Mel Choyce

  • Splash Pages for Campaigns on Squarespace

    You might have noticed in my recent post on election design that I made a bunch of splash pages for Alessandra Biaggi’s campaign.

    Website landing page that prominently features the text "ELECT MORE WOMEN / BIAGGI 2018." The headline on the page reads "elect more women," and the content describes why you should elect Alessandra Biaggi. There is a button to donate $25, and a link to continue to the website.

    Splash pages are common tactics for any site trying to raise money or spur action, like political campaigns and non-profits. They’re usually minimal, focused, and create a gate before you can reach the regular site.

    Biaggi’s site was built on Squarespace, so my first instinct (“download a WordPress plugin!”) was out. The idea of using a regular page and overwriting a bunch of CSS was… daunting, to say the least. That’s when I discovered the utility of Cover Pages. I’d seen them announced before and thought they were nifty, though at the time, I had no use for them. This changed when I started playing around with them as an option for splash pages.

    Cover Pages are great because they load a separate template into the page. You can control whether to show branding and navigation, or just go simple with a header, body text, and some action links. You have a similar style editor as the rest of the site, but it’s per-page, so you can tweak styles between different cover pages.

    • Squarespace's "Branding and Text" panel, featuring a logo option, headline, and body text field.
      Branding & Text
    • Squarespace's "Style" panel, which displays options for customizing your site styles.
      Styles
    • Squarespace's "Action" panel, which lets you choose between buttons/navigation, and a general form or newsletter signup.
      Actions
    • Squarespace's "Media" panel, which lets you add a background image or video.
      Media
    • Squarespace's "Social Icons" panel, which features a toggle to turn on/off social icons.
      Social Icons

    There’s a number of available layouts, geared towards different use-cases. I found “landing,” “profile,” and “video” to be the most useful categories for my particular needs.

    Squarespace's "Change Layout" panel. The layout dropdown is open, showing the available layout categories. Behind the dropdown are preview thumbnails for a few layouts.

    In particular, I used VANGUARD, MISSION, and PROJECTOR the most often. I also found FLASH a good option for making policy-specific splash pages, which we used on social media.

    One gripe ā€” there’s no way to set per-page marketing settings, like social share images. This would have been immensely helpful for making our policy splash pages, so each had a unique social share image, instead of using the general site image.

    I had to write very little CSS to get these pages looking the way I wanted. I customized non-primary buttons so they appeared as links instead, and adjusted some background positioning on different screen sizes. That may have been the extent of it?

    Each splash page had its own corresponding ActBlue link, so we could track how each page performed. I wish we’d dived deeper into this ā€” I think if I work on another campaign where we use these tools, I’d try more variations to see which pages perform better.

    We primarily used Cover Pages for donations and GOTV (“get out the vote”), but I could also see early-stage campaigns using them for email gathering or “stay tuned!” landing pages. I think there’s a lot of opportunities for campaigns using Squarespace to leverage this feature!

    mel

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  • Design for Elections

    If you’ve chatted with me any time this year, you’ve probably heard that I’ve been spending a lot of my spare time volunteering for various campaigns across the US. I’ve been involved with Get Her Elected, Ragtag, and Tech for Campaigns, civic tech orgs focused on helping progressive candidates. I’m also the Website Director for Alessandra Biaggi’s campaign for New York State Senate.

    Civic tech kept me going this year. I spent much of last year in a useless haze. I felt powerless. This year, I was determined to take back my agency. Volunteering on campaigns allowed me to use my skills to make a difference. Whenever I felt despair sinking in, I’d work harder, or volunteer for another project. I had networks of other civic techies who kept me buoyed and provided support and encouragement.

    Now that the Midterms are (mostly) over, I wanted to share some of the work I’ve done. Pretty much all of these were collaborative efforts with other civic tech volunteers across different organizations.

    Site Design

    Site design is my specialty. I’m great at taking minimal amounts of content and stretching it into decent “brochure” style site.

    Most of the campaign sites I worked on this year were built on Squarespace or WordPress. WordPress is, obviously, my specialty, but I had a lot of fun learning the ins-and-outs of Squarespace, which is a pretty amazing platform for getting an attractive site up ASAP. 

    Here are some of the sites I worked on:

    And some landing pages I did for Alessandra Biaggi’s campaign:

    Ad Design

    This was my first foray into ad design, and I learned a lot in a short amount of time ā€” best practices, sizing and formats, Facebook’s 20% text rule, etc. Here’s some of my favorite ads:

    With the Midterms wrapping up, I find myself wondering what’s next. Voter suppression and disenfranchisement, and Gerrymandering, continue to play a destructive role in our elections. I’d love to find a way to help fight both with my design skills. I want to work on tools to make campaigning easier, especially for candidates without a ton of resources. If you come across any orgs looking for design volunteers to tackle these issues, send them my way!

    mel

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  • Returning

    After two and a half months on sabbatical, I find myself approaching my return to work rather quicker than expected. This summer went by fast.

    My sabbatical has been pretty rad. I went to Ireland and got engaged. I had two glorious weeks of printmaking, and my experience teaching drums atĀ GRCB was flat-out amazing. I’ve played an absurd amount of Breath of the Wild. A++ would sabbatical again.

    As my last two weeks start to wind down, I’ve found myself antsy to return to work. I’m having a great time, and yet, I’m also getting a bit bored now that most of my summer plans have wrapped up.

    I also find myself feeling some degree of anxiety and trepidation about returning, and that surprises me.

    Here’s the thing ā€” I like being useful. I’m not really happy unless I’m finding ways to make myself useful. It’s justĀ a thing, you know?

    Part of that desire to be useful is also a desire to feel like my work and my efforts are needed. This is in direct conflict with “whelp, I’m just going to pop off for three months, okay?”Ā 

    My logical brain says:Ā If you’re gone for three months and nothing’s gone wrong in your absence, that’s absolutely a mark of success. You handed off your work. You can take a break without things descending to hell. That’s a mark of maturity in an organization.

    My emotional brain says:Ā Oh my god what if they don’t actually need me? What if I return and everyone’s like “oh hey yeah I guess you exist, we didn’t really notice you were gone?” What if I’m easily replaceable? What if they realize they never actually needed me to begin with, so they fire me? What if? What if? What if?

    Anxiety is one hell of a drug, y’all.Ā 

    Anyway, I’m not really sure what to do about this. I know I’ll return to work, and it’ll be fine. There’s just this disconnect between what IĀ know and what IĀ feel that’s good to get out.Ā 

    See y’all soon.

    (PS ā€” I haven’t used Gutenberg since early June and dang is it looking nice, good job pals šŸ‘ŒšŸ‘ŒšŸ‘Œ)

    mel

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  • The Cult of Busy

    As I find myself winding down to my sabbatical, I’ve had one persistent thought that’s been causing me a lot of anxiety: why aren’t I busier?

    I’ve heard so many tales of coworkers working 60+ hours weeks, just to get everything done in time for their sabbaticals, or coworkers who ended up working through the first couple weeks of theirs.

    Conversely, I find myself, the week before my sabbatical begins. with a very manageable to-do list.Ā 

    Instead of making me appreciate that I’m able to wind down without having to put in extra time, it worries me. I feel like I should have more to do and I need to be working more.

    I feel guilty that I’m not overworked right now. Like I’ve done something wrong.

    šŸ˜¬šŸ˜¬šŸ˜¬

    Why do we have such a sick obsession with overwork in America?

    I remember in college when my friends and I would regale ourselves with the shocking amount of work we needed to get done that week, like some twisted form of bragging about how busy we were. It was almost a mark of status that you were up to your eyeballs in work.

    InĀ Daring Greatlyļ»æļ»æ, BrenĆ© Brown writes:

    One of the most universal numbing strategies is what I callĀ crazy-busy.Ā I often say that when they start having twelve-step meetings for busy-aholics, theyā€™ll need to rent out football stadiums. We are a culture of people whoā€™ve bought into the idea that if we stay busy enough, the truth of our lives wonā€™t catch up with us.

    (I feel so called out right now.)

    Keeping busy is a coping mechanism for our feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy. Surely, how can’t I be successful? Look at how busy I am!

    We get ourselves into a cycle of believing that quantity is the same as quality. The more we work, the better we must be doing.

    Obviously, this isn’t the case. But my anxiety and my desire to be seen as capable and successful and hard-working keep tricking my brain into thinking this is true.

    The short answer to why I’m not busier right now is: I’ve known about my sabbatical for over half a year, and planned the past few months accordingly. I scoped my work out for the first half of this year with the knowledge that it all had to get done before I left. My team lead and my coach helped keep me accountable for these goals.

    The fact that I’m not busier right now, in this last week before I go on sabbatical, is a good thing ā€” it means I succeeded at keeping the scope of my work in-check. I didn’t start anything new this past month so I could focus on wrapping up my existing projects.Ā 

    And yet. And yet. There’s still that persistent nagging in the back of my head.Ā Why aren’t you busier? You should be working twelve hour days this week! Everyone else has!

    Clearly, this is something I need to work towards getting over during my sabbatical. I want to be like Paul Jarvis, who wrote in his most recent newsletter:Ā 

    Iā€™m really not that busy with work. Outside of a few times a year, thatā€™s just never the case. Busy is an exception, not a rule. Busy is being reactive, and being constantly reactive doesnā€™t seem like the best way to run a business for the long term. … Being busy often means Iā€™m completely failing at pace and scheduling.

    Paul Jarvis, Sunday Dispatches

    I admit to being both a little in awe, and a little jealous when I read his email. But Paul has it right ā€” busy is reactive. And busy is a shield, a tool for numbing ourselves against our feelings of vulnerability.Ā 

    I’m not busy this week. And that’s a good thing.

    mel

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  • Sabbatical

    Next month, I hit five years of working at Automattic. At five years, Automatticians are given a paid sabbatical. This is a time for us to relax, recharge, and come back to work refreshed.Ā 

    Five years is a long time. It’s the longest time I’ve ever been anywhere since, well… my elementary school, where I did Pre-K through 3rd Grade. Prior to this, I maxed out at four years at any particular place. Since joining Automattic, I’ve even lived in four different apartments.

    Externally I’m stoked for my sabbatical, but internally, I’m all like…

    Quite honestly, I’m scared of my sabbatical. I’ve spent so long defining myself by my work and measuring my success by my productivity, what does it mean when I’m not working? What does it mean to take off three months and just… exist?

    My colleague Alex sums it up perfectly:

    Take time for me. Even writing those words scares me. What happens when all the work stops? What do I do if Iā€™m bored? I wonā€™t have a default work to go to, so how will I spend my time? Is too much time on my own something I can handle?

    Preparing for Sabbatical ā€“ Five Years with Automatticļ»æ

    I feel like I’m being given a tremendous opportunity for reflection and self-growth, but I’m going to squander it. That terrifies me.

    I’m terrified I’m going to waste my sabbatical. I’m terrified I’ll spend three months in my PJs, sitting on my couch, playing video games. That without the pressure of work, I’ll turn into a slug. Or a rock. Not even a nice rock, all moss-covered and finely shaped, but a gross muddy rock under which a den of centipedes dwells. And slugs.

    Alternately, I’m scared I’m going to fill my sabbatical with not-work that resembles work, and won’t have a chance to decompress.

    To combat this, I’m trying to stack my sabbatical with relaxing and fulfilling experiences:

    • I’m spending 8 days in Ireland with my girlfriend.
    • I have two back-to-back weeks of printmaking lessons scheduled, something I’ve been wanting to get back into for a while, but haven’t had the time for.
    • I’ll be coaching drums at Girls Rock Campaign Boston, which is undeniably going to make me feel vulnerable and make me feel like an imposter but fuck it, I’m doin’ it anyway!
    • I have a coupon for a cooking lesson that I’ve been hanging on to for a couple years now, and will finally be cashing in this summer!
    • Hopefully towards the end of summer, I’ll be taking another trip, this time to Colorado to check out some parks and do outdoorsy things.

    I also have some aspirational goals:

    • I will continue to work with my personal trainer at the gym every week that I’m in town for. Hopefully, I’ll also be motivated to go to the gym on my own more frequently, but if that doesn’t pan out, I’m going to give myself permission to not beat myself up over it.
    • I have a backlog of books I’ve been meaning to read. Surprise surprise. If I get through some of them, that’s awesome. If I don’t? That’s okay, too. They’ll always be there.

    Luckily, I also have my amazing girlfriend to make sure I’m not spending too much time on volunteering (like atĀ Ragtag, which you should also volunteer for!) or other things resembling work. I’m fortunate to have a partner who’ll help me from overcommitting.

    Why am I writing this? In part, Alex’s post gave me the courage to admit this. It helps to know that I’m not the only person who feels this way about taking a sabbatical. I’m also writing this because my coach is having me readĀ Daring Greatly by BrenĆ© Brown, which is all about embracing vulnerability.

    But also? I’m hoping posting this will help me stay accountable for my sabbatical plans. If I write them down, maybe they’ll be more real.

    This is for sure: if you see me on Slack over the summer, tell me to take a hike!

    Edit: some wise words from my colleague Matt Wiebe:

    The whole point of a sabbatical is to learn to be a human being, not a human doing.

    šŸ˜²

    mel

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  • Customizing the Future

    Customizing the Future

    I had the pleasure of speaking at LoopConf this year about Customization and the future of WordPress. Check it out!

    Some of the resources and examples I mention:

    Plus, this tweet from Carl Hancock:

    https://twitter.com/carlhancock/status/965716924830310400

    Want to learn more about Gutenberg? You can start here.

    mel

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  • FireCast Presents: Paintsville Independent High School, Automattic, and AGI

    Last year, ļ»æAutomattic paired up with Paintsville High School in Kentucky to do a remote graphic design fellowship. FireCast, a traveling video podcast in Eastern Kentucky, recently filmed the students talking about the experience:

    You can learn more about the podcast and about the design fellowship on The Hollerļ»æ.

    I had a lot of fun working with both my artist, Min, and my student, Abby, and it was really great to hear how the program went from the Paintsville students’ perspectives. It sounds like we’ve opened up their minds to the idea of design as a career, and remote work.

    Too often, tech workers are pushed towards big cities in order to grow their careers and support their families. By opening up remote opportunities for work, folks in suburban and rural areas can live the lifestyles they love and still have opportunities to make great careers. This is especially important in areas where jobs are scarce and disappearing, like Appalachia.

    I really hope we get the opportunity to partner with more schools in the future, and to sustain our relationship with Paintsville!

    mel

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  • Frank Chimero: “Everything Easy is Hard Again”

    Every new visual essay by Frank Chimero feels like gift to be cherished. Every single one has been a treasure. “Everything Easy is Hard Again,” Frank’s latest essay, if no exception.

    I’ve written about his essays before; seems only natural for me to continue. Here are some quotes that resonated with me.

    “I believe that the legibility of the source is one of the most important properties of the web.”

    …

    “Twenty years ago, I decided to make my own website, because I saw an example of HTML and I could read it. Many of my design peers are the same. We possess skills to make websites, but we stopped there. We stuck with markup and never progressed into full-on programming, because we were only willing to go as far as things were legible.”

    Like many people, including Frank, I learned how to make websites by viewing the source code of other websites. Almost everything I’ve learned about creating websites came from the past experience and knowledge of those who came before me. If I wasn’t able to read that code, could I learn? Or would I give up?

    https://twitter.com/jennschiffer/status/961707810324205573

    Where would I be today without Inspect Element? As View Source becomes increasingly illegible, Inspect Element cuts through some of the tangles of complexity.

    But as more of our code becomes computer-generated, even that starts to become an endless cascade of the same styles overwriting each other, forcing me to hunt for the one style I’m seeking. The web is becoming so much harder to understand. I really empathize with the wave of “I DON’T GET IT”Ā ā†’ “I GET IT!”Ā ā†’ “I DON’T GET IT.”

    “Letā€™s be more like that tortoise: diligent, direct, and purposeful. The web needs pockets of slowness and thoughtfulness as its reach and power continues to increase. “

    I am a person who struggles with slowing down. I am driven constantly forward. I have to create artificial constraints to slow myself down. One of those constraints is working remotely, where I have a keyboard between my expressive face and the colleagues who would see what I’m thinking, before I have a chance to process. I strive to be diligent, direct, purposeful. It is a constant challenge, one that I often lose.

    But striving to be diligent, direct, and purposeful is important in life. The interactions we have with our fellow humans, the work we do, has an impact on our environment. We do not exist within a bubble. Our words have impact, our actions have impact. It’s important to slow down and reflect on whether or not we’re making the impact we intend.

    As tech workers, we have a responsibility to the people we build for. Our reach and impact are higher now than they’ve ever been; we are an increasingly digital society, one that’s growing and flexing and testing its moral boundaries. Thoughtless work causes real damage.

    I’m a Girl Scout ā€” I want to leave the world better than I found it. I don’t make a lot of websites from scratch anymore, but I’ll continue to keep Frank’s words in mind as I go.

    mel

  • Coaching

    At the urging of some colleagues, I've started working with a professional coach to help me work through some obstacles I encountered in this last year as a WordPress focus lead. I'm fortunate in that Automattic will pay for me to receive ten coaching sessions per year.

    (Since I'm also taking a three month sabbatical this year, it works out pretty well for me to focus the bulk of my coaching sessions on the first half of the year, and then save one or two for reflection.)

    I have a lot of issues with structure. I love it, but I'm terrible at creating it for myself. I thrive on external accountability. As I learned readingĀ Better Than BeforeĀ (which I've yet to finish), I'm anĀ Obliger:

    Obliger's respond readily to outer expectations but struggle to meet inner expectations.

    …

    Obligers may find it difficult to form a habit, because often we undertake habits for our own benefit, and Obligers do things more easily for others than for themselves. For them, the key is external accountability.

    Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin

    Yeahhh, this is 100% me.Ā 

    Coaching, for me, is an attempt at external accountability. I have appointments, so I must keep them. I have homework, which my coach is expecting me to complete, so I have to complete it. I need to improve myself, because Automattic is paying this great coach to guide me through self improvement.Ā 

    For example, as part of my first coaching session, I filled out a "Year in Reflection" and "Self Discovery" form. The year in reflection felt like a natural extension of my previous post, but I found the Self Discovery form quite challenging. My self-reflections are usually unstructured (like my frenetic brain), so slowing down and focusing on specific questions was a nice exercise. For example, it took me a long time to answer question, which I think worth writing down publicly to keep myself accountable:

    Look forward 20 years ā€“ you are attending a function where someone is giving a speech about you. What would you want them to say?

    That Iā€™m resilient and scrappy and get stuff done. That I never compromise my values for results. That I'm welcoming and never chased anyone with good intentions away. That I inspired a new generation of designers to contribute to open source.

    After my first session, where we chatted about the forms I submitted, I was given some homework assignments:

    • Keep reading Taming Your Gremlin by Rick Carson, which I was assigned along with my discovery forms.
    • Clean my desk! I did that over the weekend, and it’s looking pretty nice now. (Maybe I’ll finally get around to putting up art.)
    • As part of my Self Discovery form, I had to write about the qualities I associate with a true leader. I’m now tasked with taking those qualities, turning them into the first-person, and making a poster I can print out (and hang up at my desk!). This is due by the end of today, so I’ll work on it after posting this ?

    As I have more coaching sessions, I'll try to post more updates and insights. Here's to self-improvement in 2018!

    mel

  • 10 New Principles Of Good Design

    Dieter Ramsā€™s design principles get a 21st-century update.Ā Source: 10 New Principles Of Good Design

    Co.Design offers up 10 New Principles of Good Design, updating Dieter Rams’ principles for the modern digital age. Particularly relevant after the events of 2016ā€“17. Give them a read!

    mel