A workspace, not a newsletter.
Membership gives an organisation a signed-in workspace where its own projects, approvals, files and billing live in one place.
What a member sees.
The layout below is the interface direction set out in the brand specification. It is illustrative: it shows the structure and the information a member is given, not live data.
- Overview
- Projects
- Approvals
- Files
- Sessions
- Billing
Member overview
Next: homepage design review · 68% complete
Illustrative interface
The panel above is a mock-up built from the design specification. Its figures are examples, not records of any real project.
What a real portal needs before it holds anything.
A member area is the point at which a website stops being a publication and starts holding other people's information. That changes what has to be built.
- Server-side authentication, not a front-end passcode
- Role-based permissions, so a member sees only what their role allows
- Private file storage with access checks on every request
- Audit logs recording who viewed, changed or approved what
- Password recovery and account lifecycle handling
- Documented privacy controls and a retention policy
None of these are optional, and none of them are front-end work. A portal launched without them is not a cheaper portal; it is an unsecured one.
They are not the same product.
Membership serves a group of people largely the same gated content at a given tier. A client portal serves a small number of organisations content that must be kept apart from each other.
The two share a login screen and almost nothing else, and choosing wrongly is expensive to undo. If each signed-in party sees material that must be hidden from the others, it is a portal.
Read the full comparison →Client login.
Members reach the workspace from the client login page. It opens for sign-in once there is a server behind it.
Talk about a member workspace.
Membership and portal work starts with the same question: who signs in, and what must each of them be unable to see?