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.

Project TypeConcept

RoleIndependent User Researcher & Designer

TimelineNov 2025 – Jan 2026

Core SkillsResearch, Wireframing, Prototyping, Testing

ToolsFigma

01. Overview

Background · Problem · Solution

Background

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.

Problem

There is a complete lack of cohesion regarding the viewing experience. For a sport as nuanced as this, it was expected that a product used to view the sport would allow users to interact with its complexities to improve the viewing experience.

Solution

FIA WEC Digital Race Experience is a tool to elevate the World Endurance Championship viewing experience. It brings together a fragmented experience, allowing users to follow live timing, access live onboards, and piece together critical context they may have missed by stepping away during a race. The result is a cohesive, user-friendly tool that gives users total control over the amount of data they have available while watching a WEC race.

02. Research

Contextual Inquiry · Existing Solutions

Remote Contextual Inquiry: Live During the 2025 8 Hours of Bahrain

Participants joined one at a time via video call for a contextual inquiry during the live race.

Existing Solutions for Similar Products

When evaluating the current landscape of digital race experiences and live timing interfaces, participants and domain research highlighted several platforms attempting to solve pieces of this problem. Timing71, F1TV and F1 App, Alkamel Live Timing, IMSA TV, and MotoGP Video Pass all serve as existing solutions for their respective products, yet none fully bridged the gap between deep telemetry integration and a seamless, single-screen broadcast view.

F1TV and F1 App screenshot — F1TV & F1 App

Alkamel Live Timing screenshot — Alkamel Live Timing

MotoGP Video Pass screenshot — MotoGP Video Pass

Insights

I conducted my analysis on the data I gathered. I primarily used an empathy map to put myself in the shoes of the users. This particularly helped me understand how and why they felt frustration, especially during periods where they'd misunderstand the context during a race, or have to piece together a story through third-party apps.

Insight #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.

Insight #2

Tyre Age & Gaps Were Hidden

Tyre data rarely appears in broadcast, and current stint information is impossible to find quickly.

Insight #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.

Insight #4

Other Tools Worked, But Lacked a Cohesive Experience

F1TV served as a base to learn 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.

Opportunities & Requirements

I identified various opportunities and requirements for our design, which ultimately defined the direction we took.

This must be a cohesive system that brings together the three core parts identified (understanding context, a deep dive into strategic data, and multiple onboards).
Users need total control over what they see. Never bombard a casual fan with enthusiast-level data.
Allow the system to act as a single source of truth. Users should not have to leave the system to find data they want access to.

"How might we give fans a complete picture of the race without overwhelming them — in a single environment, tailored to their viewing habits?"

03. Design

Prototype Demo · Design Decisions · Lo-Fi Testing

Prototype Demo

Walkthrough demo of the FIA WEC Digital Race Experience

Decision #1

One Timing Tower, Two Density Modes, Independent Controls Per Class

'Full' mode shows tyre age, lap times, and gaps, and 'Condensed' mode strips back to positional basics for casual fans. A 'Hidden' option removes a class entirely. The lo-fi failure with the shared toggle produced the fix: each class now has its own independent control.

WEC Timing Tower Full Mode — 'Mixed' sidebar showing 'Full' and 'Condensed' options

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.

Example 2x2 4 player layout — Example 2x2 four-player layout

Decision #3

The Context Dashboard: Track Map, Onboards, and Highlights — One Tab at a Time

The five-second test failure established that 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. Users were happy with the integration, rather than a separate window (verified in testing). Highlights Rail: Key moments as a chronological catch-up timeline, directly addressing Insight #4.

Context Dashboard - Track Map tab — Dashboard — Track Map

Context Dashboard - Onboards tab — Dashboard — Onboards

Context Dashboard - Highlights tab — Dashboard — Highlights

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. Clicking jumps directly to that moment and triggers the screen hijack. A 'Live' button stays visible throughout, greyed out when behind the live edge, utilising the same visual pattern as YouTube.

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.

Video scrubber with highlight markers — Scrubber with highlight markers

Live button example — Video controls with greyed-out live button

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.

Audio decoupling options — Audio track options

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. This means that there is no new mental model to learn.

Mobile app home page during a race — Mobile timing

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. As one participant mentioned nearly missing a session after miscalculating the start time, I opted to build it in.

Mobile app home page pre-race — Mobile 'home' pre-race

Mobile app schedule page — Mobile 'schedule' page

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.

Landscape mode with timing panel active — Timing panel active

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.

Low-fidelity wireframe explorations for the WEC timing sidebar — Low-fidelity architectural exploration before high-fidelity implementation

04. Conclusion & Reflections

Next Steps · Reflection

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.

Reflection

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 but not whether the convention is correct. Although this design was fine in this context, I need to ensure I do not assume that the convention will be 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. This meant I had a few stabs at the design of how the system would deliver the highlights and how they could appear in chronological order.