The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) is an international trade association that represents not-for-profit organisations that publish scholarly and professional content.
Our brief
ALPSP engaged us with the aim of revitalising their website: improving the experience for their members, improving the presentation and discovery of their training and events, and streamlining their back office processes. As with many of the member organisations we work with there were several integrations with third-party services that needed to be implemented for the ALPSP ecosystem to function. Ensuring these integrations were robust and that we took advantage of any improvements we could make was a key priority.
Other key objectives of the website redesign was to support the ALPSP team in reducing and giving focus to their content, improve their messaging, promote ALPSP to potential members, and give existing members an improved experience when visiting the site.
Our approach
Our process began with a comprehensive analysis of the existing digital ecosystem. Understanding, unpicking, and reviewing the incumbent technical infrastructure and the internal processes of the ALPSP team was our first step, alongside our usual rigorous audience and organisational discovery process.
The design phase commenced with the creation of moodboards, gradually increasing in fidelity until we had fully realised high-fidelity designs. Throughout this process, we collaborated closely with the ALPSP in-house designer, ensuring that the additional design elements we created for the overall brand were integrated into their other marketing assets. Simultaneously, we developed website architecture and information hierarchy diagrams in the form of sitemaps and wireframes, establishing a clear structure for the new site.
To support ALPSP in content creation, we provided tools and a framework for content production, empowering them to develop engaging material that aligned with the new structure and design.
The entire process was iterative and collaborative, allowing us to work in close partnership with the ALPSP team. Our process ensured that there were numerous opportunities for the ALPSP team to provide feedback and review progress.
Evolving the ALPSP brand
As well as the technical side of the project, we were also asked to provide an updated design for the new platform, with a mandate to evolve their overall brand if needed.
Two recognisable core elements of the ALPSP brand remain unchanged; their logo and the dark forest green ALPSP use as their primary colour.
We introduced a serif display typeface to give more character and impact, and two secondary colours (pink and black) to give contrast and emphasis to the overall design, as well as defining an ‘image world’ and giving guidance and art direction for the use of imagery across all their communications.
Working with Liquid Light was a great experience, and they worked hard to understand exactly what ALPSP were looking for and needed. The team collaborated with us, challenging us when needed, and providing vital insight into the entire process.
The Results
We improved the discovery and display of their training and events, and implemented a sitewide categorisation and filtering system which is integrated with their events and training platform Cvent.
By using an enterprise-class content management system (CMS) suitable for member organisations, functionality that previously were fulfilled by third party services have been replaced with ‘out of the box’ CMS functionality, simplifying their overall techstack and reducing vulnerabilities and points of failure. We have been able to give ALPSP a website that is flexible and powerful enough for ALPSP to self-serve, and control all aspects of their publishing processes.
For ALPSP, this new website represents more than an aesthetic upgrade; it's a robust platform that enhances their capacity to serve their membership, operate more effectively, and gives a platform that can be built on for the future.
