Paid Memberships Pro Sponsored Members Add On allows an organization or individual to add or “sponsor” additional memberships in addition to the purchase of their original account.

Out of the box the plugin does not allow for sponsored accounts to be added to the main account after the initial purchase. This is an often requested feature and the team at Sidetrack Studio began to develop a solution to offer this functionality.

I started developing a basic User Flow for an account that would also include BuddyPress functionality. The primary UX/UI concern when combining BuddyPress and Paid Memberships Pro is each plugin adds user meta data in their proprietary tables. Each plugin displays a link to the user profile on the front end that can be confusing.

The basic checkout process for the Sponsored Members extension contains five user screens from selection of membership level to redirection to final page.

After the checkout process, the Main Account (or Parent Account), can view the sponsored accounts they have purchased, the discount code to provide to their Sub-Accounts and who has redeemed the code. They can view this on the front end through the PMPro Membership Account page or the WordPress admin user profile page. The most likely place to add the ability to purchase Sub-Accounts is on the front end Account page. While using BuddyPress that can be moved to the tabbed user profile page and subsequently be reduced to three fields.

Similarly, the user profile tabs can also be consolidated by displaying the updating and changing fields of the checkout process using AJAX calls to keep the page fully loaded during checkout, simplifying the navigation for the user.

Three key user benefits to this flow include:

• Keeping the user out of the WordPress Admin profile area.
• Reducing number of user actions to reach checkout/goal.
• Consolidating profile areas for easier user updates and access to purchasing tools.

View the complete Buddy Press Sponsored Members User Flow wireframe here >