Membership Team update - results of recent survey and key insights

Dear colleagues,

Further to the Membership Team's previous communication on this issue 
[1], we are now pleased to provide results of the Membership Team 
Website Survey. The survey provides actionable insights that will help 
guide and shape where we take the Linux Australia website and membership 
platform.

Again, we'd like to underscore our appreciation for your time in 
completing the survey - it is appreciated.

---

The Membership Team Website Survey 2016 opened on 27th March and was 
available until 22nd April. There were 55 responses.

The overall data are presented in this Gist;
https://gist.github.com/luke-john/41210193b20fd852f998ba52d7fae804

The survey was primarily promoted to Linux Australia members and Linux 
User Group (LUG) members, and this is reflected in the survey responses.

From the survey, it's very clear the most Linux Australia members who 
visit the website do so very infrequently. This is likely due to the 
site not featuring content that members want prominently, such as 
upcoming events. A key goal of the Membership Platform and website 
redevelopment project is to provide content that members are looking 
for, thus increasing the frequency at which Linux Australia members view 
the site.

RECOMMENDATION: That content desired by LA and LUG members (as indicated 
by this survey) is prioritised on the new site.

The survey indicated that respondents overwhelmingly view the site from 
their desktop device. This is likely to be caused by both 'push' and 
'pull' factors. The current Linux Australia site is not responsively 
designed, meaning that it doesn't render well on mobile devices. This is 
no fault of the original designers; responsive design as a practice has 
only emerged over the last 3-4 years, long after the current Linux 
Australia site was developed. Moreover, the context in which users view 
the Linux Australia site may mean that it's more likely to be viewed 
from a desktop device.

The survey also indicated that a large cohort of users wanted to view 
the site on their mobile device, however did not want to use a separate 
application to interact with Linux Australia content.

RECOMMENDATION: That the new Membership Platform and website use 
responsive design [2], which works well on desktop resolutions but which 
is also easily viewable on mobile devices.
RECOMMENDATION: That having a separate Linux Australia mobile app is 
ruled as out of scope.

The task assessment in the survey indicated that the most key needs for 
information were around upcoming opensource events, information and news 
from around the Linux Australia community, information on Linux User 
Groups, and updates from Linux Australia Council, projects and jobs 
information.
RECOMMENDATION: These content types should be prioritised in the design 
of the new website, and displayed prominently.

Qualitative feedback on the survey indicated a number of positive 
aspects of the current site which should be replicated in the new 
websites, including the fast load time, the 'clean' layout of the site, 
the common login with the current membership system, and having upcoming 
events on the front page.

RECOMMENDATION: That these features and benefits are replicated in the 
new site build.

Qualitative feedback also indicated a number of areas which could be 
improved, including the type and currency of available content, poor 
navigation and content findability, lack of responsive design, lack of 
social media integration and the jarring experience in moving between 
MemberDB and the LA website.

RECOMMENDATION: That these shortcomings are addressed in the new site 
build.

What are our next steps?

The Membership Team's next steps are likely to be;

- moving to identify and evaluate candidate platforms for the new 
Membership site and LA website
- in parallel, starting to build wireframes of the new design which can 
then be iterated based on user feedback
- in parallel, starting to build out a new information architecture and 
concomitant content, ready for insertion into a new platform.

As always, we welcome your feedback, comments and questions, and warmly 
welcome contributions from any one who may be willing and capable to 
assist with the above.
//
/[/<https://lamembership.slack.com/archives/general/p1460864455000008>

Kathy Reid, Sae Ra Germaine, Cameron Tudball, Luke John, Joel Addison, 
Michael Cordover, Neill Cox
The Membership Team

[1] http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/2016-March/022627.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design

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