Improve marketing hooks on Science United webpage

[thadguidry]

On World Community Grid, they show on one of their showcase pages that...

…your device could have analyzed 8 potential cancer signatures for the Mapping Cancer Markers project.

This might be advantageous to apply a similar "hook" to Join Science United for those landing directly on the Science United webpage. Guilt & Empathy are powerful motivators. They work for the American Red Cross & Children's Fund...even political candidates. And Guilt & Empathy applied with a "what does it REALLY cost me" is especially powerful.

In the time it takes to read this paragraph, your computer could have analyzed...

• 8 potential cancer signatures that might save 1000's of human lives
• 3 dwarf galaxies simulated in our Milky Way galaxy to discover new dark matter and more
• 2 potential new electronic materials helping self-driving electric cars reduce carbon gases
• 1 new cure for the world's deadliest diseases

All by using your computer's power that is unused and often wasted.

[davidpanderson]

Thanks for the suggestion. I agree that the "first impression" page could have more impact.

In my view, we have a budget of some # of words - maybe 100 - above the "Join SU" button. Too many words and they lose interest and go away. Currently we have:

"Science United lets you help scientific research projects by giving them computing power. These projects do research in astronomy, physics, biomedicine, mathematics, and environmental science; you can pick the areas you want to support.

You help by installing BOINC, a free program that runs scientific jobs in the background and when you're not using the computer. BOINC is secure and will not affect your normal use of the computer.

Science United is operated by the BOINC project at UC Berkeley. Science United and the research projects it supports are non-profit."

I think we need to keep some of this. For example, the last 2 sentences are intended to convey the idea that SU is not a scam, for-profit, or fly-by-night. Or maybe the NSF and UCB logos convey this - what do you think?

In any case, we'd need to tighten things up. The "cancer" and "world's deadliest diseases" lines are redundant.

Based on these comments, can you suggest a complete "above the Join button" block of text?

[thadguidry]

I think perhaps you can take this forward and adapt it. I was trying to help push forward where I see things lacking and why you created Science United in the first place...to grab more users. But I think the marketing all around and reaching users is what is lacking.

As a user, I think its already clear with the NSF and UCB logos.

Generally I think the entire Science United website could use a breath of fresh marketing.

I also think that other marketing and collaborations could be effective. Imagine collaborating with Intel or AMD or Nvidia on inserting flyers into new gaming systems or video cards and the potential new users pulled in just with a small 3 inch x 6 inch slip of paper (front/back) placed in new products.

"Use your new video card or game system to help Scientists find disease cures, locate black holes, solve incredible math problems... Join Science United and let your PC's idle time conquer the hardest problems scientists have ever faced in a deathmatch against time."

Think Outside the Box.

[Marc49Lewis]

David: There is a problem linking Science United projects to the BOINC manager. Science United does NOT show up the the list of available projects. I've written 2 e-mails to the boinc-adm address, but there has been no response from anyone. The only thing I get is notices that my computers have not either linked to or done any work on any of the projects. What is the issue with this?

[davidpanderson]

Science United is an account manager, not a project. See https://scienceunited.org/intro.php