If you think UX is just a technologists’ problem, think again.

A professional acquaintance recently lamented on LinkedIn about the terrible difficulties she had trying to join two different associations online. In one of them, she found a workaround and was able to join. The other experience was so bad, she gave up before she could finish.

How many times have you frustrated your members with a poor user experience? Probably more often than you know.

For at least the last decade, members’ experiences with their associations have been primarily digital. If your digital experience is poor, chances are, your member experience is terrible too.

It’s a marketing problem if:

• Your website needs more than one screen to register to attend a conference or webinar

• Your website needs more than two screens to complete a member application

• Your members say they can’t find stuff on your website

• You don’t have a call to action on any emails you send to members - ANY call to action

The symptoms include: Member frustration. Abandoned shopping carts. Multiple accounts for the same member. Mediocre business results. Declining renewal rates.

The root cause? A failure to understand what your members want and need.

As marketers and communicators, we’re in a great position to drive this conversation inside our organizations. We know what floats our members’ boat. We have the data which tells us what our members do on our site. We also know their stories, aspirations, goals and dreams. Who else can better synthesize these into a seamless, universal member experience? Nobody.

Not only that, leaders in marketing and membership are held accountable for the results of the marketing spend. So as leaders in marketing and communications we have a vested interest in getting this right.

Creating a good online member experience is not brain surgery

The science of user experience is deep and solid (thank you, Jakob Nielsen). What may be more difficult is mustering the commitment of time and (not that much) money to get it done right the first time.

And please, PLEASE, don’t rely on your staff, board or key volunteers to evaluate your site. They know too much about your organization to be reliable test subjects. You could almost put stick figures on your home page and they’ll follow along (well, not really, but you understand my point). By all means, take their feedback. They want to be heard, and a lot of their comments will be useful.

But you must reach outside these internal groups and talk to a valid cross section of your membership. This vast middle cohort comprises at least 50 percent of your membership. They visit your site only a handful of times throughout the year. They can’t be bothered to figure out your funky UX. They expect every site to have a frictionless Amazon-likeexperience. These members are the most vulnerable for renewal lapse. Organizations risk losing them when their digital experience crashes and burns. Take care of them, and others will follow. Don’t worry about your board members and VIPs; they’ll be fine, especially if you ask for their feedback. The site must support the engagement needs of your core members.

How much will good UX cost?

Not as much as you may think. I did an in-depth UX project for an association more than 10 years ago, and their site is still organized the way we set it up, way back then. They haven’t seen a need to change it. If that sounds improbable, remember that the profile of an organization’s membership typically doesn’t change very much over ten years’ time. The UX project was the best investment of time and money I ever made as a communications leader. And the site continues to serve the members well.

I guarantee that if you put in the work early, you’ll thank yourself for years to come.

Want to speak about what great UX might look like at your organization? Please contact me to schedule a call at ffortin@highrockstrategies.com