What’s in an online community? It’s more than you think. From sharing knowledge to organizing events, “lurking” to influencing, everyone wants to be heard online — and no one wants to be left behind. But somewhere between online communities and social networks, there’s always been a grey area that plagues UX designers. A misunderstanding of a community's united purpose, shared goals, and methods of sharing information can set the stage for communication nightmares, or even worse, abandonment. In this case study turned case story, we’ll analyze one of the country's largest volunteer groups to understand the unique UX challenges, risks, and opportunities to building active online communities that thrive, rather than fizzle out. In this talk, Jenny will be discussing: • How online communities can leverage natural behaviors, motivations, and sharing habits to form knowledgable networks • Methods for story-mining information from stakeholders and users that enlightens the design process • Belonging, and the psychology of building online community engagement • Why it’s important to start simple and introduce advanced features slowly, and how iteration influences longterm business strategies

1. ALL TOGETHER NOW:
HOW UX FUELS & ENGAGES
ONLINE COMMUNITIES

5. 2012

8. The Organization

9. 3,000+
events annually

10. Facebook
.org
Email
.org
.org

12. Community

13. Shared purpose

14. Shared interest

15. Shared values

17. Belonging

18. People

19. Social
Technographics
Ladder

20. Creators
Critics
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactives

21. Creators
Critics
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactives

22. Stakeholders

23. Facebook?

24. K.I.S.S.

25. Research

26. Why do you
participate?

27. “I want the disease erased from
the dictionary of life and it be
replaced with the joy, love and
laughter of families sharing long
lives and loving memories.”

28. Who do you
communicate
with? How?

29. What are you
communicating?

31. Design

33. Everything Else
Creators Critics
Spectators
Mine
Collectors

34. 3Secondary Navigation - Proposed (Logged In) 4of
My Account Settings
Edit My Profile
My Profile
All Discussions
My Discussions
Fundraising Resources
My Resources
My Inbox
RESOURCE LIBRARY GROUPSDISCUSSIONSDASHBOARD MEMBERS
All Groups
My Groups
All Members
My Friends
My Friends
Invite
My Content
All Resources
Photo Gallery
Video Gallery

35. 3Secondary Navigation - Proposed (Logged In) 4of
My Account Settings
Edit My Profile
My Profile
All Discussions
My Discussions
Fundraising Resources
My Resources
My Inbox
RESOURCE LIBRARY GROUPSDISCUSSIONSDASHBOARD MEMBERS
All Groups
My Groups
All Members
My Friends
My Friends
Invite
My Content
All Resources
Photo Gallery
Video Gallery

39. Illustration by Hana Jang

40. 10,000
members

41. 20,000
members

42. “[The developer] tells us that
it’s one of the fastest
growing communities out of
the gate that they’ve seen.”

43. “We’re following through on
our commitment to start
simple and slowly add features
as people get comfortable with
the site.”

44. Thank You

45. @SunSilvestri
jenny@fieldux.com