Problem Solving Case Study
ASME membership renewing and donations
Redesigning the overall digital experience for the ASME membership renewing process and collecting donations on ASME.org. As part of the ASME Unified Digital Architecture project.
DATE
Sep 2020 - June, 2021
CLIENT
ASME in house
ROLL
UX Program Manger
Background
ASME is a membership organization for Mechanical Engineers from all over the world. Member engineers join ASME, and among other benefits gained, are given a platform to share input and help ASME write the Code & Standards. The ASME Code & Standards are largely constructed by volunteers and members.
For members to continue their membership, members have to renew their membership every year. Indeed, the system is not perfect. However, we sometimes have to walk on eggshells when dealing with some legacy systems. Some of these legacy systems have been around for 15 years, and ASME is constantly working towards updating and upgrading the systems in an effort to make the renewal process more streamlined and seamless for end users.
In this light, ASME sought to eliminate a manual membership renewal process. However, to do so requires updating multiple areas and moving pieces in the membership renewal process.
As a nonprofit organization, ASME collects donations to support itself and its many different projects. A keen challenge arises when it comes to the donation collection process.
Currently, donations are part of the membership renewal process. To renew, a user first needs to add their membership to their cart. Upon doing so, the user is required to login to verify their identity. Once verified, the system checks whether the user is a new member, or if they are simply a renewing member. If the system deems the user as a new member, then they proceed with the typical signup process just like any new member.
However, if the system finds that a user used to be a member (or is currently a member), then instead of proceeding through the normal signup process, the user must click a button that says “Add Information.” The user is unable to continue with the checkout process without clicking the “Add Information” button. Once clicked, this button pop-up shows up, and minimal information is collected since most of the user’s information is already in the system from their initial sign up. Rather, the pop-up merely asks for the updated address and secondary address. But at the bottom of the pop-up is where donations are first introduced.
ASME collects three donations. If a user does not proceed through each step, the renewal is automatically added to their cart in conjunction with their donation. This understandably causes some confusion on the user’s end.
For example, if a user expects to pay only $50.00 for their renewal but is charged $100.00 instead ($50.00 renewal and $50.00 automatic donation addition), then the customer is taken aback and inevitably calls customer care in an effort to secure a refund on a donation. This is very problematic when a nonprofit counts on donations as a means of supporting its continued success. From an organizational standpoint, it almost feels as though we are pushing donations down our members throats instead of requesting that the member make a voluntary donation.
The second challenge we face when it comes to donations is that ASME only accepts donations from its members. This means that a large part of the donations come around the same time that memberships are renewed. At this time, we are exploring different avenues to expand our network of acceptable donors and hope to continue to grow with our donations.
The Challenge
the solution
The solution that I came up with is to separate the two products: membership renewal and donations. Rather than grouping the two together, the member will now see two items in their cart when they try to renew; not just one!
The first product, of course, would be the membership information. Here, they wouldn’t even have to click and update their information anymore unless they chose to. Otherwise, the system would default to the information stored from the initial signup process.
The second product that the user will see in their cart is the donation. This allows the user to customize their donation, or merely edit their cart in a way that is more convenient and less likely to cause confusion.
It was very challenging for me to convince ASME’s leadership to proceed in making the two products separate. But once we explained the costs and benefits of separation to leadership, it made sense and everyone was able to pivot and push for the new system.
This project enabled me to challenge the existing legacy systems in a way that not only incorporated their core goals, but also enhanced their future outlook. Now, instead of our members getting confused by the renewal process, the process is very direct and straightforward with limited room for confusion. Additionally, the auto renewal process is much more streamlined, allowing users to bypass the need for entering already existing information into the system. Finally, we can expand the donation to other product lines, and we no longer have to rely exclusively on members; rather we can even create stand-alone, donation campaigns and target more than just our members.
