Membership website, e-commerce and brand identity for an independent optical practice development resource
Client: Martin Russ, Better One or Two Website: betteroneortwo.co.uk Services: Logo design · Website design & build · Membership system · E-commerce · Payment integration · Content preparation
The Brief
Better One or Two brings together more than 50+ years of combined expertise from Total Marketing Resource (TMR Ltd) and the Independent Marketing Partnership — two respected names in optical practice development. Founder Martin Russ needed a home for this substantial library of training manuals, articles, tools and templates: a website where independent optical practice owners and managers across the UK could browse, join and download the resources that would help them grow their businesses.
The site had to do more than look the part. It needed a complete membership and paid-content system, with free and subscription tiers, secure payment processing, protected downloads and a member credit system — all simple enough for the client to manage day-to-day without technical support.
Brand & Design
We began with the brand itself, designing the Better One or Two logo from scratch — supplied in every format needed for print, web, social media and favicons. The distinctive teal colour palette was chosen deliberately to stand apart in a sector crowded with blues and greens, giving the brand a professional, confident identity of its own.
The website design followed from the brand: clean, mobile-responsive and easy to navigate, structured so that visitors can quickly find the training programmes, practice development tools and articles most relevant to them. Every page was built to be simple for the client to maintain, update and extend.
Tiered Membership System
At the heart of the site is a three-tier membership model, built on WordPress with a fully integrated membership platform:
- Free browsing for all visitors, with access to site content, newsletters and introductory information.
- VIP membership (free) — registration with a valid email unlocks access to resource previews and the members' area.
- VIP Plus and VIP Platinum (paid) — monthly and annual subscriptions with recurring billing, automatically crediting members with a spendable balance to use on any resource in the shop.
The credit system was a key piece of custom work. Rather than gating content behind tiers, paid members receive wallet credits on every billing cycle, which they spend freely across the resource library. This gives members genuine flexibility and gives the business a recurring revenue model that rewards loyalty — a more sophisticated arrangement than an off-the-shelf membership plugin provides out of the box.
E-Commerce & Secure Downloads
The resource library itself runs on a full e-commerce system handling individual purchases alongside subscriptions. Products include multi-section training manuals — the Retail Optical Training Programme, the Optical Management Development Programme and More Profits, More Often — plus the Professional Fees article series, research reports, patient information templates and an interactive Professional Fees Calculator.
Every purchased download is delivered through secure, tokenised links, so paid content stays protected. Purchases, memberships and wallet credits all connect seamlessly: a member logs in once and their subscription, credit balance and download library are all in one place.
Payments with Stripe
Recurring subscriptions and one-off purchases are processed through Stripe, fully integrated with the membership system. We handled the complete setup — from account connection through to live-mode testing — so that billing, renewals, credit allocation and payment confirmation all run automatically. The client can see every transaction in his Stripe dashboard without touching the website's inner workings.
Custom Development
Beyond the core platforms, the build involved a substantial amount of bespoke development to make everything work together smoothly:
- Custom member gating so that resources are purchasable only by registered members, with graceful redirects for visitors who aren't yet signed in.
- A tailored login experience, with custom routing so members always land on the branded login page and are returned to the right place afterwards.
- Reusable shortcodes and template logic, so the same behaviour works consistently across the whole site rather than being patched page by page.
- Careful CSS and layout work within the page builder to keep the design pixel-perfect on every device.
Content Preparation
A resource library is only as good as its files. We prepared and processed the client's extensive back catalogue of PDFs — normalising page sizes, cleaning up annotations, combining sections and ensuring every document downloads and prints beautifully. The result is a consistent, professional library that reflects the quality of the material itself.
The Result
Better One or Two launched as a polished, self-sufficient business platform: a branded membership site with recurring revenue, secure paid downloads, automated billing and a growing library of professional resources — all manageable by the client himself.
Whether it's a full membership platform, an online shop or a brand built from the ground up, Polyspiral delivers websites that work as hard as the businesses behind them.
Ready to discuss your project? Get in touch
