Association for Heritage Interpretation

A digital hub built to mark 50 years, and built for the next 50

AHI’s 50th anniversary project, Interpretation Gold, was about more than celebration. It was a chance to put the organisation’s archives, expertise and community on a proper digital footing for the future, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and built to that fund’s standards for accessibility, availability and openness.

The existing AHI website suffered from complex menus, inconsistent branding and a cluttered homepage, and the membership database was poorly integrated, creating real administrative burden for a small staff team. The brief called for a complete rebuild: clearer navigation, stronger visual identity application, and crucially, a proper technical foundation that could support membership administration, events, awards and a fast-growing digital archive.

We rebuilt the site on WordPress, integrating Beacon CRM and Stripe to give AHI’s small team a manageable, reliable system for membership joining, renewals, and data management; previously a significant source of administrative pain. The new site includes a fully searchable, OCR-enabled journal archive bringing 50 years of AHI’s publications online, a paid supplier directory, and an online entry and payment system for AHI’s biennial awards, complete with shortlist and winner archives.

A second website, built for sharing

Alongside the main rebuild, AHI wanted to pilot a scheme allowing members to gift unwanted interpretation materials to other members, reducing waste and improving access to resources across the sector. We designed and built this as a standalone platform, the AHI Exchange, a dedicated marketplace where members can list and browse interpretation materials available for reuse.

We have continued to work with AHI on an ongoing retainer basis since launch, providing monthly reporting, fixing issues as they arise, and supporting the team through real-world membership and integration challenges as a 50-year-old organisation transitions to a fully digital way of working.

A membership system built for a professional body

A complete overhaul of AHI’s membership infrastructure sits at the core of the rebuild. We implemented MemberPress integrated directly with Beacon CRM, so the full membership lifecycle including joining, renewal, lapsed members and tiered access runs cleanly without manual reconciliation between systems. Members log in to a dashboard to access exclusive resources, manage their subscription and book events. Automated renewals through Stripe, a paid supplier directory and an online awards entry system round out a platform that handles the full complexity of a professional membership body, without requiring dedicated technical resource to run it day to day.