Good member user experience (UX) comes before automation – and before AI

Member first mentality – always!

With so much focus on the value of automating systems and using AI to personalise communication and save time, it’s easy to forget about user experience (UX). But ignore it at your peril.

You can create the shiniest of digital platforms, but if this makes your members’ experience harder, they’ll stop looking for what they want and lose trust in your services. Every automation and feature you build must work for them, too. 

Why organisations can forget member experience

Most digital projects start from the inside out. That’s to say, the team considers systems, structures, integrations, and data models first. But your members think differently. They focus on the experience your system will deliver: “Can I log in quickly?” “Can I find what I need easily?” “Is this giving me what I need?”

Even the smartest system risks failure when it overlooks delivering UX members want. When your website or portal is confusing, slow, or stressful to use, members simply want to find (or do) what they came for without friction or cumbersome processes.

So, by making UX smooth and easy, you help members trust your brand while minimising your support costs. It seems like an obvious choice many organisations miss.

The impact of shoddy UX

Poor UX doesn’t just affect how members feel – it hampers your organisation’s performance. When you automate a messy UX, you amplify existing problems. Members find processes confusing and inflexible, prompting a rise in support calls.

There are further potential cost implications, too. Should engagement fall as members choose to log out and leave it, you’ll collect less data. That, in turn, will mean weaker insight on what matters to your members. The outcome could be that you develop the wrong “improvements” over time, further entrenching a below-par UX.

Before you know it, a damaging loop has developed. Not due to the technology, but because of the poor experience around it. Those membership organisations that have tried to automate before simplifying, or personalise before understanding behaviour, will know what we mean.

Poor UX in practice

Let’s consider what automating without first considering UX might look like in a membership organisation.

Picture the situation: an organisation decides to automate as much as they can in the portal to develop operational efficiencies and save admin time. They “hope” it’ll also make processes faster and easier for members. But they haven’t understood the full UX journey first.

•    They automate updating details
•    They automate event sign-up
•    They automate communication preferences

The problems soon become evident. When someone wants to simply update their email address, they must still wade through pages of screens showing their full details. If a member wants to book a colleague onto an event, the system cannot help them. And when it comes to communication preferences, members are confused by what each preference will give them because the language is unclear.

The outcome? Frustrated members who lose trust while your support team tackles extra work – defeating the original goal of saving time.

Trust first. Automation second.

The answer to this problem is a distinct shift in mindset. Organisations that get it right have changed their order of operations: they build for trust first and AI second.

That means they simplify systems and understand user behaviour before automating a thing. They know what members want to achieve and how to get them there quickly – understanding the UX first, then using automation and AI to deliver and enhance it. In this way, every clear label, logical form, and intuitive journey is a meaningful data point. A sign that your member understands and feels understood.

It’s also the kind of data that AI can learn from, before guiding you on improvements that’ll make a difference to both your members and your operational efficiency.

When UX and data work together, your website becomes the front door to every future improvement. It’s that simple.

Good UX first in practice

Reflecting on membership projects our customers have deployed, we’ve seen many successful examples of “UX first” in practice. The difference is like night and day.

• They design navigation around members’ language, not their internal structure
  This allows members to feel the automation has been developed specifically for them. They understand what to do and trust the process.

• They use personalisation as a guide, not a gimmick

  Members receive genuinely helpful personalised content that accurately reflects their needs.
  
  

• They treat accessibility as part of UX, not an afterthought

  The portal or website is designed to be used by people with different abilities, technologies, and access needs. This ensures all members can complete key tasks confidently and easily.
  
  

• They connect website analytics, CRM data, and content tagging to learn what really resonates

  Meaningful data shows the real picture, enabling more accurate decisions about improvements. When CRM and content management systems work together seamlessly, this kind of insight becomes possible, and then UX can only get better.

Good UX requires empathy, evidence, and collaboration. It also requires the right foundation of an integrated CRM and portal solution that works in harmony, not in silos. By adopting this approach from the outset, before you decide what to automate and how, you build systems that deliver more for everyone. 

Before you plan your next automation…

Before you plan your next “smart” feature, ask yourself: 
“Would I enjoy using this as a member?”

If you’re not sure, or if your answer is no, go back to your UX.
Until you can confidently answer “yes”, you’re not ready for automation and AI.

Getting the order right - UX before automation, before AI – and you’ll build systems that deliver lasting value for both your members and your organisation.

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