The Company

Blue Ocean Ideas is a marketing agency centered around providing both creative and technical skills for their clients, who are largely focused in the association industry. Along with providing brand and marketing support, they also have a team of developers who have created a custom association management system (AMS) solution, SailAMX, for their client base.

The Ask

My role at the company grew from being solely a Graphic Designer on the marketing team, to also a UX Designer when I had the opportunity to collaborate with the development team on SailAMX. Blue Ocean Ideas works primarily with associations across the United States, and they saw a huge pain point for their clients was lack of an easy way to market their products and events, register users for continued learning credits or the ability to keep their members actively engaged. Facing the industry challenges of declines in membership and outdated tools, SailAMX set out to bring associations back to life and make each member’s experience a worthwhile venture.

The Approach

As the UX Designer throughout this project, I worked closely with the Chief Technology Officer, Chief Creative Officer and development team to scope, plan and execute on the front-end and back-end design of the AMS. Our approach was to build on well-established design patterns and intuitive user flows, with a modern design aesthetic, that could be easily customized for individual associations to utilize for their own brand.

We developed a mock client called the USCPA to serve as an example for other associations to reference, allowing them to see the power of color choice, page layout and user experience.  

One feature of SailAMX is a library of marketing page templates that associations can customize, as needed, to fit their organizations needs. In the mockups below, you will see how elements from the pattern library, combined with the association’s brand styles, can be utilized to create a custom, cohesive, and in-depth website.