Reinventing the User Experience for a Leading Events Platform
Product: Events
Client: British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)
Delivery Timeframe: 2023 – 2024
Front-End: Svelte, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3
Back-End: PHP, MySQL
Tools: Jira, Confluence, Figma, Slack
Approach: Agile Development
As Product Manager for BAFTA Events, I led the platform redesign that transformed a system constrained by 2012-era design patterns into a commercially viable white-label solution, securing the first external client (British Arrows) within months of the March 2024 launch. During my 2023 commercial assessment, I identified the platform’s BAFTA-coupled design as the critical barrier preventing white-labelling and presented the business case for redesign at the BMT away day, securing stakeholder consensus to unlock the platform’s commercial potential.
My key strategic decision was proposing complete design independence from BAFTA’s website aesthetics when an unexpected stakeholder roadblock emerged—internal teams wanting tighter integration with the new BAFTA website redesign. I led the design process, working closely with Alchemy Digital to navigate this conflict and demonstrate that a unified design approach could serve both BAFTA’s brand evolution and white-labelling requirements through admin-controlled customisation capabilities.
Leading both stakeholder alignment and design coordination, I managed a systematic retrofit across 300+ design tickets to ensure the modern interface eliminated usability issues created by legacy design patterns whilst adding commercial flexibility. The redesigned platform now delivers intuitive workflows, full accessibility compliance, and responsive mobile experience alongside the white-label configurability that positioned BAFTA Events as a competitive solution in the events management market whilst enabling our first commercial success.
BAFTA Events had proven operationally successful across the organisation’s extensive events programme since its 2020 launch, adapting through COVID-19’s challenges and expanding to support awards ceremonies, fundraising activities, and online events. However, by 2023, the platform’s design foundation—closely mirroring BAFTA’s 2012 website aesthetics—was preventing commercialisation despite strong interest from potential external clients who required flexible branding capabilities.
The events management software market presented significant revenue opportunities for platforms offering modern, customisable solutions, but BAFTA Events’ visual coupling with outdated BAFTA website patterns made white-labelling prohibitively complex for external organisations. The design constraints weren’t just limiting commercial potential—they were creating usability friction that reduced effectiveness even for BAFTA’s internal operations.
During my commercial assessment, I gathered extensive feedback demonstrating both user experience issues and external client interest, building the business case for transformation. The strategic challenge intensified when a key stakeholder proposed tighter integration with BAFTA’s upcoming website redesign, potentially strengthening the design dependencies that blocked commercialisation. This created competing priorities requiring careful stakeholder management to align internal brand requirements with external commercial viability.
I recognised this as a critical decision point where the platform’s proven operational success could either enable commercial expansion or remain locked within BAFTA-specific constraints. The solution required demonstrating that design independence would benefit both BAFTA’s evolving brand needs and external clients’ customisation requirements without compromising the workflows that made the system effective.
Transform Design Foundation for Commercial Viability
Enable Scalable White-Label Revenue Generation
Navigate Complex Stakeholder Requirements
Preserve Operational Excellence Through Design Retrofit
Deliver Modern User Experience Standards
Establish Foundation for Commercial Growth
Demonstrate Strategic Design Leadership
Bridging Design Vision with Implementation Reality
- Static design files from Alchemy Digital couldn’t anticipate the dynamic complexities of a live platform—missing empty states, variable content lengths, accessibility requirements, and legacy system constraints that would break visually striking designs under real-world usage. I needed to ensure the modern interface worked across all scenarios whilst maintaining visual appeal and meeting accessibility standards. Working closely with developers, I led extensive cross-device testing and defined comprehensive fallback behaviours, empty state specifications, and content rules. This systematic approach ensured the final platform remained both visually impressive and practically usable across screen readers, keyboard navigation, and mobile devices whilst preserving the design integrity that enabled commercial success.
Managing Complex Legacy System Integration Without Disruption
- The established BAFTA Events platform contained intricate operational workflows—over 30 event status states, admin quotas, invoicing processes, and features added post-launch—that needed seamless integration with the new design without disrupting proven operations. Preserving this complexity whilst modernising the interface required detailed system understanding and careful change management. I meticulously mapped each workflow and documented existing system logic, working closely with the development team to ensure every status transition, administrative trigger, and operational process was correctly represented in the new interface. This systematic approach preserved operational continuity whilst delivering the modern user experience that enabled white-labelling success.
Leading Design Decisions Within Implementation Constraints
- Many design requirements emerged during development—edge cases, new features, and component adaptations—often without existing visual guidance from the original design specifications. This required constant product judgment about component selection and, frequently, creating entirely new design solutions whilst maintaining consistency and project momentum. I established clear decision-making protocols, balancing when to escalate complex choices to stakeholders versus making independent decisions that kept development progressing. Through proactive developer collaboration and strategic stakeholder management, I maintained design consistency whilst avoiding the delays that could have compromised the commercial launch timeline.
The BAFTA Events platform redesign demonstrates how strategic design leadership can transform operational success into commercial opportunity through meticulous planning and execution. By identifying the 2012-era design constraints as the critical barrier to white-labelling and presenting the business case at the BMT away day, I secured stakeholder consensus for the comprehensive transformation that delivered our first external client (British Arrows) within months of the March 2024 launch.
The project’s success came from navigating complex strategic challenges whilst maintaining operational excellence. When stakeholders initially favoured tighter BAFTA website integration that would have prevented commercialisation, I led the design process with Alchemy Digital to demonstrate that unified aesthetics could serve both brand evolution and white-labelling requirements. Managing the systematic retrofit across 300+ design tickets required rigorous component review, comprehensive Jira documentation, and meticulous attention to intricate status workflows—all whilst maintaining a live product environment serving BAFTA’s extensive events programme.
What’s particularly satisfying is seeing how the redesign eliminated usability friction created by legacy design patterns whilst establishing the flexible foundation that enabled subsequent platform enhancements. The modern design architecture created the foundation for subsequent platform developments including accessible booking enhancements, comprehensive invoicing workflows, and streamlined awards ticketing processes—innovations that would have been impossible within the legacy design constraints. This strategic foundation delivered both immediate commercial viability and the scalability required for continuous platform evolution.
This project reinforced my conviction that successful product transformation requires balancing strategic vision with detailed execution excellence. By focusing on design independence rather than system coupling, we preserved the operational workflows that made BAFTA Events effective whilst unlocking commercial potential that generates new revenue streams. The platform’s continued evolution with additional clients in development validates the strategic approach of enabling both immediate operational improvements and long-term business growth.
Through leading stakeholder alignment, design coordination, and systematic implementation under live system pressures, we transformed a BAFTA-specific tool into a commercially viable platform that continues to support the organisation’s mission whilst expanding market reach. The success demonstrates how thoughtful product leadership can turn operational excellence into sustainable competitive advantage whilst creating the architectural foundation for ongoing innovation.
“Redesigning the Events platform marked a major milestone in the product’s evolution. The goal was to create a system that could support both members and external partners, without compromising on accessibility, usability, or operational complexity. The new platform delivers on that vision. The new design is flexible, intuitive, and scalable. Beyond the improved look and feel, the redesign also streamlined internal workflows, reduced administrative effort, and established a strong foundation for future innovation in areas like ticketing, guest management, and finance. Early feedback from internal teams and external users has been overwhelmingly positive”
– Staff Member feedback