Pole Position – Motorsport

Project overview

Pole Position is a WordPress-powered platform created to serve a passionate motorsport fanbase with high-quality news, articles, race schedules, and interactive features. The goal was to create a fully responsive, content-rich website that’s fast, scalable, and designed with user engagement at its core.

This platform combines editorial content, event updates, and fan interaction to create a community-driven hub that performs well on both desktop and mobile.

The problem: 

While there are many motorsport news platforms, most of them are cluttered, unresponsive, or too generic. Users often struggle with:

  • Poor mobile experience

  • Overwhelming ad clutter

  • Hard-to-navigate content structure

  • Lack of community features

The goal was to provide a responsive, performance-optimized, and user-first digital product that reflects the energy and speed of motorsports while being effortless to use.

The goal: 

  1. Design a responsive, visually immersive layout

  2. Streamline news and event content for easy discovery

  3. Foster fan engagement through forums and comments

  4. Ensure scalable backend architecture for future growth

  5. Optimize performance for fast load times

Client :

Verdant

Tools :

WordPress, Elementor,, Yoast SEO,, Figma

Duration :

April 2024 - November 2024

Deliverables :

UX Designer & WordPress Developer

Research & Strategy

Target Users: Motorsport fans aged 18–45, primarily male, browsing on both desktop and mobile.

Key Behaviors Identified:

  • High interest in real-time updates and race schedules

  • Preference for clean UI without unnecessary clutter

  • Desire to engage through comments or discussion threads

Competitive Analysis: Benchmarked against sites like Motorsport.com and Formula1.com. Noted gaps in personalization, mobile UI, and community interaction which informed our design goals.

I conducted user research and usability mapping to uncover how motorsport fans consume content online. The focus was on optimizing flow, speed, and engagement—ensuring the platform meets the expectations of an audience fueled by adrenaline and real-time updates.

UX Design Process

Sitemap

Structured for speed and clarity. Major sections:

  • News (by category)

  • Race Calendar

  • Community/Forum

  • Team Profiles

  • Featured Stories

Wireframes

Created mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma to define layout priorities, content hierarchy, and key interactions like filtering news, submitting comments, and navigating between categories.

Prototypes

Built interactive prototypes to simulate:

  • Mobile article reading flow

  • Filtering races by date or type

  • Engaging in forum discussions

WordPress Development

  • Theme Customization: Started with a lightweight theme and extended it with custom CSS and design tweaks.

  • Elementor Integration: Used to create pixel-perfect layouts and reusable components.

  • Advanced Custom Fields (ACF): Created custom post types for race events, team profiles, and featured articles.

  • SEO Setup: Integrated Yoast SEO for content optimization and search visibility.

  • Speed Optimization: Enabled caching, lazy-loading, and used compressed images for faster page speed.

📱 Responsiveness & Accessibility

  • Mobile-first Design: All layouts were optimized to perform seamlessly across smartphones and tablets.

  • Accessible Typography: Chose high-contrast text and readable font sizes.

  • Navigation: Sticky header, breadcrumb trails, and a collapsible mobile menu.

🔄 Iterations

  • Based on early feedback and internal testing:

    • Reduced homepage clutter and surfaced trending articles at the top

    • Streamlined sidebar widgets for better usability on smaller screens

    • Added social sharing buttons and a quick-scroll-to-comments feature

🚀 Results & Impact

  • Bounce Rate Decrease: Early testing showed a 20% drop in bounce rate on mobile
  • Increased Engagement: Average session time increased due to sticky article navigation and related post suggestions
  • Positive Feedback: Users appreciated the visual design, performance, and clean layout

📌 Key Takeaways

  • A clean, distraction-free UI with well-defined content zones dramatically improves content retention

  • Community features such as threaded comments and forums are key for long-term engagement

  • Mobile-first thinking is essential for news-heavy platforms

Thank you for viewing my project. I’d love to hear your thoughts or answer any questions you may have. Feel free to reach out!