A redesign and new Members’ Area for the Authors’ Licensing Collecting Society

ALCS supports authors by helping them collect royalties when their work is copied, shared, or reused. Their website plays an important role in that relationship, acting as both a public-facing platform and a functional members’ area for managing claims and information.

Over time, the platform had become increasingly difficult to navigate. Information architecture decisions made over many years had created friction for users, particularly within deeper content areas and member journeys. The experience no longer reflected the quality or clarity the organisation wanted to provide to its members.

The challenge was not simply to redesign a website. It was to simplify and modernise a platform that sat across multiple systems, suppliers, and user needs, without disrupting the critical services members relied upon.

We began by understanding how members were actually using the platform, rather than relying on internal assumptions about behaviour.

User testing and journey analysis quickly highlighted areas where navigation and terminology were creating unnecessary friction. Members often struggled to understand where information lived, how sections related to one another, and how to complete common tasks efficiently.

These findings informed a wider rethink of the site architecture. Rather than layering improvements onto an already complicated structure, we simplified journeys and reorganised content around clearer mental models and member expectations.

This discovery work became a key turning point in the project. The strength of the research and delivery process gave ALCS the confidence to expand our involvement beyond project coordination into wider design decision-making across the platform.

One of the more complex aspects of the project was coordinating delivery across multiple suppliers and systems.

ALCS already had existing visual design and backend service partners in place, meaning the success of the project relied heavily on clear communication, aligned priorities, and careful delivery management across disciplines.

As project manager and project sponsor, I helped create a collaborative delivery process that kept teams aligned while maintaining momentum throughout the build. This included balancing technical constraints, stakeholder expectations, member needs, and evolving project priorities without losing sight of the wider outcome.

A strong emphasis was placed on transparency, iteration, and pragmatic decision-making throughout the project. The goal was always to move the work forward thoughtfully, rather than allowing complexity to slow delivery unnecessarily.

The redesigned platform focused heavily on clarity, speed, and ease of use.

Navigation was streamlined to help members move through content-heavy areas more naturally, while page structures and user flows were refined to reduce cognitive load and improve confidence throughout the experience.

Accessibility and usability considerations informed decisions across both the public website and members’ area. Every effort was made to ensure the experience felt approachable and intuitive, particularly for users interacting with licensing and royalty-related information that could otherwise feel administrative or overwhelming.

The end result was a platform that felt significantly lighter, clearer, and easier to engage with.

Alongside the user experience improvements, considerable attention was given to performance, security, and long-term maintainability.

Backend service testing ensured that membership and licensing data was handled securely and reliably across integrations. The frontend experience was built using a React Redux approach connected to the WordPress API, helping create a fast and responsive browsing experience across the platform.

Given the depth of content and the importance of account functionality, performance and navigation speed were treated as key parts of the user experience rather than secondary technical concerns.

The platform was designed not only to improve the immediate experience for members, but also to give ALCS a more sustainable and scalable foundation moving forward.

The finished platform delivered a significantly more modern and user-friendly experience for ALCS members while improving confidence internally around the organisation’s digital presence.

Members benefited from clearer navigation, faster interactions, and a more approachable interface for managing royalty-related activity online. Internally, ALCS gained a platform that better reflected the organisation’s professionalism and long-term ambitions.

The project also strengthened trust between teams and stakeholders. What began as a focused redesign and rebuild evolved into a broader collaborative partnership built on thoughtful delivery, clear communication, and user-centred decision making.