Improved Petition Searches
Supporters can’t take action if they can’t find the campaign they’re looking for. To improve the experience, we’ve rolled out various updates to petition searches – making it easier for supporters to connect with the campaigns that matter most to them.
Better search results
Better search means not only showing users petitions that match their keywords, but also accounting for the most active campaigns. To ensure that we’re showing users the most currently relevant campaigns, we’ve released a new activity score metric. The activity score uses things like: how many signatures the petition has received in the last day, how recently the petition was updated, when the last blast email was sent to supporters, etc.
The new score means that people will automatically see current campaigns that are actively engaging supporters higher in their search results, rather than having to work through results that may be older and less relevant.
Redesigned search page
We’ve also refreshed and redesigned the search results page. The new page has a more modern UI and includes a new category filter along with prompts for users to take additional action.
Updated petition search results page
Whale tale by Abigail Lynn on Unsplash
Ocean photo “Meereswellen unter blauem Himmel” by Aaron Huber on Unsplash
We’ve added category information to the updated petition cards to make it easier for users to find the campaigns they’re looking for. The most active petitions will be tagged with a trending badge to highlight them further.
We’ll also be adding highlighting to matching text so that the user knows exactly why a petition is included in the search results.
These improvements are designed to make the search process more effective, ensuring that your supporters can easily find the campaigns they’re searching for.
Local campaigns now on the local organizing map
Location can be an important part of how people decide to get involved. Someone looking for a local issue or an opportunity to make a difference in their community needs a way to discover campaigns connected to the places that matter to them.
We’ve expanded the local organizing map to include petitions, allowing users to see all of their local petitions, events, and groups in one place. Petitions will be added to the map if they have a specific location, have been moderated to good or above, and either have an activity score (calculated based on recent actions, like how recently the petition was updated, when the last blast email was sent to supporters, etc.) or have been promoted by admins. The activity score decays over time, so outdated, inactive campaigns will be automatically removed from the map.
By adding petitions to the local organizing map, organizations will also have access to the various filters already available on that page (including filtering content by labels and regions). Organizations will also be able to embed maps with petitions on external sites.
The local map, now with petitions!
By adding petitions to the local organizing map, we’re providing another way for supporters to see the work your organization is doing and how it serves their local community.
Helping more people take action
We’re excited to announce these updates to searching on ControlShift. By making it easier to find campaigns, we’re making it easier for supporters to get involved in your important work.