5 Uncomfortable Truths About Website Design That Are Costing Your Organisation Members

There are just some facts in life that are really uncomfortable to live with. Like chainsaws were originally invented to help with childbirth, or no animals are really herbivores; deer, horses, and rabbits will happily eat meat if they get the chance, especially if they are short on certain vitamins and minerals. Or pretty much every fact relating to prions.

 

Yes, that’s a deer eating a snake. 

However, not all uncomfortable truths are found in the natural world. Some of the most uncomfortable facts hit much closer to home; specifically, right on your organisation's homepage.

Just as we try not to think about deer happily munching away on squirrels (a real documented thing), many committees actively avoid thinking about the state of their website design. It is much easier to tell yourself that, because the history is perfectly documented and the "About Us" text is accurate, potential members will gladly take the time to read it.

However, people have almost no attention span. According to the latest research, people only pay attention to screens for an average of 40 seconds at a time. A visitor to your website simply doesn't have the patience to dig through a confusing, outdated site. Website design isn't just about making things look pretty; it is the single biggest deciding factor in whether a casual visitor actually clicks Join Now or closes the tab forever. 

So, brace yourself. Here are five deeply uncomfortable truths about website design and user experience that are quietly costing your organisation members, and why you can't afford to ignore them anymore.

Quick Summary

• Attention spans are short: Users spend less than 60 seconds on a website and only read about 20% of the text. You must keep your content highly scannable.
• Speed and design equal trust: If your site takes more than three seconds to load or looks outdated, 75% of users will immediately judge your organisation as untrustworthy.
• You need a clear next step: 70% of websites fail to include a clear Call To Action. Always tell visitors exactly what to do next with a prominent "Join" button.

1. On Average People Spend Less Than One Minute On A Website

One minute is not a lot of time; you couldn’t make a coffee in one minute, and you probably couldn’t read to this point in the article in less than a minute (assuming you went and googled horses eating meat). Yet, the average time people spend on a website is less than one minute. 

 

That is not a lot of time to communicate your message to them. Your core message, who you are, what you do, and why they should care, needs to hit them the second the page loads. Your value proposition and the answers to their biggest questions must be immediately obvious and formatted perfectly for someone who is just rapidly scanning the screen. That information cannot be hidden inside paragraphs of text. 

Your website needs to have:

• Bold, descriptive headings: If a visitor reads only your main headings and subheadings, they should still understand exactly what your organisation does.
• Strong imagery: A high-quality photo of your members in action communicates your organisation’s vibe instantly, saving you from having to explain it in a giant wall of text.
• A quick FAQ section: Tackle the most common questions (like "How much does it cost?" and "Who can join?") right on the homepage in an easy-to-scan FAQ format. It gives them the answers they need instantly, without them having to click around and hunt for a specific membership page.

If the average person spends only 50 seconds on your club or association’s website, make sure you show them what they need to see in that time. As an added bonus, keeping your site easily scannable isn't just for humans anymore. It is exactly what AI search tools look for when scanning your website to decide whether or not to recommend your organisation to people searching online.

2. 40% Of People Will Leave A Website That Takes More Than Three Seconds To Load

If a website takes more than three seconds to load, nearly half of people will click off it. People simply do not have the patience to wait around for sites to load. So, in order to ensure that people actually see your website and hear your pitch on why they should join your organisation, you need to make sure your website doesn’t keep them waiting. 

 

The main causes of slow loading times are poorly managed web hosting providers, bulky widgets, an outdated web platform, and, most commonly, large media files such as images and auto-playing videos. Pictures and images take up a huge amount of space, and can really slow down your website’s loading speed. Having nice-looking high-resolution images is a great marketing tool, but they need to be a small file size. 

To speed things up and keep that 40% from bouncing, you need to:

• Compress your images and use JPEGs: Always resize and compress your photos before uploading them to your site. Plus, make sure they are saved as JPEG files. PNG files are great for transparent logos, but for standard photos, they are unnecessarily large and will slow your site down.
• Link to videos, don't upload them: Never upload a raw video file directly to your website. Instead, upload your video to a platform like YouTube or Vimeo, and then embed or link it on your page. Let their massive servers do the heavy lifting so yours doesn't have to.
• Ditch the clutter: Remove unnecessary widgets, pop-ups, and auto-playing videos that bog down the page.
• Break up heavy pages: Instead of having one massive, never-ending homepage or an About Us page packed with years of history and hundreds of photos, split that heavy content into separate, smaller pages, like a dedicated Photo Gallery or Club History page. This means a visitor's browser only has to load exactly what they actually want to see, significantly speeding up initial load time.

Not only will faster load times keep people around for longer, but they will also increase the chance of search engines like Google recommending your website in searches.

3. 75% Of Users Judge A Company’s Credibility Based On Their Websites Design

I know we say, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but we all do it. In fact, here are three books whose covers you can absolutely judge, as they are baffling departures from what the book is actually about.

 

 

We have The Shining looking like an 80s hairdressing magazine; Little Women, but make it Maoist, I guess; and a copy of the classic 1898 horror novella The Turn of the Screw, where they have taken the title way too literally and appear to have made the cover someone actually turning a screw. But of course, that’s not a screw, it’s a nut. I’ll tell you this much, the ones on the cover are not the only giant spanners involved in the making of this.

Anyway, my point is that we do all judge things by how they look. This holds true for websites. 75% of people say they judge a company's or organisation's credibility entirely by how its website looks.

The logic being that if you can’t bother making your digital storefront look presentable, why should they trust you with their membership fees, their personal data, or their free time?

If a potential member lands on a website that looks like a cluttered, broken mess from 2004, they instantly assume the club itself is disorganised, inactive, or completely out of touch. To boost your credibility and prove that your committee actually has its act together, focus on these quick design rules:

• Consistent Branding: Ensure your logo is crisp and stick to a consistent colour palette. Using five different neon colours and clashing fonts instantly makes a website look like a ransom note.
• Embrace Whitespace: You do not need to fill every single inch of your screen with text or photos. Leaving empty space (whitespace) around your headings and paragraphs makes your site look clean, modern, and trustworthy.
• Hide the Ancient History: Nothing kills credibility faster than a homepage promoting an "Upcoming 2019 AGM." Archive old events and news articles to keep your club looking active and alive.

For a much deeper dive into ensuring your website looks good and active, have a look at Why Your Club Needs A Well-Designed Club Website.

4. The Average Reader Only Reads 20% Of Webpage Content

I often think about how the average user reads only about 20% of what’s on a page. I like to picture someone opening one of my articles, scanning it quickly for whatever they are looking for, and then pausing, totally baffled because they have just skimmed past a photo of a deer eating a snake or a copy of Little (Maoist) Women.

What this means for you is that when someone clicks on a page, they won’t be reading all of your content; they will be quickly scanning through, hunting for a particular piece of information. If they click on your "About Us" page, they aren’t going to be looking into everyone’s detailed history. They are much more likely just checking to see who is on the committee and figuring out what sort of vibe your organisation gives off.

To make sure people actually absorb the 20% they are reading:

• Embrace Bullet Points: Just like this list, bullet points naturally draw the eye and make information incredibly easy to digest quickly.
• Highlight Key Terms: If there is a crucial piece of information (like a date, price, or age limit), make it bold so it jumps out to anyone who is rapidly scrolling down the page.
• Keep Pages Short and Focused: Instead of cramming your club's history, membership rules, and event schedule onto a single endlessly scrolling page, break them into smaller, dedicated pages. It makes finding specific information much easier for someone who is rapidly scanning.

It is important to note that this doesn't mean your longer, more detailed content is useless. People will read all of your content later. But on that crucial first viewing, they are purely scanning and skipping through to see if your organisation is the right fit. Once you pass that initial vibe check and they decide they are genuinely interested, that is when they will settle in with a cup of coffee to read the president's welcome letter or the club's detailed 40-year history. You just have to win the scan first.

5. 70% Of Small Business Websites Don't Have A Clear Call To Action

A call to action is really important. This article will end with a call to action; pretty much every page of the Member Jungle website will end with a CTA, as the business people call them. 

Getting someone to your site in the first place isn’t easy. You need Google to actually display you in its search results. You need AI to tell people you are a good choice. You need people to scroll past the AI summaries, ignore the sponsored results, and finally click on your specific link. After a potential member runs that entire digital gauntlet just to land on your homepage, the absolute worst thing you can do is just leave them without giving them a clear next step.

Yet, a staggering 70% of small businesses and organisations' websites lack a clear Call To Action. They do all the hard work to get visitors through the door, and then they never actually ask them to join.

If your "Join Our Club" link is just tiny, plain text buried at the very bottom of your "About Us" page, you are making people work far too hard to give you their time and money. If a potential member has to play detective just to figure out how to sign up, they are going to assume that actually being a member of the club is just as exhausting.

Also, it doesn’t just need to be a "Join Here" CTA. If you have events that non-members can join, show them that and try to get them to come along to one. If your events aren’t public, show them a video or an article highlighting all the great stuff you do in your organisation. You’ve caught their attention; now you need to do something with it. 

To fix this and start converting those hard-won visitors:

• Make it a Button, Not a Link: Plain text links get lost in the shuffle. Your primary Call to Action should be a brightly coloured button that stands out from the rest of the page.
• The Top Right Corner: People are subconsciously trained to look in the top right corner of a website to log in or sign up. Put a big, bright, unmissable "Join Now" button exactly there.
• Give Every Page a Purpose: Don't just put your CTA on the homepage. If they are reading a news article, put a "Watch Our Video" button at the bottom. If they are on the events page, put a "Buy Tickets" button. Always give them a clear, actionable next step.

And now, to the conclusion and call to action of this article. 

The Key Takeaways

• Format for Scanners: Use short paragraphs, bold text, and bullet points to cater to human readers and AI search bots.
• Speed it Up: Compress all media to ensure your site loads in under three seconds.
• Don't Hide the Sign-Up: Always include a bright, unmissable "Join Now" button in the top right corner of your website.

The Call To Action For This Article

At the end of a piece of content, a good Call To Action should say something like: I hope this was useful and that you’ve learned something valuable about running a successful website. I also hope that these uncomfortable facts were more helpful than they were uncomfortable. Or, at the very least, less uncomfortable than this picture of a giraffe eating from a buffalo carcass.

 

The world’s weird, man. 

Then, your CTA should end with the actual action. So, first, I am going to give you one link that is basically just more information about a similar topic. It’s not trying to sell anything or promote anything; it’s just useful facts. So read Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO): How AI is Changing Search, for more information on how you can adapt your website to still get clicks in the age of robots. 

Then I’ll end with a slightly more targeted CTA, which, while still full of useful information, will also make the point that this is all something Member Jungle can help with. So read 3 Simple Ways To Improve Your Club's Website, for that.