Capital Driving club is a DC metropolitan based autocross enthusiasts club. They were founded in 2003 and offer many fun events in the area.

As an avid autocrosser, I check their website frequently for upcoming events, results and local news. While their site gets the job done, I think it could be much improved. For this case study I focused on the homepage as I felt it was one of the weakest page in regards to content.

A few things I liked about the current homepage was its simplicity and ease to navigate. The elements of the page are clear and involve a Header/Logo, navigation, brief introduction, event schedule call to action (CTA) and a footer. These are typical elements one might find on a homepage, however the contextual elements are only the introduction and CTA. Thus, leaving a homepage that doesn’t offer much to the user.

The Issues

When first using the site, I would grow irritated in having to click the results or schedule links from the homepage. For my particular purpose, it would make more sense to bookmark the results/schedule page. However, that defeats the purpose of the homepage functioning as an informational hub. So when redesigning this homepage, the focus was to accommodate the core user group and prospective members.

Following close to the original color palette, I kept the site’s vibrant tone, sharp contrasts and playful accent colors. Autocross course layout sketches were used as embellishments to give the background some character. The navigation was split into two groups. The first being utility links which were placed at the top of the page. The second group was the main navigation. Both navigational groups were reordered based on importance and relevance.

Moving down the page, CDC’s core introduction was given its own real-estate next to the slideshow image. This main feature area was intended to attract new users/prospective members. The slideshow would displaying images of their activities and events to further facilitate newcomers understand of Capital Driving Club.

Making the page Relevant

Next I focused on three aspects that would make the homepage relevant for CDC’s core user group. Already being apart of that user group, I drew upon questions and concerns I had when browsing their site. How do I become a member? When is the next event? Where will the results be posted? Having elements on the page to address these questions would make this page more usable.

In this design these elements are “Want to become a member,” “Upcoming Events,” and “Recent results.” A dark gray bar surrounding these elements unifies them, while also sharply contrasting against the feature and content area. The “Become a member” section is now a clear call to action, where it was previously buried in the introduction. Furthermore, Upcoming event and Recent Results give the core user a quick preview to upcoming events or downloading posted results.

The content area was split into two columns to allow for the latest news and advertisements/sponsors. The news articles were pulled from CDC’s news blog and feature one entry at a time. Since it does not appear to be updated frequently, I felt one entry would be fitting for the homepage. This area could also act as a place for important announcements.

Overall I feel the results of this case study present a more useable and relevant homepage for their users. Please note that this case study was just merely an exercise and to perform a real redesign would require much more research and information from the client.