Building a charity website for educators inspiring the next generation of citizens

The challenge

 

Following a full brand overhaul, charity the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) were in need of a modern, engaging membership website for teachers, educators and policy influencers looking to provide quality citizenship education. Whilst time-poor users needed to be able to find the right content quickly, the ACT team needed a website which was intuitive and flexible.

 

  • UX design
  • Brand development
  • Web design & build
  • CRM integration
  • UX & QA testing
Image for A person viewing the Association for Citizenship Teaching website on their mobile phone

The solution

 

Working closely with the ACT team and their brand agency, we explored how the newly created identity could be leveraged to create a rich and compelling website. Every brand element was considered – from how the placard device could be used to frame imagery, to how the ‘user’ icon could inform UI components. Following a full UX review and the creation of a user-centric sitemap, the brand treatment was rolled out across the site.

As is our preference for charity websites, the ACT site is powered by WordPress and the open source CRM system, CiviCRM. This integration allows for a seamless user experience between the public-facing and member-only content on the website. Teachers are able to purchase membership packages, sign up for events and CPD sessions as well as easily accessing all the teaching resources they need to provide quality citizenship education for their students. The CRM system holds a database of every school in the UK, allowing teachers to sign up their school simply by starting to type its name.

Reporting is key for ACT, so we created and maintain a number of reports, both within CiviCRM and bespoke, allowing them to see all the data they need at a glance.

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Image for An example of the Association for Citizenship Teaching website wireframe
Image for A screen showing the Association for Citizenship Teaching website homepage
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At the start of 2022 we put out an ambitious technical tender to build a modern, attractive, membership platform. We were immediately impressed by Studio Republic's energy and proposed approach to tackle our project. Following the kick off meeting, we met with various personnel who added valuable inputs to the strategy, design and UI, but what has most impressed me has been their technical abilities with overseeing the complex integrations with WordPress and our CRM, Xero and Stripe. They met our hard deadline for launching, and delivered a quality output on budget. Within three months post-launch we have already witnessed a very positive impact on our membership base. At the outset you hope that you can team up with an agency that understands you and your users, and we feel we have the perfect digital partner to help us grow and succeed.

Richard John

Director of Programme Operations