2017–2019
AQHA: a new AQHA.com shaped by what members and the staff who serve them told us
Horse owners, breeders, riders, young members and members abroad all come to AQHA.com to register horses, find shows and races and do business with the association. In 2017 we listened to more than 100 members and to the AQHA teams who answer their calls, then designed and built the new AQHA.com on Liferay DXP. AQHA launched it in March 2019, with navigation in six languages for its international members.
- 100+
- AQHA members heard in the 2017 research
- 6
- languages for the site’s navigation, for international members (per AQHA, March 2019)
- Client
- American Quarter Horse Association
- Scope
- UX research · Digital strategy · Branding workshop · Website design & build · Content governance
- Platform
- Liferay DXP
- Partnership
- 2017–2019
Challenge
The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) is a Texas-based nonprofit that registers American Quarter Horses and runs shows, racing and programs for members in the US and around the world.
When we interviewed AQHA’s teams in 2017, the people who talk to members every day told us the same story. The website was hard to navigate and search, and inconsistent on a phone. Customer service had seen calls rise after the previous redesign, many from people asking how to find things on the site. Someone registering a horse for the first time found nothing on the home page to guide them. Members abroad could not choose a language, and forms were only in English.
AQHA wanted a digital experience that would keep its members, attract new ones and give its sponsors more reasons to be there.
Approach
Listening first
In 2017 we interviewed AQHA’s teams, from membership, registration and customer service to shows, racing, youth, international, the museum and corporate partners, and heard from more than 100 members through interviews, focus groups and surveys. With an analytics review, that research became personas, a content strategy and a governance model.
A brand members recognize
At the end of 2017 we ran a branding and marketing workshop with AQHA’s leadership to define its brand promise, its audiences and a marketing roadmap tied to membership growth.
The new AQHA.com
We designed and built the new AQHA.com on Liferay DXP (2017–2019): mobile-first, with content personalized for members and corporate partners, a media center, and Google Analytics and Tag Manager for digital marketing. AQHA’s content authors got governance, workflows and authoring templates, and training to use them.
Beyond the website
Alongside the site we built an iOS app that shares rulebook updates (2018), worked on showing and racing leaderboards and the design of member dashboards (2018–2019), and gave technical leadership and go-live oversight to AQHA’s new database system (2017–2018).
Impact
AQHA launched the new AQHA.com in March 2019, together with its new database. Per AQHA’s announcement, members got clearer navigation and better search, a site that works on their phones, a searchable calendar of events and more business online, such as paying invoices and seeing pending work and transaction history, and international members can switch the navigation into one of six languages.
AQHA told its members that Base22 “guided the AQHA digital team through multiple user-testing exercises and listened to valuable feedback from AQHA members and website visitors” (January 2019). We handed the platform over with documentation, training and a warranty period, so AQHA’s own team could run it.
