Today while trying to order my lunch at a local fast food vendor, I couldn’t help but squint and take issue with their menu layout. A combination of unbalanced background colors, photography and fonts completely threw me as I was trying to quickly scan my options and make a selection. Anyone who’s been to In-and-Out Burger or Five Guys will appreciate how a simple, easy to read streamlined menu can aid you in your dining selection.

This dining dilemma reminds me of an increasing number of recent conversations with our clients and prospects. We are seeing a growing number of on-domain communities that suffer from lackluster adoption, limited engagement, or even worse, ghost towns with no activity at all.

While there are many factors that play into launching and sustaining a viable and flourishing community, one very important focus should be on the User Experience (UX). In our assessment, part of these failing communities can be attributed to a poor User Experience design. A community is no different than a website with respect to striving for balance in the User Interface (UI). Calls to actions need to be clear, and content, design and functionality should be balanced so as not to overwhelm a user. Consideration around UI elements, including their size, placement and hierarchy is also critical. Structure and depth should be clear, and the user must be able to self-identify where they are and that while interacting and engaging in the community they are deriving value at every step.

When deploying a community social software solution, it is tempting to cut corners to save time and money and meet a deadline through bypassing UX and using a default template with just the standard UI elements. In our experience, this is a mistake, as no two communities and their respective requirements are the same. Often most of the project budget is allocated to software purchase, technical integration and install. In our view, making an investment in a solid content strategy and user experience as well as items like user adoption/activation strategy can go a long way in alleviating the possibility of creating an expensive ghost town community (that does not return on its investment). At 7Summits, we are definitely of the mindset that getting  a concept out into the wild and in front of real users is the best way to test, validate and refine your community. However while you’re evaluating or scoping your community project, consider that allocating part of your time and resources to focus on the user experience first is a sound investment in a viable community.