Overview
The Problem
The Solution
Usability Testing
Takeways
Solving product engagement challenges for the INDYCAR Fantasy Racing Game
For Recruiters - What This Case Study Is About
App Design
Competitive Research
Wireframes
Persona Development
Design System
Usability Testing
INDYCAR Fantasy Racing is like Fantasy Football, but for INDYCAR racing and serves as a Marketing & Fan Engagement Product that's designed to improve a user/fan's connection with the sport. Before each race, players create their own “fantasy lineup” by selecting real INDYCAR drivers based on factors like track performance, recent form, and race conditions.
Despite a loyal fanbase, the game suffered from low retention, short session times, and steep mid-season drop-offs.
To address this, I led a redesign focused on simplifying gameplay, embedding real-time race data, and introducing new engagement loops that kept fans connected between races.
The result was a more data-driven and rewarding experience that improved usability (SUS 71→74) and increased daily active users by 15% during pilot testing.
Year
2023
For
INDYCAR Penske
Role
Product Design Consultant
Tech Stack
Figma, MIRO, SurveyMonkey
The 5 Body Problem
Despite INDYCAR’s strong fan base, the Fantasy Racing Game struggled to maintain sizable engagement beyond the first few race weekends. Users interacted mainly during live race events, with long gaps of inactivity between races and during the off-season.
However, even within these active windows, the product’s retention and frequency metrics fell well below industry benchmarks for fantasy sports platforms.
User Retention: Only 27% of registered users who started the season were still submitting lineups by mid-season (Week 9), compared to an industry average of 45–55% in similar fantasy products
Session Frequency: The average player logged in 1.6 times per race week, far below benchmarks from fantasy football or F1 fantasy, which typically see 3–5 sessions as users research, swap drivers, and monitor results.
Engagement Drop-off: After an initial burst of enthusiasm, participation steadily declined beyond the first three races. Lineup submissions and leaderboard views dipped week-over-week, indicating that initial curiosity didn’t translate into long-term season engagement.
Unfriendly Mobile Experience: INDYCAR’s mobile fantasy experience was not a true app-based product but rather a scaled-down version of the desktop site optimized to fit smaller screens. The interface was essentially a responsive web view with limited adaptation for mobile interaction patterns - menus, navigation, and data layouts were compressed rather than restructured. As a result, core tasks like selecting drivers or checking scores felt constrained, with interactions relying on desktop-style tap targets and scrolling behaviors that didn’t translate well to mobile use.
A Limited Window of Opportunity:
There are 18 INDYCAR races each year, which represent 18 key engagement events.
Held from March to August, each race has a gap of about 1-3 weeks on avg.
Therefore, product engagement ebs and flows every 3 weeks around a race event. Like this
The 5 Body Solution
Formulating new engagement loops
Revamping the information architecture
The mobile experience for INDYCAR Fantasy offered only two primary interaction paths - viewing past race scores and locking in driver picks for the next event. Beyond these transactional actions, the app provided little opportunity for exploration, learning, or community engagement.
From a UX standpoint, this created a shallow information architecture that limited users’ ability to engage meaningfully between race weekends.
A new product architecture was in dire need, one that kept fans and users glued to the game, maintaining the spirit and thrill of fantasy gaming and the sport.
Old Information Architecture
From a UX standpoint, this created a shallow information architecture that limited users’ ability to engage meaningfully between race weekends.
A new product architecture was in dire need, one that kept fans and users glued to the game, maintaining the spirit and thrill of fantasy gaming and the sport.
New Information Architecture
graphics undergoing updates
Research Insights
The fantasy game in it's current state, fails to recognize individual needs of different user personas.
The Hardcore Fan
Deeply invested in motorsport data and driver performance. This user loves the statistical angle of sports and frequents watching race events or consumes sports analysis content through digital media platforms
Motivation: Prove expertise and outperform peers through supreme knowledge of the sport for absolute bragging rights.
Pain Point: Frustrated by the lack of in-depth stats or analytics tools within the game.
Behavioral Pattern: High engagement during race weekends; low tolerance for shallow interfaces.
The Involved Fan
This user sits between seasoned fans and newcomers - someone who follows INDYCAR casually and has a moderate understanding of the sport, but doesn’t regularly engage with fantasy games. They’re drawn in by race-day excitement and brand familiarity rather than the competitive mechanics of fantasy play.
Motivation: Stay connected to the sport, test their knowledge, and participate in something that enhances race-day viewing.
Pain Point: Finds the platform too transactional and lacking storytelling or contextual guidance that helps them make confident picks.
Behavioral Pattern: Engages briefly before each race, then drops off until the next event. Interaction peaks around qualifying or race weekends, but doesn’t extend beyond.
The New Fan
A casual player discovering the sport through fantasy participation. Often joins through social invitation or curiosity rather than deep fandom.
Motivation: Learn about INDYCAR drivers and tracks while having fun.
Pain Point: Overwhelmed by jargon, scoring complexity, and lack of onboarding guidance.
Behavioral Pattern: Shorter, infrequent sessions; high churn after initial participation.
Revamped game flow
A data driven experience for making fantasy picks
To deepen engagement and help players make informed decisions, I designed an interactive performance modal that surfaces key driver analytics within the lineup selection flow. A pop-up modal displays concise, race-relevant insights such as qualifying position, average finish, track history, and performance trends. This data-driven layer transforms the previously static selection screen into a strategic decision space, allowing users to compare drivers without leaving the main prediction flow.
New Gameplay Flow
How Does it Improve Product Engagement?
The Integrated Sports Data Modal directly embeds into the gameplay flow players. By allowing users to view trends, performance indicators, and live conditions inline - without breaking flow - we anchor users inside the app’s ecosystem longer, while increasing confidence and informed engagement.
Increase session depth: Turn lineup building from a 1-step submission into a 3–4-step exploration (open modal → compare stats → finalize picks → save).
Reduce cognitive switching cost: Eliminate the need to leave the app for research.
Drive repeat visits: Crafted a dynamic experience where data updates (practice, qualifying, weather) trigger new reasons to re-engage before the race.
How Does it Improve Product Engagement?
The Integrated Sports Data Modal directly embeds into the gameplay flow players. By allowing users to view trends, performance indicators, and live conditions inline - without breaking flow - we anchor users inside the app’s ecosystem longer, while increasing confidence and informed engagement.
Increase session depth: Turn lineup building from a 1-step submission into a 3–4-step exploration (open modal → compare stats → finalize picks → save).
Reduce cognitive switching cost: Eliminate the need to leave the app for research.
Drive repeat visits: Crafted a dynamic experience where data updates (practice, qualifying, weather) trigger new reasons to re-engage before the race.
Usability Testing
# Feature 1 - Integrated Sports Data & Statistics Modal
Fantasy players rely heavily on contextual data — driver form, qualifying position, and track performance — to make informed predictions. Prior to the redesign, INDYCAR’s fantasy app provided minimal statistical context, forcing users to switch between multiple sources: live broadcasts, Twitter updates, and online race news and blog sources. This constant context switching led to fragmented attention.
Old Design
New Design
How Does it Improve Product Engagement?
The Integrated Sports Data Modal directly embeds into the gameplay flow players. By allowing users to view trends, performance indicators, and live conditions inline - without breaking flow - we anchor users inside the app’s ecosystem longer, while increasing confidence and informed engagement.
Increase session depth: Turn lineup building from a 1-step submission into a 3–4-step exploration (open modal → compare stats → finalize picks → save).
Reduce cognitive switching cost: Eliminate the need to leave the app for research.
Drive repeat visits: Crafted a dynamic experience where data updates (practice, qualifying, weather) trigger new reasons to re-engage before the race.