USA BMX Digital Ecosystem Redesign
Thiago Fernando
The digital ecosystem for USA BMX, the sanctioning body of BMX racing in the U.S. and Canada. Three products, web, mobile and the internal CMS, rebuilt as one.
Role: Product Designer
Team: ~25 · Product · Engineering · Branding · QA
Timeline: 2022-2024
Plataform: Web
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Overview
A national governing body runs on software. The old USA BMX system made memberships, registration and billing harder than the sport ever needed.
USA BMX is the sanctioning body for the sport in the U.S. and Canada. It has governed BMX racing since 1977, with more than 70,000 members and 300+ tracks running on its rules, its points and its software. When the season is on, that software is the sport's front desk.
It had aged badly. Confusing screens, broken flows and an information architecture that pushed people to the phone instead of through the product. Critical processes like billing were not linear, which made them painful for riders and for the staff administering them. The support volume was the symptom. The structure was the cause.
I joined the design team as product designer and worked across discovery, user flows, roadmap, the design system, prototyping, user testing and final UI. What began as a website redesign grew into one connected ecosystem: the web platform, a new mobile app and the internal CMS that runs them.
One rule shaped the work more than any other. This could not be a clean-slate redesign. Members were attached to the legacy layout, so the brief was to keep its familiar shape and make it better, not replace it. That set a hard ceiling on the final UI, every screen had to feel like home and still work harder than before.
Constraints: keep the legacy layout, improved not replaced (high, it drove the final UI) · a legacy system in daily use · ~70 core features to untangle · non-linear billing to rebuild · a lean team centered on web · the track as a usage context
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Approach
Map the system before redrawing it
I interviewed association leaders to surface goals and the genuinely critical flows, then analyzed around 70 core features and organized them into a delivery roadmap. The friction points fell out of that work, and they set the order of everything that followed.
One design system for the whole ecosystem
I built the BMX Design System, components, UI guidelines and UX writing, aligned with the branding team on visual identity and tone. It became the single source of truth that kept web, mobile and the CMS coherent as each one scaled.
Design for the arena, not the desk
Riders use this trackside, outdoors, in the sun, in a hurry, sometimes in gloves. That demanded large, high-contrast interface elements. I was hesitant at first, validated it with testing, and it turned out to be one of the most important usability calls in the project.
Validate with real riders
I ran navigation tests with beta groups of real users, gathered quantitative feedback after each exposure, and iterated the information architecture and UX writing until the journeys held up under real use.
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The web platform
The core rebuild. Every critical journey, registration, billing and management, redrawn to be linear and obvious, with dashboards built separately for riders and for administrators.
Live website: www.usabmx.com
Fig. 01 · The site, legacy and live.
Fig. 02 · The full user flow: 140+ journeys mapped end to end
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The mobile app
After the web launch, the association wanted a native app to put the core workflows in members' pockets. A brand-new product, built lean while the team stayed focused on web. I used Jobs to Be Done to set the roadmap fast, and leaned on the BMX Design System to move without starting from zero.
Fig. 03 · The mobile app, the web flows adapted for on-the-go
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The internal cms
The side most people never see. While the team rebuilt the public web, the managers running content and data were stuck in raw Directus screens. I redesigned those workflows and implemented part of the interface directly in Directus, with the product manager and the data team.
Fig. 04 · The CMS, before and after. raw Directus, made workable
Fig. 05 · Inside the new CMS: list views and the form builder
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Outcomes
1M+ users impacted, U.S. & Canada
190+ flows designed, ~1,400 screens
1 design system, three products
+1 new contract, the mobile app
The structure did the work. Phone support dropped, and the experience held up where it mattered, trackside and mid-event. The response from managers and the rider community was strong enough to draw interest from major sports leagues, and to bring me back for the next build, the USA BMX mobile app. The web platform and CMS are live today. The app launches in 2026.
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Reflections
This was my deepest work in large-scale redesign. At this size every call balances a technical constraint against a real user need, and you learn to make that trade on purpose, not by accident.
The lesson I keep is about context. Designing for outdoor arenas meant going bigger and higher-contrast than instinct said to. Testing settled it, and it reframed how I think about where a product is actually used.
Seeing web, mobile and CMS lock into one ecosystem changed how I scope. It also showed the cost of running lean. The work shipped, but stronger teams would protect both the people and the creative ceiling.
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Posted Jul 16, 2026
Rebuilt the digital ecosystem for USA BMX (70K+ members, 300+ tracks) across web, mobile, and CMS. From legacy chaos to one coherent platform, live today.
