Pilates East is a Pilates studio based in Norfolk. Their fully equipped Pilates studio is located in the heart of Norwich City Centre offering mat and equipment Reformer classes.
When I first started working with Lauren and Pilates East (formerly The Pilates Studio Norwich) they were primarily offering in-person Pilates classes. However, Lauren wanted to launch an online membership where members could access an extensive collection of pre-recorded Pilates classes that they could take part in anywhere, anytime.
At the time of building their new website, we were very much in the depths of the global pandemic, so creating an online membership was a very smart move. It would also give Lauren the opportunity to scale, as she would no longer be restricted to serving people in the local area.
This was the first website project I collaborated with Maddy Russell on and we’ve since gone on to work on more projects together, including, most recently, Toucanberry Tech. Maddy created the website designs using Adobe XD and then I turned them into a fully-functioning website powered by WordPress.
The client’s existing website was built on WordPress, and they already felt comfortable using the platform. But it was time to start again from scratch and create a brand new website with a new look, a new name and a new membership.
Let’s take a closer look at some of my favourite features and functionality of the Pilates East website:
Membership powered by MemberPress
As well as offering in-person Pilates classes, Pilates East also wanted to create an online membership that would allow members to pay monthly for access to an extensive library of pre-recorded video classes.
The membership portion of the website is powered by MemberPress; one of the most popular membership plugins for WordPress.
Using MemberPress, the client can sell access to different memberships (for example, members can pay monthly and/or commit to three months for a discounted price) with payments being handled securely by Stripe. MemberPress can also restrict the content on the website, meaning that some content can only be accessed by those who are members, such as the video library.
I styled the MemberPress elements, such as the login forms, checkout pages and account pages, to match the rest of the website and branding and to keep everything looking seamless.
Filterable video library
As previously mentioned, members will receive access to a library featuring over 60 pre-recorded videos, with new videos being added every month.
With an ever-growing collection of videos, it was important to create a video library that makes it easy for users to find exactly what they are looking for.
The video library is powered by a custom post type in WordPress, which not only makes it really straightforward for the client to add new videos to the library, but it also means the content within the video library is filterable.
Members can use the filters at the top of the video library to find the right class for them based on class length, focus, props, level and the teacher.
Using the MemberPress content protection functionality, we were able to make it so that only members who were logged in would be able to access the main video library and the individual video pages.
The videos themselves are hosted on Vimeo as I never recommend hosting your videos on your own hosting account (they use up a lot of bandwidth which can be extremely costly) with the privacy settings configured in such a way that they cannot be accessed elsewhere.
Retreats and events page
In addition to regular in-person classes and the on-demand videos, Pilates East also host events and retreats.
Lauren needed a place on the website to showcase the upcoming retreats and events. Once again, I used a custom post type in WordPress to create an events page that would be quick and easy for the client to update. For each event, the client can add a title, image, date, description and a link to book tickets for the event on an external website.
There’s also a banner that can be displayed at the top of the page below the header that the client can use to highlight particular events. This banner is completely optional and can easily be enabled or disabled by the client. It uses cookies so if a user closes this banner it won’t reappear for them for a set number of days.
Here are some kind words from Maddy about what it’s like to collaborate with me…
“Holly is a pleasure to work with. I have worked with her on both my own website and websites for my clients and have always been thrilled with the results. Holly makes the process really clear and easy and is a pleasure to work with. As a designer it’s always great to work with people who can help bring your vision to life and Holly has definitely done that so thank you.”
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