Web Design in Dacono, Colorado: Colorado National Speedway
New Responsive Web Design build in Dacono, Colorado for a local racetrack Colorado National Speedway.
This brand new web design was by far the biggest project we have taken on to date & also a very complex website that has several moving parts to the entire site. For me, this was one of the most exciting projects to take on as this is my home race track where I spend nearly every weekend during the summer April through October enjoying great racing and seeing lots of good friends.
This web design project came about in late 2021 when the race track was looking to make a change in their web design program to enhance not only the fan experience but also a useful tool for the drivers and teams as well.
One of the biggest stipulations and challenges for us was keeping the page structure similar to what the (at the time) existing website had which included track sponsors, ticket links & more. One of the first things we did to maintain the same page structure was create icons for each of the four main pages visitors are looking for: Tickets, Schedule, Track Information & Driver's Corner (more on this in a moment). An idea I came up with while peeking at other race tracks website was to have a countdown of the next event with a ticket link & divisions running the upcoming week and decided to implement this and make it easy for fans to know when the next event would be and what divisions would be running the upcoming weekend. Another idea I came up to include a slideshow of the current 2021 divisional champions which are featured on a couple of pages. Another item the track wanted to include was a Facebook live feed to help with driving more traffic to Facebook where most updates occur. One of the biggest things you will see on each of the site pages are sponsors. This particular item was very important to the race track so all the sponsors would get some "love" from the race track & online presence. I came up with the idea to having a slide show of sponsors that would rotate every 5 seconds and also make each sponsor a clickable link to their website. Another major item on the new website was to maintain the written articles throughout the season with race results, news updates, tech news & more to keep fans informed about past events & upcoming shows. Designing the home page set the tone for how the entire rest of the Colorado National Speedway website was going to look...
Other major highlights:
Online Registration: One feature the race track was hoping to implement was the ability for drivers to register online at the beginning of the season to help alleviate all the large amount of paperwork required before the start of the season. We achieved this by creating a JotForm for registration where the drivers can pay for their registration & fill out all the paperwork needed to race at the speedway. (as of 3-28-22) This is one of the most popular items on the brand new website that everyone absolutely is stoked about having.
Driver's Corner: Colorado National Speedway (CNS) wanted to have a place for drivers & teams to be able to view anything related to the on track product which is where the track & myself put our heads together to create a Driver's Corner. Within this page there are links to all the divisional pages under this section of the website: Super Late Model, Pro Truck, Late Model, Grand American Modified, Figure 8, Super Stock, Pure Stock, Legends, Bandolero, Trains & Circle Drags. Under each specific divisional page there are links to the rules, online registration, rookie registration & more. A couple of new highlights that were added include a points section to display the Top 5 drivers after each event is complete, also included is a divisional schedule section that shows just when that particular division is racing. One idea that I came up with after working on these pages was creating a printable divisional schedule page to allow drivers, crews, & sponsors to print out their division only schedule so it is much easier to know when the next event is and can be placed inside the trailer, shop or place of business.
Points & Historical Points: Very little change happened with these pages other than the Historical Points page all the previous years points were combined into one big dropdown section instead of having multiple pages of different years.
Schedule: Another big change to the website is an interactive schedule page where fans can click on individual events & purchase tickets online for that event. Also once completed the event then shows a link to the race recap of the event.
Race Recaps: One of the biggest challenges we faced was moving over 200 posts from WordPress to Wix. We first transferred all the posts to my WordPress account so that they would be saved and be able to be referenced in the future. After that we began manually inputting the 2021 Race Recaps (which took forever it seemed) I knew there was a better way to do so. I knew Wix had the ability to transfer blogs from WordPress but I only wanted to transfer them one year at a time. I was able to do by creating several staging pages on WordPress that allowed me to sort the posts by year & made the transfer process much easier and quicker to import 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 & 2013 Race Recaps
Other items of note:
Ability to utilize contact forms for requesting information about hosting events, working at the speedway with the ability to upload their resume & general inquires.
The track has partnered with two nearby hotels to offer discounted rates to guests. We included pictures of each hotel & a direct link with the discounted rates.
One issue the track always has is getting groups to present the colors & sing the national anthem. One solution I came up with is to create an Opening Ceremonies page for groups to be able to reach out the speedway easily.
Another Page addition that we discussed implementing is for one of the biggest shows of the year the track puts on which is the Father's Day Super Sunday Monster Truck Show on Father's Day. This event is always a sell out and the track wanted a specific page for this event to be able to highlight with information and help generate even more ticket sales for the event.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to work on this project and want to thank Jim, Sue, Brian & the entire track staff for the opportunity to work on this website that I have been dreaming about building since I started Appelhans Designs in 2019. I am very much looking forward to a great 2022 season of racing coming up at Colorado National Speedway.
Comentários