Ballon d'Or - Concept Website
The Ballon d’Or website redesign was an individual half-semester project completed for my UI/UX course. The brief challenged me to reimagine how fans explore the history, records, and legacy of football’s most prestigious individual award through a modern, immersive digital experience.
Over the span of several weeks, I took the project from initial ideation and early concept sketches all the way to a polished, high-fidelity prototype. The goal was to transform a traditionally text-heavy subject into an engaging, narrative-driven interface that honors the award's heritage while feeling contemporary and intuitive for users.
My research focused on understanding how major sports organizations and media outlets present statistics, records, and award histories. I analyzed platforms like FIFA, UEFA, ESPN, and the NBA to study how they balance storytelling with data visualization. Another aspect of my research was developing user personas which helped me shape the way people would interact with such a site.
Using these insights, I mapped out a clear information architecture that grouped content into four core areas: Articles, History, Records, Rankings, and a few others which helped me populate the home page. This structure ensures users can explore the Ballon d’Or's legacy in a logical, narrative-driven flow without becoming overwhelmed.
The wireframing phase focused on establishing a layout that supported both readability and visual drama. I developed low-fidelity wireframes to experiment with hierarchy, inline data visualizations, scroll-based storytelling, and interaction patterns. This iterative process helped me refine how users navigate long-form content while staying immersed in the experience.
The visual direction draws inspiration from the prestige of the Ballon d’Or trophy - metallic accents, deep blacks, and an elevated editorial aesthetic. After weeks of different passes and versions, I built a minimal but bold interface system that combines strong typographic hierarchy and consistent spacing. Data-heavy sections were designed with clarity and modernity in mind, using infographics and stat blocks to turn raw numbers into compelling visuals. Each page was crafted to feel immersive and atmospheric, bringing together football history, emotional storytelling, and refined interaction design. This process was carried out for both web and mobile versions.
To bring the full experience to life, I built a high-fidelity prototype that allows users to explore different sections, interact with the navigation, and engage with various components on the site. This prototype demonstrates how the visual system and animations create a cohesive and premium experience.
This project strengthened my ability to organize large amounts of content and transform it into a compelling user experience. I learned how to balance editorial storytelling with functional UI design, and how to apply systematic thinking to a complex, data-heavy subject. If I were to continue the project and develop it further, I would explore motion design to elevate transitions further, more interactive prototyping, and develop multilingual versions to reflect the Ballon d’Or’s global audience. If you enjoyed this project and seeing the work done to carry it out, feel free to interact with some of the features and try it out for yourself by clicking the button below.
