As one of the few outdoor climbing areas near Portland, Carver is a tremendous asset to the Oregon climbing community. For over 30 years the Carver Climbing Club has facilitated rock climbing on this privately owned land.
When we began working with the organization in 2013 the system for becoming a member involved filling out a paper waiver at a local climbing gym and paying the membership fee in cash. Club volunteers would periodically collect these handwritten waivers (to be manually filed) and a stack of cash.
One small step towards modernization
Our first project was an evolution of the membership system to collect the member information online, implement electronic payments, and generate PDFs of the waivers with the member information pre-filled. This streamlined things significantly, but at the time the landowner still wanted paper waivers with a signature — which meant members still had to visit a local gym to get their membership card, and club volunteers still had to collect and file paper waivers.
A giant leap in to the future
After years of inefficiencies, we were able to overhaul the membership app into a fully digital system. The payment system was updated to support ApplePay and other digital payments, waivers are now electronically signed, and users receive an electronic member card that can be saved to a digital wallet. This greatly improved the membership system for everyone:
- More flexible: digital storage allows redundant backups, and access from multiple parties.
- More secure: a verification system ensures everyone with a member card has signed the waiver.
- Easier for the landowners: no need to coordinate delivery of paper waivers or store them.
- More efficient for Carver volunteers: no picking up, filing, or delivering paper waivers.
- Less burden on partner gyms: no more printing, storing paper waivers, or handing out cards.
- Easier for members: the entirely digital system can be completed with just a phone. An Apple Wallet notification automatically appears on the lock screen while at Carver, making member card access for visitors even easier.
While the typical user flow is very quick and easy, complexity always lurks below the surface. Meticulous strategy, design, development, and testing ensured that all edge cases were accounted for.
Membership system metamorphosis
Our modernized membership application has transformed what used to be an arduous and time-consuming process into something can be finished in under a minute, right from the Carver trailhead. This vastly more efficient system helps ensure continued access to this remarkable resource.
Carver Climbing Club