all you need to do is fill out a few text boxes and click send.

Spreading the word is also made easy by allowing you to import your email addresses.

time constraint
Every salesperson knows that the possibility of an expiry date - even a vague one - pressures people into buying (e.g. Offer ends soon! While supplies last!). This situation is no different and I suspect that the 24 hour deadline was a major factor in mobilizing so many letters.

energy bar
There must be an official design term for this, but I’m talking about the energy meter you see in video games that represents how much more ass kicking is required of you to kill the boss. Avaaz changed the bar from 20000 to 25000 to give a visual representation of their efforts vs a final goal, which can be a great motivator.

awareness
Climate change has been sufficiently branded so that the site does not require lengthy text based exposition or education spread out over numerous pages/external sites. Everyone is aware of the issue and consensus is building regarding the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using the same technology, this project would probably not have developed in the manner it did 10 or even 5 years ago (although the post oil crisis years/early 80s could have provided a similar context for success).

p.s. topic for another day - why the language of virology and immunology works (or doesn’t?) within internet related discourse.