A members’ organisation set up in 1904, the BBPA look after 90% of the UK’s brewers and 50% of its pubs.
We came on board to improve the UX of their product with a visual refresh and and give their outdated, hard-to-use CMS a revamp.
To get the best results, we needed to understanding the organisation. Interviews with staff and members let us figure out what was working, what needed improving and what we could add to provide extra value.
We lacked a clear picture of our requirements and goals at first. Lighthouse provided helpful ideas to shape our vision of what we wanted and how to achieve it.
Complex organisations with lots of different end users usually have a varied range of needs and goals. It’s important to identify them and not rely on guesswork.
Building structure
As with many digital products that’ve been around for a while, the BBPA site had grown organically with little focus so had become large and sprawling. A content audit helped us identify what was good, what needed updating and what could be removed. We then created content templates so that the BBPA teams could use to get editing and writing.
Content is key. An organisation like the BBPA needs to display a wealth of information for different groups of people. This needs careful thought and planning to be effective.
Look and feel
With a solid plan in place it was time to improve the tired look and feel. A clean, contemporary style with a nod to the organisation’s heritage would bring everything up-to-date. Revised navigation and responsive templating would mean users could get to where they wanted to be, whatever the platform.
Freeing up time
Moving away from a bespoke CMS that was difficult to use gave the team complete freedom to make changes and updates themselves. No more being tied to an external (and expensive) agency for content changes.
Improving the shop and other problem areas meant internal time was freed up, while the technical upgrade gave BBPA a platform that could be built on and expanded in the future, as our partnership continues.
The project ran smoothly from start to finish. The team demonstrated expertise and diligence from start to finish, making them easy to trust.
