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Race day has
a new home.

A purpose-built membership platform for a private motorsports club. iOS app, admin web panel, and everything in between.

Role UX and UI design, design system
Client Orbus Innovation for Rafa Racing
Timeline Oct 2022 – Dec 2023
Platform iOS, web admin, consumer web
Type Bespoke client platform
Status Design complete, client pivoted

Overview

A club at this level needs a platform that matches it.

We partnered with Orbus Innovation to design and build the Exclusive Racing Club platform from scratch. The brief was exact. A private motorsports community needed a digital home, and nothing off the shelf came close to fitting what they required. Member applications, event management, lap time tracking, leaderboard competition, clubhouse simulator reservations, and an in-app shop are not features any ready-made platform serves at this level of specificity. We designed end to end UX and UI across iOS, consumer web, and a full admin panel, working alongside a developer, a payments specialist, and a project manager. The engagement concluded with a complete, TestFlight-vetted iOS app and a running web platform before the client shifted direction.

Opportunity

Build the thing that does not exist yet.

The market for private motorsports club software had a clear gap. Generic event platforms could handle ticketing. CRMs could handle members. Nothing could hold a racing club's full operating model in a single coherent product. Approval-gated membership, tiered access, car profiles with hashtag identities, lap data, community, and a simulator booking system. That gap was the brief.

  1. 01 Apply online Web membership form
  2. 02 Admin reviews Approval dashboard
  3. 03 Pay to join Stripe membership tiers
  4. 04 Access app Full iOS experience
  5. 05 Race. Log. Compete. Events, laps, leaderboard

Design System

Dark, native, and built to feel like the sport.

Motorsport is nighttime paddock light. The entire platform ships in dark mode. Deep charcoal surfaces, Rafa Racing red (#BA2528) as the primary brand color, and a secondary blue (#1977DA) reserved for interactive affordances. The typography runs on Kanit, condensed, bold, athletic. Leaderboard rank numbers render in ExtraBold Italic with a hot-pink-to-red gradient. The design system is iOS-native throughout.

  • Leaderboard screen. Member rankings by track with gradient rank numbers and per-car lap times.
    Leaderboard
  • Past events screen with the Your Last Race recap and best lap.
    Events
  • Event detail screen with a per-track SVG illustration.
    Event detail
  • Public profile screen with hexagonal avatar and car hashtag library.
    Profile

Design Decisions

Five decisions that made the product feel like itself.

  1. Kanit: the typeface as a design decision, not a default

    Condensed, geometric, athletic. Kanit formats lap times at 17px with the same authority it brings to the 36px leaderboard rank numbers in ExtraBold Italic with a hot-pink-to-red gradient. Competitive intensity through typography alone.

    Typographic system identity
  2. Hexagonal profile avatars

    Circular avatars are default. A hexagonal clip, applied to user-uploaded photos, signals immediately that this app is built for a specific tribe. It carries from profile to event attendee rows to the leaderboard at every component size.

    Differentiates at first open
  3. The #hashtag car identity system

    Members name their cars, #tigerchase, #yellowbandit, and that handle is their identity everywhere: event registration, lap times, leaderboard, shop. The red # earns its prominence every time it appears.

    System-wide identity token
  4. SVG race track illustrations, per event

    Each track has a custom SVG outline, Texas Motor Speedway, COTA, Austin, Paris, rendered in Rafa Racing red on dark event cards. Members recognize tracks from shape alone. Admin accepts SVGs as assets. New tracks extend the library without a design update.

    Custom per-track asset library
  5. Lap time entry gated to registered events, not a freeform log

    Tying lap entry to a registered event means the system confirms the member was actually there before accepting data. It feeds the leaderboard with trustworthy times and gives the admin panel a meaningful participation record. One logic gate that removes a whole class of disputes.

    Data integrity over flexibility

App Store

The app store marketing campaign.

Drag to see all screens →

  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 1
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 2
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 3
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 4
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 5
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 6
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 7
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 8
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 9
  • Rafa Racing Club App Store marketing screen 10

Full Scope

Everything we designed and shipped.

A 36k fixed fee across iOS app and web platform. Alongside Caleb Nance on development, Luis Lopez at Openlandmark on payments, and Zavida Mangaru as project manager. Four codebases, full-stack integration with Stripe, Mailchimp, and AWS S3.

Feature areaWhat shippedPlatform
Membership ApplicationWeb form to Mailchimp to admin approval to setup emailWeb · Admin
EventsUpcoming and past, racing and social types, track SVG, "Your Last Race" recap with best lapiOS
Event RegistrationCar selection, equipment add-ons, transport fields, Stripe payment, event perksiOS · Web
Lap Time TrackingPost-event entry, per-car, millisecond precision, locked to registered eventsiOS
LeaderboardPersonal standings per track, community board, gradient rank numbers, top-100 expansioniOS
Profile and CarsHex avatar, racing number, social links, car hashtag library, track photos, event historyiOS
Clubhouse ReservationsDriving and golf simulator booking, time-slot selection, admin calendar viewiOS · Admin
Chat and CommunityPer-event post feed, comments, photo uploadsiOS
ShopRental cars by hashtag, equipment, Shopify-connected merchiOS
AuthenticationEmail and password, Face ID and Touch ID, forgot password flowiOS · Web
Admin PanelMember tiers, events and tracks CRUD, rental cars, equipment, simulator scheduling, approval workflowWeb · Admin

Prototype

Click through the live flow.

A working slice of the iOS app. Use the tabs to move between the screens members navigated, and scroll any screen to its full length. The complete clickable prototype lives in Figma.

9:41
Leaderboard screen with member rankings by track. Event listing screen with the Your Last Race recap. Event detail screen with a per-track SVG illustration. Public profile screen with hexagonal avatar.
Open the full prototype in FigmaEvery flow, clickable, 145 screens Open in Figma ↗

Admin Platform

The panel that runs the club behind the scenes.

A Next.js web application at admin.rafaracing.app. The same backend, a different surface. Approving applications, loading events and tracks, managing rental inventory, monitoring simulator reservations. Permission tiers are hard-coded at the database level. One Super Admin, below which Admins and Employees operate within defined limits.

admin.rafaracing.app/members/active Admin members, active member list.
Members, active
admin.rafaracing.app/members/review Admin members, new applicants review queue.
Members, new applicants
admin.rafaracing.app/members/profile Admin member profile detail.
Members, profile detail
admin.rafaracing.app/events/detail Admin event detail.
Events, event detail
admin.rafaracing.app/clubhouse Admin clubhouse racing reservations.
Clubhouse, reservations
admin.rafaracing.app/clubhouse/simulators Admin clubhouse racing simulators schedule.
Clubhouse, simulators
1 of 6
View admin and web platform designsDesktop nav, Members, Events, Reservations Open in Figma ↗

Results

Fourteen builds. A complete platform. A client who then pivoted.

First TestFlight build January 2023. Fourteen builds later, full end to end functionality across every feature area. Members used it at live events in November 2023. The client then shifted strategic direction. The platform was not publicly launched. For the portfolio, a complete zero-to-one platform build, from IA through design system through a production-tested iOS app.

14
TestFlight builds shipped to beta
4
Codebases: iOS, Admin, API, Web
145
iOS screens designed

"We moved quickly from concept and design to a working platform that supported the vision for a first-of-its-kind racing club. Levi's design work helped turn a complex idea into something real and tangible."

Junaid Basdeo, Orbus Innovation
Explore the full iOS app design145 screens, all flows, component states, design system Open in Figma ↗