I love the “Our Humaninfesto” on the Nature Is Speaking website. Such a great and different “about us” page. It is simple and profound and it grabbed and inspired me immediately. Without seeing any of the “share” prompts on the site, this is what I wrote on my personal Facebook page (borrowing from the Humanifesto):
“Human beings are part of nature.
Nature is not dependant on human beings to exist.
Human beings, on the other hand, are totally dependant on nature to exist.”
So bloody true. How do people NOT GET THIS!!!
If this was my campaign/ project, I would be so proud of it.
The voice over’s are very emotive and having celebrities doing them does add gravity (although it shouldn’t matter). I can so imagine this as a theatrical performance, like the Vagina Monologues or something similarly sparse.
BUT…
Just one call to action
I think the films have missed the crucial call to action. Their message is so strong but they don’t capitalise on the moment of inspiration by asking us to do something. We will be affected by what we’ve heard and thinking deeply about it. But not having an easy way to take action without having to look around the site to find it is a missed opportunity.
I’ve spent most of the last decade analysing how humans behave online and I can tell you that while this website and proposition is beautiful and inspiring and creative, by itself its not going to be very successful. I’m sure there is a large media machine behind it and a lot of PR coverage due to the high profile celebrities who have collaborated on this project, but the action request is too soft to be effective in its own right.
The website usability is good, but its not great. Its easy to navigate but its still a little clunky requiring the user to look for the next step, it doesn’t jump out at them. They’re expected to click for more information or to take action, rather than just naturally flowing into it. You can scroll down but there are lots of conflicting messages and interactive requests. Which one should I do?
On the ACT page http://natureisspeaking.org/act.html, they have 4 options, with the most important (donate) on the right side, essentially the 4th option out of 4. It gives the user 3 easier “opt out” options, rather than pushing them towards what they need most. The more options you give a person, the less likely they are to do any of them. And if you give them an easy/ free options as well as a financial commitment, most people always take the free option (or none at all).
Give people something specific to do
And the pledge is very general “pledge to listen to nature, no act is too small” – it misses the opportunity to push users towards specific actions that will have greater impact. I know its supposed to get people to make a pledge to do something that is important to them, but unfortunately most people aren’t educated enough about real environmental issues to know what is important. I speak from experience with my own friends and family, they just don’t know much about consumption and sustainability and they think they’re not doing anything wrong, when there is so much we all do that is wrong but we’re conditioned not to even notice it.
There is so much more they can do to expand this, but what a start!