Thread by @RichMillington

I've been astounded over the past year how few organisations (even the very largest) have done any sort of user testing of their community experience.

My team has spent countless hours watching people browse community sites live. Here's a few handy things we've learned:

#CMGR

1 - Majority of members don't read more than a few words of any homepage. They jump to find a single word or phrase.

2 - Members REALLY struggle to find responses to posts they've made in the past. They forget the category and can't find it. Really frustrating for them.

3 - Members often switch to a different site rather than spending just 5 to 10 seconds trying to get your SSO / two factor auth to work.

4 - Most people make only one search for the answer they want. After that, they ask a question and want an answer.

5 - About 50% of people seem to ask a question in the community and customer support and wait to see who replies first (p.s. this REALLY messes with your call deflection metrics).

6 - Only a tiny percentage of regulars scan the latest discussions.

7 - A LOT of people view discussions if they appear at the top of the page (and there are only 1 to 2).

8 - Average visitor seems to browse a homepage for about 5 to 10 seconds and then click on something (anything!) to feel a sense of momentum. Members HATE feeling stuck.

9 - Members browse top-level navigation first. If nothing resonate they go to search. Navigation options are critical.

10 - Pretty much nobody looks or cares much about leaderboards - even the people on them.

11 - No-one reads the welcome message - unless it shows up as some sort of 'alert'. But alerts are annoying.

12 - Not one person has ever recalled the no. users online or no. posts on the page as something that was on the page after they left.

13 - No-one reads anything that resembles a 'code of conduct'. Although, hilariously, they will read a document titled: "The Five Rules of [community]". Make it sound like Fight Club maybe?

14 - Members LOVE seeing the most popular discussions / articles UNLESS they've seen the list before. In which case they begin ignoring the most popular section. This probably explains why Instagram mixes it up so much.

15 - Members do click on related topics quite a lot - but this only works in very high-volume communities. At low volume, the related topics aren't relatable enough.

16 - If the community seems dead, people are far less likely to ask questions. The 'recent activity' labels seems to be far more important than any static text/copy on the page.

Final thought: Get some usability testing done. You'll be amazed what you discover. If you don't have time or resources, find someone who does. We're happy to help if you like!