With a history dating back more than 75 years, NIRSA — like most associations serving any industry for that long — has responded to members’ changing needs at numerous times throughout its evolution.
“The biggest thing we’re hearing right now is that members want NIRSA to be transparent in how we’re adapting to their needs,” says April Flint, senior director of recreation and wellness at Emory University, as well as NIRSA President Designee. “Our membership includes multiple generations, and I think one of our main needs is reconnecting: What is the value that NIRSA provides to us as individuals, professionals and the communities we serve?”
One of the most obvious and vital ways in which NIRSA can prove its value is via its website, which was operating on a more than decade old version before the association unveiled a major redesign in January. The new and improved site features a cleaner look, clearer navigation, stronger search functionality, improved accessibility and a mobile-first design — all based on member feedback via interviews and user experience exercises.
“Associations have specific website needs,” says Bree Richmond, director of strategy at Yoko Co., the Virginia-based digital agency NIRSA worked with to redesign its website. “We work with a lot of associations, and each one is unique. But there are a lot of similarities, too. We need to consider multiple audiences that are looking for information and have almost no time to find it. Everyone is pressed for time.”
The updated NIRSA website strives to help users save time by featuring links to valuable resources that can now be accessed through the main menu of options. On the old website, they were buried three, four or even five pages deep. Details on all Championship Series sports and tournaments also can now be accessed from the home page, as can the latest association news, job opportunities and resources about the impact of campus recreation.
“I think about how my staff uses the website,” Flint says. “Just being able to find things easier — things the majority of members are looking for — that’s part of the transparent piece.”
A drastic change
The website redesign process began in May 2025, when NIRSA and Yoko Co. first teamed up. An initial step involved speaking with a variety of website users — campus recreation professionals in different stages of their careers, as well as students and NIRSA associate members, such as nonprofits and companies. Those conversations led to content creation (and content updating), as well as a site map that, in Richmond’s words, “leads people on a journey” throughout the redesigned website.
In addition to more intuitive navigation, NIRSA’s updated website also includes historical content to provide context for today’s members in the form of an attractive timeline that begins in 1950 with the inaugural meeting of the National Intramural Association at Dillard University in New Orleans and extends to the approval of NIRSA’s 2024-2027 Strategic Framework. What’s more, users now can filter their searches to find ways to get involved with the association, using keywords and a series of dropdown menus.
“That section uses its own kind of search to help users looking for specific ways to get involved do just that,” Richmond says. “That really will help encourage people to activate their membership and show them what they can do as a member.”
For at least the first couple months, the updated NIRSA website also included an announcement bar at the top of each page encouraging user feedback with a link to send email suggestions to the association’s leadership.
“That was brave,” Richmond says. “I was initially a little surprised, as most associations don’t go that far in soliciting feedback. When you make large-scale changes on a website, you never know what you’re going to get with a ‘call to action’ prompt like that.”
“The feedback we’ve received has been very positive,” says NIRSA marketing director Lauren McKinnis, adding that early data analytics reveal increased user engagement, with visitors spending more time on the site. “The site was in development for nine months, and once something goes live and people begin using it in a real-world environment, there are always small adjustments that need to be made. Hearing directly from users helps us identify those opportunities and continue improving the experience.”
All told, the new NIRSA website reduced its page count footprint by more than half compared to the old site, according to Richmond, and introduced a streamlined design.
“This is a pretty drastic change — a full redesign,” Flint says.
Revisit your own website
The approach NIRSA and Yoko Co. took to redesigning the association’s website also can be applied at a more micro level to websites for individual campus recreation departments. While those sites typically are tied into the institution’s broader web network and limited in design and function flexibilities, campus recreation professionals still can take greater control of the content they put on those sites.
“We adapt our content as we need to,” Flint says of the website for Emory’s Recreation and Wellness Department. “When we hear feedback from participants, students, faculty or staff that they can’t find things on our website, then we adjust. I think benchmarking — looking at how other institutions present their facilities, programs and offerings — is important. We do that at least annually, and we can learn from each other that way.”
For major content changes, Flint and Richmond say seeking and responding to user feedback is critical and should be top of mind from the earliest discussions to the final relaunch. Ask users what they are looking for on the website — and what they can’t find. Gain a better understanding of how people use the site and why. Create new content and, if necessary, rewrite existing content.
Digging deeper, Richmond suggests acknowledging the role artificial intelligence plays, not only in content creation but also in content sharing.
“Technically, AI is a consumer of the site,” Richmond says. “The way people use websites has changed quite a bit since the development of ChatGPT and it’s important to think about how content is served up on a Google search.”
NIRSA, with guidance from Yoko Co., did all that and more.
“I’m most proud of how strongly this new site reflects input from our members,” says McKinnis. “Decisions about the site’s structure and content were driven by real user behavior rather than just internal assumptions That was especially important given how close staff can be to the project. From there, we focused on creating a better overall user experience.”
