Kansas City Women’s Soccer Club
Project overview
Project: Rapid website design & launch to support expansion team debut and fan engagement
Role: Senior UX Designer — led rapid discovery, IA, interaction design, prototyping, content assembly, and launch coordination
Timeline: 1 week (end-to-end, with overtime through launch)
Team: Club leadership, Volunteer Content Contributors, Front-end Dev, Marketing/Social Lead
Context An expansion women’s soccer club in Kansas City needed a fan-facing website one week before their first player draft and public announcements. The site had to build excitement, capture fan signups, sell early-season memberships/tickets, and provide a hub for roster/news while the club ramped other marketing channels.
Problem
Extremely compressed timeline (7 days) to design, build, and launch.
No existing site or digital home to centralize announcements, ticketing, and fan signup.
Need to generate excitement and credibility quickly to support draft publicity and early ticket sales.
Limited content available; many assets (roster, schedule) were pending finalization.
Goals & success metrics
Launch a live website in 7 days
Capture 2,500+ fan emails/signups in first 30 days
Sell 1,000+ early-bird tickets/memberships within first month
Drive social follows and draft-event attendance via site CTAs
Provide a flexible CMS for rapid content updates (roster, news, schedule)
Approach (rapid, prioritized)
Rapid discovery & alignment (day 1)
2-hour kickoff with club leadership to confirm launch priorities, brand assets, ticketing links, and required pages.
Defined MVP: Home, About, Tickets/Memberships, News/Announcements, Contact/Sign-up.
Content triage & templates (day 1–2)
Collected ready assets (logo, colors, draft teaser copy, social links).
Created publish-ready copy blocks and lightweight templates for placeholder content (roster teasers, schedule “coming soon”).
Fast IA & design (day 2–3)
Designed single-screen hero-first home with clear draft/ticket CTAs, email signup, and live social feed.
Mobile-first layout prioritized (audience mostly mobile).
Prototyping & build (day 3–6)
Built responsive templates and CMS fields for rapid updates.
Implemented ticketing and membership CTAs linking to payment provider; integrated email capture.
Content population & QA (day 6)
Trained volunteers on CMS for next-day roster and news updates.
QA across devices and fast load/performance checks.
Launch & live support (day 7)
Coordinated with social marketing for announcement, monitored traffic, and handled hotfixes overnight.
Research & constraints
No time for formal user research; relied on quick stakeholder interviews, existing fan behavior patterns, and best-practice heuristics for sports sites.
Prioritized mobile UX, fast CTAs, social proof, and clear ticketing paths based on expected user goals.
Design solutions
Hero-first homepage: bold draft countdown, primary ticket/membership CTA, email signup with incentive (early access/discount).
Single-click ticket flow: direct CTAs to payment provider + microcopy clarifying what membership includes.
Live social & news feed: embedded social stream and announcement module to show activity and credibility.
Roster & schedule placeholders: designed modular cards to accept content as it became available with “Notify me” CTAs.
CMS templates: content blocks for quick publishing of roster updates, match reports, and event pages.
Analytics & monitoring: events for signup, ticket CTA click, social share, and page load to monitor traffic spikes.
Outcomes (first 30 days / launch metrics)
Site launched on time in 7 days.
Fan email signups: 3,400+ within 30 days (exceeded 2,500 target).
Early-bird tickets/memberships sold: 1,350+ in first month (exceeded 1,000 target).
Social growth: Facebook/Instagram follows increased 42% tied to site-driven CTAs and shared configs.
Draft event attendance: sold-out or near-capacity for primary draft viewing event (tracked via ticket links).
Low friction updates: roster and schedule updates published same day via CMS, reducing manual coordination overhead.
Deliverables
Live responsive website (home, tickets, news, roster templates)
CMS templates and quick-edit guide for club volunteers
Analytics event map for signups/tickets/social CTAs
Post-launch support plan and sprint backlog for ongoing features (merch shop, season schedule automation)
Learnings & impact
In extreme timeboxes, clear prioritization (what must exist at launch vs. post-launch) enables a successful product that can scale.
Mobile-first, hero-focused pages with single prominent CTAs maximize quick conversions for event-driven launches.
Enabling non-technical volunteers with simple CMS templates is critical for sports clubs with rapidly changing content.
Real-world launch monitoring and overnight support catch edge cases and maintain momentum during high-traffic announcements.