Racelink

Racing tablet app (B2C). Freelance project, Amsterdam (2015).
Winner UX category. The European Talent Awards 2016 – Aquent (London) → Read more
Business context: Sports (car racing event) / Client: MyLaps / My role: Manage and execute the whole project (E2E) as Lead Designer / Target audience: Professional race car drivers

The main goal of Racelink is to make a concept sketch for the interface of a tablet app and help motorized sports racers analyse and improve their performance, following the full live of each race as well as a full data timing.

Research

A selection of the leading racing apps provided detailed information about the event as part of a competitor analysis, and was taken as inspiration in UX/UI design. Among others, NASCAR Raceview Mobile – official app, Porsche Motorsport, FIA WEC iPad app (FIA World Endurance Championship), 24 Hours of Le Mans – official app, l’endurance (independent motorsports magazine), etc.

User scenario: race driver who has just competed in an event, and uses this app to evaluate the race, review the performance and get very concrete insights on how and where to improve.

Two audience personas were defined: 1. Primary: professional race car driver. He just needs to win, it’s that simple; 2. Secondary: car lovers, race fans & automobile enthusiasts. They love speed. And timing, of course: professional timers, event organizers, track and club owners.

Strategy

The first step, a new brand which aims to embody the core forces of events like Porsche GT3 Cup or equivalent. In other words: speed, attack, and control.

After that, information architecture: the sorting process provided information to decide which items should be grouped together in displays, how menu contents should be organised and labelled, and what words we should employ to describe the objects of our users’ attention.

In addition, some design guidelines include colour scheme variations, data visualization examples and a strong claim that represents the passion for speed and safety. It helps achieve brand consistency across screens through a set of uniform guiding principles.

Design

The design proposal is not exhaustive in terms of all the points mentioned. What I was looking for is to get an impression of how develop this project into a vision for the UX, a concept of how the UI could work and a glance at a visually attractive and convincing appearance of the product.

Firstly, data from the timing system is especially relevant to evaluate the performance and it is available for all competitors. As a result, the racer can compare himself to other racers on laptime, but also section specific split times, things like trend in the laptime (up/down as the race evolves) and the race development in terms of position (moving up/down in the field).

Secondly, data from the racer himself allows to analyze the strong points and development points like the car performance (avg revs, temps, fuel usage, tire condition, steering balance, etc.).

Also, the driver performance (drivelines, braking points and g-forces). Possible other data points like circumstances (weather, track condition, temps, humidity, etc.) and biometric data from the driver.

Evaluation

What started as a personal challenge became a freelance project, and it finally ended up being a case study awarded in The European Talent Awards 2016 (winner UX category). There is no better evaluation that the one from the Head of User Experience as part of the jury → Read more.