Coral Racing Club
The product: The Coral Racing Club is a membership programme for Coral customers to
experience what it’s like to own and train racehorses. Members will also have exclusive access to news articles, blogs, competitions and various other benefits.
experience what it’s like to own and train racehorses. Members will also have exclusive access to news articles, blogs, competitions and various other benefits.
Boost engagement, identify problem areas, enhance navigation, and implement a comprehensive UI refresh.
Identifying the problems:
To help identify which areas of the site needed improvements we held brainstorming workshops with the product managers and content creators. Alongside this, user interviews where conducted to establish any pain points that they have encountered and the following areas were highlighted:
Dedicated content areas.
The current site had inconsistent journeys depending on what areas of the site they wanted to access. Some sections would load in the feed while others would take you away. So developing a more uniformed journey would provide a more cohesive and clear user experience.
Improve site navigation.
The current navigation functionality was very limited for the user.
Include search functionality.
Due to site content constantly increasing a search feature would greatly help the user locate content more efficiently.
Improve filtering functionality.
Due to site content constantly increasing an improved filter feature would again help the user to find the content that they require.
Ability for users to react to content.
This new feature could help drive engagement and highlight popular articles.
Full UI refresh.
Current site felt dated and lacked sufficient hierarchy.
Current site felt dated and lacked sufficient hierarchy.
Research
Takeaways:
Due to the extra content areas that will be included I looked into different menu systems that would help solve the current problems and improve the user experience.
Featured content could be highlighted within the new navigation.
Due to the extra content areas that will be included I looked into different menu systems that would help solve the current problems and improve the user experience.
Featured content could be highlighted within the new navigation.
Carousels could be used on all areas of the homepage to allow quicker access to content.
Easily accessible entry points to view all content.
Introducing tabs to filter content would improve and make for a more time efficient experience.
Clearly defined sections that use larger imagery to make it more visually appealing.
Easily accessible entry points to view all content.
Introducing tabs to filter content would improve and make for a more time efficient experience.
Clearly defined sections that use larger imagery to make it more visually appealing.
Data insights
How user engagement was split between each content areas during the first year of release.
(31 Mar 23 - 26 Apr 24)
(31 Mar 23 - 26 Apr 24)
Takeaways from data collected:
‘Competitions’ page is the most viewed page and has the lowest interaction % within the footer (most likely users are reaching this area through CRM). Does ‘Get Involved’ term needs to be changed?
‘Competitions’ is the most popular page. Needs to be more prominent on the homepage.
Trainers page has the lowest interaction number. Does it need to be merged with ‘Our Horses’ page? Does it need to be placed in the main menu area?
‘Sportsbook’ tab has relatively high % interaction within the footer. Still needs to be placed in an easily accessible area.
‘Competitions’ is the most popular page. Needs to be more prominent on the homepage.
Trainers page has the lowest interaction number. Does it need to be merged with ‘Our Horses’ page? Does it need to be placed in the main menu area?
‘Sportsbook’ tab has relatively high % interaction within the footer. Still needs to be placed in an easily accessible area.
Analysis and Planning
From all the information gathered during the initial stages of this project, I started to plan the best solution to solve the current issues.
Wireframes were created for all the new content areas and proposed improvements.
Improving the site navigation
Problem. The existing navigation was very limited providing entry points to only 4 areas.
Solution. Re-order navigation so most popular are aligned from the left. Include a burger menu to provide quicker access to other areas of the site.
Problem. The addition of new content areas made it challenging for users to navigate effectively.
Solutions:
1. Include a search feature within the menu
2. Create an area to display new / featured content
3. Create sub categories for content heavy sections
within a drop down
within a drop down
4. Sign posting when new content is added.
UI refresh - before and after
Here is an example of the homepage UI after the refresh.
Larger header styles were implemented to make scrolling and identifying each section easier for the user.
Larger images were used to make the pages more visually appealing.
Carousels with pagination were added across all of the content areas.
The ability to react to content was applied to areas such as news, videos and blogs to highlight popular content.
An overall cleaner design was applied across the site as the previous UI was too cluttered which made it harder to navigate.
Original UI
Updated UI
Final screen examples
Post launch data
New site launched on 30th Jan 24
60 days since launch, Coral Racing Club has gained over 45k members.
60 days since launch, Coral Racing Club has gained over 45k members.
6 months after launch - Memberships grew to 210,000 members.
Number of users doubled in the 3 months after launch.
Number of users doubled in the 3 months after launch.
Data for Total Users 3 months before launch 91.3K
Data for Total Users 3 months after launch 186.5K
To date we have over 230,000 members and growing.
Data for Total Users 3 months after launch 186.5K
To date we have over 230,000 members and growing.
Iterations and next steps
As the 1st anniversary of the launch approaches I would like to get some user feedback on the new product to highlight any pain points and identify any areas that could further be improved. I would request data for the engagement across the site to see how the new content areas are performing.
I would also like to explore ways of making the experience more personal to the user. Favourite articles, horses, trainers etc could be selected by the user and tailored content could be displayed in its own designated area.