Redesigning a sports experience platform for Futbaltour

Building an Experience Platform

The client’s ambition was not just to redesign the website, but to fundamentally change the way the sales process works.

Key goals:

• move closer to the standard of global e-commerce platforms,
• allow customers to complete purchases without assistance,
• reduce the workload on the sales team,
• increase the conversion rate from inquiries to orders.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges was handling the complexity of Futbaltour’s offering. Different sports, product types, and service variations made orientation and decision making difficult for users.

The ordering process was also demanding. It relied heavily on manual communication with the sales team. The goal was therefore to design a more self service oriented and scalable sales model.

Another challenge was translating the strong Futbaltour brand into a digital product in a way that supported usability and orientation instead of making them more difficult.

User Needs

We analyzed how users interacted with the Futbaltour website. We focused on their behavior, expectations, and barriers throughout the entire experience, from search to purchase. We then transformed the identified problems into opportunities for the new website.

Findings and opportunities

Users struggled to navigate the offer and understand the difference between tickets and travel packages. Search results were often inaccurate and important information about products, availability, or pricing was missing.

We therefore designed a clearer offer structure, more accurate search, and pricing visibility wherever it made sense. The proposal also focused on strengthening self service purchasing without the need for manual communication.

Mapping the Market and Industry Standards

Through competitor analysis, we wanted to better understand market standards, proven e-commerce patterns, and opportunities for differentiation. Alongside local competitors, we also analyzed global platforms from the experience segment, especially their approach to search, ticket selection, and the purchase flow.

The analysis showed that the local market lags behind mainly in UX and automation, while global platforms offer a much higher level of self service and transparency.

The direction was clear: combine proven e-commerce principles with elements from the travel segment and create one unified purchasing experience for both tickets and travel packages.

Internal Process Analysis

Our goal was to understand how internal processes work across the entire organization, from order processing all the way to trip execution. We mapped the collaboration between production and logistics teams, the activities of sales representatives after receiving an order, and the role of delegates during trips.

Findings

The analysis confirmed that one of the main limitations was customers’ dependency on manual assistance, without which they often could not complete a purchase. At the same time, it revealed uneven demand and a heavy workload on sales teams caused by manual communication.

Opportunities

We saw an opportunity in better offer management, reducing the workload on sales representatives, and increasing automation within the purchase flow. The goal was to create a faster and more scalable e-commerce model.

Data

We analyzed the performance and seasonality of the Futbaltour, Fotbaltour, Fussbaltour, and Focitour websites. We compared conversions across channels as well as traffic to different sections of the websites in order to identify key areas for redesign.

One interesting insight was the high traffic on the blog, which was not sufficiently connected to the offer itself. It lacked CTA elements as well as upsell and cross-sell opportunities, revealing significant room to improve the conversion potential of the content.

Direction for the New Website

Business goals

We wanted to move Futbaltour closer to modern e-commerce platforms, with a focus on better customer experience, higher automation, and a simpler purchasing process.

Workshop

During the workshop, we prioritized features, compared business needs with technical possibilities, and defined the direction for the new website: build a sports experience platform, not compete on the lowest price.

Information Architecture

One of the key parts of the design process was defining the information architecture so that it reflected real user behavior and supported fast decision making.

We simplified navigation, adjusted the hierarchy between tickets and travel packages, and redesigned the logic behind search and sports categorization.

We also connected the purchasing flow with the information architecture so users could naturally continue through the process without unnecessary steps or sales assistance.

Event Detail as the Core of the Experience

The original website displayed a single event as multiple separate pages depending on the product type. This created duplication, confusing search results, complicated decision making, and inefficient content management.

The new solution positioned the event itself as the main entity. Each sports event now exists only once, with all offer variants available on a single page, significantly simplifying comparison and selection.

The event detail became the key part of the product. The interface clearly communicates pricing, availability, and the next step, from a non binding inquiry to an instant purchase.

Strong Brand Identity

The Futbaltour brand was built on bold typography, contrasting colors, and geometric elements. Bringing this identity into the product interface without negatively impacting usability was challenging.

The biggest challenge was finding the right balance between strong visuals and readability. The situation was further complicated by changing stakeholder preferences, which gradually shifted from a more expressive direction toward a more restrained UI.

The final result was a compromise. We preserved the character of the brand while ensuring its elements support orientation and decision making.

Validating the Design in Practice

We mainly tested the purchasing flow and the event detail page, the place where users make decisions.

During six user testing sessions, we validated different layout variations and ways of communicating the offer. Testing confirmed a preference for list based layouts, which felt clearer and better supported decision making.

At the same time, we uncovered weak points in how textual information was presented, which led to simplifying the content and making communication during the purchasing process more compact.

What We Delivered and What We Learned

The Futbaltour project was primarily about transforming a content driven website into a full scale e-commerce product.

For the client, we delivered a clearer offer structure, easier decision making, and a foundation for scalable sales. Key improvements included unifying the event detail, removing duplication, and strengthening self service purchasing.

For us, the project became a valuable lesson in prioritization. It confirmed that when building complex e-commerce products, it is critical to start with structure, logic, and the purchasing flow. UI only comes afterward.