Cloud Appreciation Society
A beloved global community had outgrown its website. We modernized the membership experience step by step, without disrupting what members already rely on.
The challenge
The Cloud Appreciation Society celebrates the beauty and diversity of clouds. With members in 120+ countries, it encourages people to slow down, look up, and appreciate the art and science overhead. It runs as a sustainable business and gives back each year to environmental and educational causes, including cloud resources for teachers.
As the community grew, the website couldn't keep up. CAS needed an intuitive, accessible platform that could keep pace with a growing audience and support a vibrant community.
The design felt dated and didn't capture the society's distinctive character and values, and key information was hard to find for new and returning members alike. Sign-up, gift memberships, and renewals were confusing, so people dropped off at checkout and renewals were missed. Many long-time members were still paying legacy prices, and CAS needed a fair way to bring them up to date without driving them away. CAS also wanted courses and community features to feel like part of one member experience.
What we built
We've worked alongside CAS over time, making steady, iterative improvements that modernize the site while keeping its character, keeping it efficient to run, and keeping the systems members already rely on.
That work has covered the design, the membership experience, site performance, and how easy the site is for the CAS team to manage. Throughout, the focus has been on streamlining key member journeys and making the platform more intuitive.
- Design refresh with simplified navigation and a reorganized sitemap.
- Custom multi-step registration flow, including several gift memberships in a single checkout.
- An "email-only" gift membership, so buyers don't need the recipient's mailing address.
- A custom system that raises legacy subscription prices gradually, in controlled steps.
- LearnDash courses with badges for cloud-identification skills.
- PeepSo community synced with WooCommerce member profiles in one dashboard.
- Custom single sign-on with the mobile app's Firestore database: one login, with user data kept in sync.
A design refresh that kept its character
We updated the design with cleaner layouts, refined typography, and a refreshed color scheme. The result looks polished and professional while keeping the society's unique character.
We also simplified the navigation and reorganized the sitemap, so members can more easily explore different areas of the site, find resources, and connect with each other.
A clearer way to join, gift, and renew
We built a custom registration flow on WooCommerce Memberships & Subscriptions. Written in JavaScript, it guides people through each step, from choosing a membership option to checkout.
Building the flow ourselves gave CAS flexibility. Members can buy several gift memberships in a single checkout, and renewals come with clear, accessible instructions.
Email-only gift memberships
For members buying on someone else's behalf, we added an "email-only" gift option. It cuts the required fields, so buyers can send a gift membership without needing the recipient's mailing address.
Bringing legacy prices up to date, gently
Many long-time members were still on outdated subscription prices. CAS needed a strategic way to adjust them that reflected the value of membership while minimizing churn. We built a custom system that adjusts those legacy subscriptions incrementally, applying controlled price increases that gradually bring older memberships in line with current pricing.
Long-time members aren't overwhelmed by a sudden jump. The result has been increased revenue for CAS while preserving the loyalty of the members who have been there longest.
Courses that reward cloudspotting
CAS wanted to deepen member engagement through learning as well as community. Using LearnDash, we added educational courses where members earn badges and show off their cloud-identification skills.
One account across the site, community, and app
The society already ran a PeepSo community. We integrated it with WooCommerce, synchronizing member profiles and creating one unified experience in the site's main dashboard.
CAS also has a mobile app. To keep the app and the online community consistent, we built a custom single sign-on (SSO) integration with Firestore, the app's database. Members can sign in to the website with their app credentials, and user data stays in sync between Firestore and WordPress.
Built to keep improving
This iterative approach let us make meaningful improvements without disrupting the systems CAS already had in place. Through ongoing support, we've delivered strategic updates that enhanced member satisfaction, increased engagement, and improved the overall user journey, while keeping the society's online presence fresh, engaging, and ready for future growth.
The stack
WooCommerce with Memberships & Subscriptions, custom JavaScript for the multi-step registration flows, PeepSo for the community, LearnDash for courses, Beaver Builder, and a custom Firestore single sign-on for the mobile app.
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