Have you ever visited your association’s website and struggled to find what you were looking for? Or worse, have you received feedback from your members about confusing navigation or poor user experience?

If so, you’re not alone. Many associations face similar challenges. But there’s a solution: user research and usability testing.

These methodologies can transform your digital presence, making it more intuitive and user-friendly—all of which improves member value and helps you achieve your strategic goals.\

What Is User Research?

User research can help you understand your audiences’ behaviors, needs, and motivations as they relate to your organization, which can enable you to tailor all your communications and offerings to meet their needs. User research can also help you understand audiences’ behaviors and any points of friction when they use your digital products. By employing observation techniques, task analysis, and various feedback methodologies, you can ensure that your website and other digital products meet the needs of your users.

There is a growing interest in user research and usability testing in the association space, driven by the need to create seamless and intuitive experiences like consumers have come to expect from commercial websites and apps.

Types of User Research

Employing various user research methods can significantly enhance the user experience on your association’s website. Here are the two main types of research.

Qualitative research focuses on gathering subjective feedback through such methods as interviews, usability testing, and focus groups. It provides deep insights into user behaviors, motivations, conceptions (and misconceptions), and pain points.

• Usability testing involves observing users as they interact with your website or other digital product to identify areas of confusion or difficulty and features that are easy to use.
• Contextual interviews are structured interviews conducted in the user’s environment—digital or physical—to gather rich, contextual insights.
• Ethnographic studies involve observing users in their natural environment to understand how they interact with your product.

Quantitative research involves collecting numeric data to identify trends and measure user behaviors. This type of research is often conducted through surveys and analytics tools.

• Surveys are useful when you want to compare responses across individuals and groups and when you want to gather data from a large audience.
• Card sorting helps you understand how users organize and categorize information, which can inform your site’s information architecture or navigation scheme.
• Tree testing evaluates the findability of items in your website’s navigation structure.

Examples of User Research Enhancing Member Experience

Implementing user research findings can lead to substantial improvements in your digital products’ usability, which will directly benefit your members and your brand. Here are some of our success stories from associations that have utilized user research effectively.

1. Rhoni Rakos: Clear and intuitive navigation is critical for user satisfaction. My client wanted to use abstract names for their website’s primary navigation, such as “unity” and “cohesion,” against my recommendations. I was concerned that users would not know where to look for the valuable information within each item without clear nomenclature—familiarity breeds usability.

Rather than debate, we ran a tree test, which revealed that users struggled to find what they were looking for in navigation items with those names. The test failed on the first click of every task. Given this evidence, the client reverted to more conventional labels that would help site users find content easily.

2. Jacqui Olkin: I worked on a website redesign for an association for professionals in departments of motor vehicles and traffic law enforcement. Before the redesign, this association’s primary website navigation included subject matter categories and the departments within the association. In my experience, people outside the association don’t know about your departments and don't care who produces what content. They just want to find the information they need quickly and easily.

User research indicated that the association’s audiences thought about information in the context of why they needed it—for example, if they were working on driver licensing, they would want to find information in a category called “drivers”; and if they were working on vehicle registration, they would look for a category called “vehicles.” The website’s navigation was redesigned to reflect these preferences.

Primary navigation on the new site is organized in role- or task-based categories that make sense to users—drivers, vehicles, law enforcement, etc. Supplemental navigation includes overarching categories such as events and publications. This approach makes it easy to browse content, however you choose to look for it. The resulting site has won multiple awards for the association.

3. Ray van Hilst: Sometimes, even with all the work you have put into the design, you just want to make doubly sure that the layout and design are going to work as expected before you commit to development and building out the whole site or layout.

This is a great use of a click test, in which you present a design concept and ask users to click on an element which they think would lead them to completing a task. This methodology helps improve design concepts by identifying navigation issues early and ensuring users can efficiently find what they need.

One of my clients had some board members raise last-minute concerns that the design concepts wouldn’t drive users to the key areas of the site and were asking for some substantial design changes. We convinced them to test it first.

By defining a task-based click test, we can test the design concepts and ask people where they would click in the homepage design to find key association content. Each of our tasks came back with a more than 90-percent success rate. We used the qualitative data to back up our strategic direction and secure design approval before development, which prevented last-minute change requests before launch.

Getting Started With User Research

Starting user research can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some steps to help you begin.

Define your objectives. Identify what you need to know about your users and how this information will help achieve your goals.

Choose the right method. Select the research method that best fits your objectives. For example, use usability testing to identify interface issues, surveys to gather broad feedback, and strategic research to inform organizational direction.

Start small. Conducting a few usability tests or a simple tree test can yield valuable insights without requiring a large investment of time or money.

Build rapport. When conducting qualitative research, make participants feel comfortable and valued.

Iterate and improve. Use the insights gained from your research to make informed changes to your website and other digital properties. Conduct research regularly and refine your digital offerings to ensure they remain user-friendly and relevant to the intended audiences.

Practical Tips for Conducting User Research

Here are some additional tips to consider when getting started with your first user research study:

Involve stakeholders. Engage key stakeholders early in the research process to ensure alignment and buy-in. It can also help soften the blow of any disappointing discoveries (such as a big usability problem).

Leverage online tools. Tools like Optimal Workshop, which offers card sorting, tree testing, and other research tools, can simplify the research process and help you communicate findings.

Measure twice; cut once. Conduct research before making major changes to avoid costly mistakes and ensure your site meets user needs.

Share the findings. Make sure to share your research findings with the whole organization. Research is most valuable when everyone knows about it and can act on it.

Conclusion

Usability testing and other user research methods are essential for creating intuitive digital experiences for your association’s members and customers. Understanding your audiences and continuously refining your products’ user experience will help foster engagement and satisfaction, increase customer and member value, and achieve your strategic goals.