Putting members at the heart of technology decision-making
How we redefined British Association of Art Therapists’ membership user journeys to ensure a seamless experience for everyone.
Location: London, UK
Aftercare: Hosting, support and maintenance
Brand strategy & design
User experience design
Website design & Build
CRM design & Build
The BrightMinded difference
The British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) is the professional association for art therapists across the UK. Their previous membership website had become outdated and created a poor experience for both the membership and the internal team. We transformed this experience by using CiviCRM and WordPress to create a more fulfilling, self-service approach for members.
This is the story of how we redefined BAAT’s membership user journey to ensure a seamless experience of what a modern membership organisation should offer their members. From signing up to become a member, paying fees, renewing, connecting with other members, or tracking their personal development – we’ve delivered an enjoyable experience for members supported by an exceptional technical solution.
We found BrightMinded to be very professional and easy to do business with. They had a flexible approach to the project and were able to work with our limited capacity and technology know-how.
What we achieved
A joined-up membership experience
We created a simple, single login point for members to access all of their documents, update their membership details, monitor their CPD status, and network with other members via their forums.
Freeing up the internal team
The internal team at BAAT mostly work part-time. This meant anything we could do to reduce their admin and automate membership interaction would enable them to use their valuable time more effectively. The new website allows the internal team to track members’ event bookings, send newsletters and manage their members more effectively and with far less administrative burden.
Transforming access to mental health services
People who need help the most can access the services they need to help improve their lives with the ‘Find An Art Therapist’ search feature.
How do you create a brand that enables scale now and into the future?
This was a brilliant nose-to-tail project, which took about a year from our initial chat to the website going live. The project involved stakeholder research to help reposition the brand, design of a totally new identity, newly defined user journeys and a water-tight build. We’ve empowered BAAT to take on our ever-changing world and ensure that people can get help when they need it most.
We worked with the internal team and the board to establish what the future success of the organisation needed to be and helped them shape that together. We ran a user experience workshop and hosted weekly meetings where we could show and tell our progress as the project developed. Considering what we learned during our discovery work, including the public’s high-stress needs for people seeking therapy, we created a user interface that’s very simple to use and navigate – helping everyone get what they need regardless of their abilities.
Choosing tech stacks that fitted BAAT’s needs
Based on this solid grounding of user experience research, we built a brand-new WordPress website and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system using CiviCRM. We also developed an entirely new gated area, called the Memberzone, which enables members to take charge of their membership. Here they can book events, apply for jobs, access jobs, keep their therapist profiles up-to-date and also track their CPD progress.
Like WordPress, CiviCRM is open-source software, so we were able to write our own custom extensions to tweak how it works and tailor everything to BAAT internal and external users’ needs. We created bespoke member registration, payment and renewal journeys, and reestablished member benefits in the process.
We’ve set BAAT on a new course for the future with a truly scalable technology solution – so much so, they’ve already seen an uplift in new members joining the organisation.
OTHER CLIENTS WE’VE HELPED
We’ve built over 100 custom-made platforms and websites for charities, start-ups and established businesses since 2011.
