UX Design | Athens Road Runners
Project SUMMARY
How can the run club better support new athletes in community building? Surveys and a comparative analysis informed a total rebrand of the ARR website. A unique tool gave runners a chance to connect…
Client
Athens Road Runners
My Role
UX Designer
Deliverables
Brand Design, Member Website, Online Community
Background
The mission of the Athens Road Runners is “to inspire and engage individuals to achieve health, fitness, and training goals through the sport of running.” While the original website was used to share information on community runs, the redesign allowed us to ask:
How can a website inspire someone to join a run club?
Using member surveys and market research, I redesigned the Athens Road Runners website and newsletter to give users a more tailored experience. The result was a year-over-year increase in membership enrollment and monthly growth in online engagement.
Goals
• Understand pain points of current members and their weekly attendance
• Identify the reason for drop-off from new athletes
• Increase membership renewal rates
Methods
My first step in the redesign process was to research aspirational track clubs. I chose various geographic areas with a broad range of populations to understand how community-running groups serve their specific locations. From the research, several themes made a website stand out:
Use of unique branding
A clear statement of group purpose
Recent images and information
Rationale
I chose a competitive analysis as my primary research method because it was cost effective and easy to execute in a two weeks. By observing successful clubs across the nation, I was able to quickly identify tools and formats that were fostering community.
Analysis
ONE SITE, TWO AUDIENCES
From user surveys, it was clear that two different audiences used the ARR website. Active members used the site to find information on yearly events and check the group run schedule. These users didn’t need to stay long on the site and could also ask other runners for supplemental information. A different audience, new users, experienced our website differently. These users had to learn several critical pieces of information quickly - like membership fees, weekly run rotations, and who to contact.
DESIGN SYSTEM
The original Athens Road Runners brand was established around 2011 and consisted of red, yellow, and white. Many aspects of the original branding were tied to a logo that was not widely used. With a new website in the works, rebuilding some of the brand from a design and usability standpoint made sense.
I designed a brief brand guide, attached below, to expand the colors of the website. The guidelines helped to ground the development of the website and other digital tools - like a Discord.
Screenshots from my competitive analysis.
Insights
Insight 1
Members Want to See Growth
Members like running, but they love to see the impact of their membership on the organization. New events and updated information should highlight the "wins" of each season.
Insight 2
New Athletes Need a Place to Go
Running creates an obstacle to meeting to people; as soon as the group run starts, there's little opportunity to make an introduction. New runners need a chance to say hi before they get to the event.
Insight 3
Members (Still) Use the Website
We operated under the assumption that members are reading their newsletter for weekly runs, but they were actually using the website. This information should be clear and concise on the home page.
Conclusions
🟢 High Impact
🔔 Engagement: This page saw over 200 new, unique users in the first month.
Social growth also went from 600 followers to 1,200 followers in one month.
🟢 High Impact
📆 Attendance: Members no longer needed to email or DM to understand (or find) the schedule.
Weekly attendance grew by ~15% after the update - with users citing the schedule.
🟢 High Impact
👋 Community: 55+ introduction emails in the first six weeks.
Thank you so much for reaching out. I’m from Switzerland and I’ve arrived here in Athens a little over a week ago. I’m very much looking forward to join you guys because I think it’s a great way to meet new people. It’s also my first time joining a running club so I’m excited about that as well.
USERS WANT TO MAKE A DIGITAL INTRODUCTION
A frequent pain-point for new members and visiting athletes was that they don’t know anyone in the club and it’s difficult to make introductions - especially when they don’t know if someone will run their pace.
I created a “New Athlete” page and made the primary action an introductory form that allows users to indicate what run they will attend. It motivates them to commit to a run and we can ensure a current member knows to look out for them.
55 athletes used the form to make an introduction in the first two months of the launch.
Limitations
The primary limitation of this approach was the sample size. Out of 500 members, roughly 60 contributed to in-person interviews or survey results. Through A/B testing, information on the homepage was validated as an effective change, but more work could be done to further the scope of member needs.