A growing problem for those managing hosted enterprise communities is the ‘eugh!’ factor.
Put simply, this is the revulsion the audience feels when they first land on the site.
Instead of navigating a clean, simple, and engaging experience matching the platforms they’re familiar with and modern best practices, they’re taken back to a cluttered, confused, and overwhelming experience.
It’s a little like visiting a hotel whose decor hasn’t been updated since the 70s. It’s still usable, but the vibe matters. It doesn’t create a place where you want to spend your time.
And if we don’t start placing greater emphasis on the vibe our sites create, we’ll find ourselves managing relics vs. thriving hubs of activity.
Community Platforms Face The Innovator’s Dilemma
The root cause of this problem is pretty simple. Most of the most popular community platforms were launched in the 00s. Back then, the internet was almost entirely text, so communities featured endless rows of discussions listed by the most recent.
The mindset back then was:
“Here’s all the information in one place – I hope you can figure it out!”
Videos, graphics, and audio weren’t something considered. Neither was the idea that people would want to be shown the most important/popular activity instead of just the latest activity.
And this hasn’t changed today.
Almost none of the major engagement trends, below, over the past decade have been incorporated into most of the major community enterprise platforms.
And that’s mainly because customers aren’t demanding it. Everyone is focused on their current experience vs. seeing where trends are heading.
The major vendors thus face a classic Innovator’s Dilemma – protecting and responding to the needs of their shrinking customer base vs. adapting and evolving to the new era.
This ‘head in the sand’ strategy stops us from seeing what’s coming over the horizon. And it’s the primary reason almost all the major platform vendors have struggled or been acquired over the years.
The market stopped growing…but we’re engaging with each other more than ever.
That suggests a growing mismatch between what we’re offering and what audiences want.
Why Does It Matter If We Offer a ‘Throwback Experience’?
The moment we switch from most of the major social apps to the community experiences we use all day, we enter a throwback experience.
Moving from Spotify back to a file-sharing forum to find music – same goal, totally different era.
And this results in several major issues:
It’s a bad brand impression. It’s not ideal to direct your top communities to an experience that reflects poorly on your brand. You wouldn’t let your website look 20 years out of date, so why would you let your community look like this?
Members don’t stay engaged for as long. No one wants to spend much time in a clunky, out-of-date community experience when there are so many other places where we can engage with others. You get a higher bounce rate and lower participation.
It opens the door to competition. Anyone can create a subreddit or Facebook group for any brand in minutes. The clunkier and more outdated your experience, the more likely it is to happen. And we’re already seeing that many of these experiences have more engagement than official communities.
It reflects poorly on the entire industry. When most communities appear outdated, you begin to wonder about the industry that encourages and enables this. It becomes harder to find great examples to celebrate and share. The space starts to be seen as increasingly archaic.
The problem with the above is that it doesn’t show up in the community data.
Unless you’re specifically asking members what kind of experiences they want in 2025 and beyond, you won’t know what you’re missing.
If We Want Members To Stick Around, We Need To Create Experiences They Want To Stick Around In
A common complaint in enterprise community circles is that members only visit when they have a question. But they don’t tend to stick around.
That’s because we’re not creating experiences they want to stick around in.
This means:
Studying the platforms your audience uses most and borrowing the parts that make them engaging. The infinite scroll of TikTok, the curated feed of Instagram, the intuitive navigation of Slack. These aren’t just nice-to-have features; they’re the baseline your audience has grown accustomed to.
It also means decluttering. Remove the endless lists of topics no one’s engaging with, cut the “wall of text” introductions, and focus on showing the right content to the right people at the right time. People don’t have the patience to sift through a community like it’s an archive room in the basement.
Treating design as part of the engagement strategy, not as an afterthought. The look, feel, and usability of your community are inseparable from how much people use it. A site that feels modern, clean, and purposeful keeps people coming back. A site that feels like stepping into a dusty time capsule sends them elsewhere.
Future Must-Haves for Enterprise Communities
This isn’t a comprehensive list, but I’d put this as a priority for a future community experience.
AI-Driven Navigation and Discovery. Many support communities will still be fine with a forum-centric structure, but navigation must evolve. AI should surface the most relevant, high-quality answers instantly, personalise content feeds, and proactively suggest next steps.
Content Discovery as a Core Function. Ensure the most valuable discussions, resources, and expert contributions don’t get buried. Prioritise surfacing content in feeds and recommendation blocks rather than relying on members to dig through categories.
Feed-Based Experiences. Move away from static lists of topics toward dynamic, personalised feeds that highlight trending, relevant, and high-quality discussions.
Left-Hand Navigation. Persistent, simple, and consistent left-hand navigation makes it easier for members to jump between sections without feeling lost or overwhelmed.
Modern, Mobile-First Design. Clean layouts, intuitive navigation, and a visual hierarchy that matches modern web standards. No clutter, no 00s-era category lists.
Personalised Member Journeys. Tailored onboarding, targeted prompts, and content recommendations based on behaviour and interests.
Integrated Media Experiences. Rich video, audio, and image support, not just for posts but for tutorials, onboarding flows, and live sessions.
Communities aren’t losing people because the concept no longer works. They’re losing people because the experience no longer matches the expectations. If you don’t evolve, you’re not just standing still – you’re falling behind.
(and if you want help creating your community experience, contact us).
