Comments on: Don't Expect EVERYTHING from Your Database

By: Jacqui Olkin

Jacqui Olkin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:40:30 +0000

Is there room on that soapbox for me? That’s a great blog post. Only essential info should be gathered in the critical path of a transaction. Never get in the way of people wanting to spend money with your association. : )

By: Wes Trochlil

Wes Trochlil — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:21:09 +0000

You’re right. And I’ve been on a soapbox for some time that associations need to think more about getting the sale first and the “extraneous” data later. See here: http://effectivedatabase.com/2008/07/24/collect-as-little-data-as-possible-when-selling/

By: Jacqui Olkin

Jacqui Olkin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:05:27 +0000

Understood and agreed, Wes. I worked in associations for many years and understand both the fundamental business processes, and also how some orgs fall into the trap of “this is how we’ve always done it.” However, complex business rules are no excuse for poor user experience. So, here’s a message to the associations and AMS vendors: When information needs to be gathered (and can’t be prepopulated from an existing record), gather it, but keep transactions as simple as possible, learn from the process flows of successful sites (e.g., Amazon, PayPal), and let people see where they are in a process. They will be more likely to complete the transaction online.

By: Wes Trochlil

Wes Trochlil — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:10:06 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Jacqui, and you’re right, clients do need to push harder. But a minor defense of the AMS vendors: Very often the business rules that associations have make it difficult to mimic “typical” e-commerce sites. For example, Amazon only needs to know who I am how I’m going to pay in order to take my order. But for an event registration, the system may also need to know if I’m a member or not, which sessions I’m attending, am I bringing a guest, and on and on and on.

That doesn’t mean the vendors can’t improve (they can), but again, we need to be realistic about what’s possible.

By: Jacqui Olkin

Jacqui Olkin — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:00:36 +0000

Good point, Wes. On the other hand, I wish associations were MORE demanding of AMS vendors when it comes to usability. My recent work includes usability reviews and tests of basic ecommerce functions in some very popular AMSs, and it is surprising how needlessly complex and unlike good consumer sites association ecommerce can be. If associations demanded easier joining, renewing, event registration, and purchasing functions out of the box, the whole association community–including the AMS vendors–would benefit.