UX/UI Design for Personalized Membership and Renewal Applications

APhA New Member Model Redesign

Situation:

The American Pharmacists Association (APhA), a national membership organization serving a diverse audience in the pharmaceutical field, underwent a complete restructuring of its membership model. This shift aimed to provide more relevant, personalized experiences to a wide range of user groups—pharmacy students, practicing pharmacists, technicians, retirees, and pharmaceutical stakeholders—each with distinct benefits and membership criteria.

Previously, the online application and renewal process was one-size-fits-all, leading to user confusion, drop-offs, and high support volume. With the introduction of the “New Member Model,” APhA needed a redesigned application experience that would support a more flexible, user-tailored approach.

Task:

Design and launch a seamless, user-friendly online membership and renewal application that reflects the newly implemented member model. The solution needed to:

Dynamically adjust based on user type and eligibility
Reduce friction and abandonment
Integrate with existing back-end systems, including Drupal and Salesforce
Provide a clear, intuitive UX for both new and renewing members

My Role

As Lead UX/UI Designer, I led the design strategy and execution for the new application. I:

Collaborated with stakeholders to define success metrics and functional requirements
Conducted user research and usability testing with members and internal teams
Designed low- and high-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes
Worked closely with developers to implement the solution in Drupal, ensuring fidelity to the design vision

Action:

Discovery & Research

Held discovery sessions with APhA leadership, marketing, IT, and member services to understand pain points in the legacy application.
Mapped member journey flows for each member category, identifying touchpoints that needed customization.
Conducted comparative research across other membership-based associations to benchmark best practices.

User-Centered Design Process

Developed user personas and scenarios to model the distinct behaviors and goals of student members vs. professionals vs. retirees.
Ran usability tests with Maze and in-person interviews to validate wireframes, paying close attention to ease of navigation, form length, and perceived value clarity.
Simplified eligibility logic into intuitive user pathways, reducing cognitive load during the application process.

Prototyping & Iteration

Designed adaptive forms that changed based on user selection (e.g., a student would see different options and required documents than a practicing pharmacist).
Ensured accessibility compliance (WCAG/508) and mobile responsiveness.
Collaborated with engineers in an Agile environment, using Jira for sprint planning and feedback cycles.

Cross-Functional Communication

Acted as a bridge between product stakeholders, devs, and end-users to align vision, scope, and constraints.
Presented key design milestones to executive leadership for buy-in and roadmap adjustments.

User Join Flow

View Prototype

User Personas

Pharmacist

Membership gives them a network of other providers and many types of continual education outlets.

Retired Pharmacist

Membership allows then to keep in touch with the profession.

New Practitioner

Membership provides them with a platform to obtain a career in the various areas of Pharmacy. They also attend the Annual Meeting.

Pharmacy Tech

Membership provides them educational outlets, access to the Annual Meeting, Safety Information etc.

Post Graduate

Want a membership that can allow them to advocate for pharmacists. Want access to APhA PAC and the Advocacy center,

International Pharmacist

Membership provides them with a connection with the Pharmacy Community in the US.

Resident Pharmacist

Represent Pharmacists within APhA provide a direct line between the organization and other Pharmacists.

Government/Fed Pharmacist

Membership gives them a network of other providers and many types of continual education outlets.

Result:

Successfully launched a dynamic, role-specific membership and renewal application that reflected APhA’s new strategic direction.
Reduced drop-off rates by simplifying the user experience and tailoring form inputs based on member type.
Cut support tickets related to application confusion by more than 30% within the first 90 days post-launch.

Positive User Feedback:

Post-launch we collected user feedback using Maze to conduct a user feedback survey based on their recent sign-up experience.

We sent an email with a series of survey questions to those who had signed up as a follow up to their affirmation email. We got a 21% survey completion rate, approximately 27 completed surveys.

How was your overall experience with the joining process?
Did you have any pain points? If yes please let us know how we can improve the experience.
Was the payment process easy? Did your contact information auto fill?
Did you select any publications? If yes, did you encounter any confusion or difficulties?
Did you make a donations? If so how was that process?
How do you like the look and feel of the design?

Indicated a positive response to the redesigned applications. Here are some key highlights from the post launch survey

Users found the membership and renewal processes straightforward and efficient.
Users found that they had great direction throughout the process.
Some users indicated that the payment did not auto populate their contact information and that they had to fill it out a second time.
Those users that were renewing, that made donations said that the process was so much easier than prior years. Two users indicated that in the past they did not make a donation because the process was just not an easy process,
Users gave favorable reviews about the look and feel of the application, they liked the bright colors, the large inputs, the modern design

Iteration & Roadmap Planning

Based on this feedback, we added collaborative enhancements to the product roadmap, including:

Action item alerts for critical price changes
Collapsible input fields for cleaner UI during complex workflows
Continued optimization for location-based tracking and bulk actions

Strategic Impact

The UPM redesign played a key role in Macy’s broader effort to modernize internal tools and move toward cloud-first infrastructure. By improving usability, streamlining workflows, and empowering internal teams, this project contributed to better pricing decisions and long-term platform scalability.

New Application Images- look at prototype for more in depth images