FIA WEC Digital Race Experience
A real-time data dashboard for WEC that stops users jumping between apps, giving them modular control over high-density telemetry, car gps tracking, and live video.
Built Out of Frustration With a Sport I've Watched for Years
I've followed FIA WEC for years. When WEC TV launched, I expected live timing, onboards, and strategy data in one place. What arrived was a TV feed in a web page. To watch an onboard, you opened a new tab and synced it manually. No multi-view, no live timing alongside the broadcast, no real integration — so I built a desktop and mobile viewing platform that pulls it all into one place.
F1TV set the layout conventions worth following. Timing71 proved deep timing data has an audience — but its complete absence of broadcast integration confirmed the gap I was designing into.
Being inside the community shortened recruitment and sharpened interview questions. It also meant checking every assumption against observed behaviour, not just what I believed as a fan.
The Final Product: High-Fidelity Prototype
Fans Were Juggling Three Apps Just to Follow One Race
Remote Contextual Inquiry: Live During the 2025 8 Hours of Bahrain
Participants joined one at a time via video call for a one-hour observation window during the live race — real app-switching, not recalled behaviour. Enthusiasts ran three or more apps in parallel, averaging twelve context app switches per hour just to track strategy. Casual fans rarely switched but returned from breaks to a leaderboard that had moved on, with no way to reconstruct what happened. Both groups ended up on social media to fill the gaps.
- Sample Skew: All six participants came from my personal network. Four enthusiasts, two casual fans — findings skew towards deep-data users.
- Observation Window: A single snapshot. No data on how behaviour shifts across a full endurance race.
Four Problems From Observation and Interviews
Problem #1
No Single Source of Truth
Constant app-switching to build a picture of the race left unavoidable gaps in context across the entire event.
Problem #2
Tyre Age & Gaps Were Hidden
Tyre data rarely appears in broadcast, and current stint information is impossible to find quickly — the strategic picture simply isn't there.
Problem #3
A Text Leaderboard Told No Story
Fans mainly follow one class but still care about the other. A flat text leaderboard forces users to monitor both at once with no way to deprioritise one without losing it.
Problem #4
Missing Context Fractured the Experience
Both fan types stepped away and returned to find standings had changed, left to use social media to reconstruct what they missed.
"How might we give fans a complete picture of the race without overwhelming them — in a single environment, tailored to their viewing habits?"
Lo-Fi Testing Caught Three Layout Failures Before Any Visual Design Started
Failure #1 — shared class toggle: the initial wireframes controlled timing density for both classes with one toggle. Every participant wanted per-class control.
Failure #2 — information overload: rendering the timing tower, multi-feed panel, and context dashboard simultaneously failed a five-second test — participants couldn't find a clear starting point.
Failure #3 — Picture-in-Picture: every user expected highlights to replace the main feed. The PiP window was too small to view and two overlapping streams created frustration rather than focus.
Design Decisions
The UI is dark throughout — Bahrain, Qatar, and Le Mans run deep into the night, and six-hour sessions in low light demanded it. It keeps official WEC branding, typography and design system.
Decision #1
One Timing Tower, Two Density Modes, Independent Controls Per Class
'Full' mode shows tyre age, lap times, and gaps; 'Condensed' mode strips back to positional basics. A 'Hidden' option removes a class entirely. The lo-fi failure with the shared toggle produced the key fix: each class has its own independent control.
Decision #2
Up to Four Feeds — No Mode Imposed, User Sets Their Own Setup
During contextual inquiry, enthusiasts naturally topped out at three to four feeds; casual fans stayed on one. Lo-fi testing validated this — no participant added more than four screens unprompted. Four became the ceiling. A casual fan can run a single feed with sidebars hidden. An enthusiast can run four with full data. The platform doesn't impose a mode.
Decision #3
The Context Dashboard: Track Map, Onboards, and Highlights — One Tab at a Time
The five-second test failure established showing all three panels at once was too much. Each tab maps to a research finding:
- Track Map: Requested directly by enthusiasts — physical context a text leaderboard can't provide (traffic, pit windows, gaps).
- Onboards Tray: Add up to four camera feeds without navigating nested menus.
- Highlights Rail: Key moments as a chronological catch-up timeline, directly addressing Problem #4.
Decision #4
The Video Scrubber: Jump to Incidents, Return to Live in One Tap
Yellow blocks mark incident points on the scrubber timeline. Hovering reveals a contextual pop-up card naming the event — collision, pit stop, position change. Clicking jumps directly to that moment and triggers the screen hijack. A 'Live' button stays visible throughout, greyed out when behind the live edge — same pattern as YouTube. One tap back to the broadcast, no menu hunting.
To combat the bunching of yellow blocks on the video timeline, only race "critical" elements will be added to the video timeline. All incidents and events that occur will be available through the highlights tab to avoid visual clutter on the main live timeline.
Decision #5
Four of Six Participants Used Third-Party Commentary — So the Audio Track Decouples From the Feed
Four of six participants used independent commentary networks (Radio Le Mans being most common) over the official TV audio. The audio track decouples from the video feed, letting users strip the broadcast to ambient track noise and run their preferred commentary alongside without conflict.
Decision #6
Mobile Timing Tower: Same Controls as Desktop — No New Mental Model
Contextual inquiry showed participants regularly checked timing on mobile while watching on a TV. The timing tower is the primary full-screen view on mobile, with the same per-class Full/Condensed/Hidden toggles as desktop. No new mental model to learn.
Decision #7
Pre-Race Home Screen Gives Casual Fans Enough Context to Follow What Happens
The home screen surfaces key storylines and live news before the race starts. The schedule screen includes a local time zone toggle: one participant mentioned nearly missing a session after miscalculating the start time — reason enough to build it in.
Decision #8
Landscape Mode: Timing Panel Slides Over the Feed, Dismissed in One Tap
'Watch Now' locks to landscape and defaults to a full 16:9 feed. The timing panel slides in over the video feed once tapped and stays narrow so dismissal is frictionless. 'Hide Timing' removes it in a single tap.
Next Steps: Does the Screen Hijack Trap Users During Live Moments?
Hi-fi validation on both platforms is next, and one risk needs testing directly before anything else.
Reflections
I Validated a Convention, Not Whether It Was Right
The timing tower sits on the left because every motorsport broadcast puts it there. Testing confirmed users expect it there. But I never tested whether it's actually the best placement. I confirmed the convention — not whether the convention is correct.
Having a Developer in the Room From Day One Changed How I Design
I brought a software engineer friend into the project early. I'd sketch out an idea and he'd tell me exactly why it was a nightmare to build. Brutal, but necessary on something this data-heavy. Having to justify designs against hard technical limits taught me more than working alone ever had.