World of Sports

The Problem

Eleven attractions. Zero hierarchy. A venue that undersells itself.

World of Sports is a genuine local institution — family-owned since 1980, packing eleven different attractions into a single South Boston location. But its website badly undersells it.

The existing site runs on a dated WordPress/Elementor build that buries the venue's biggest strength — its variety — under flat navigation and walls of text. For a business whose whole appeal is "there's something here for everyone," the site makes it hard to find any one thing.

Before — worldofsportsfun.com

• Variety is buried — eleven attractions hidden behind flat navigation and walls of text
• Practical info scattered or missing — prices, height requirements, durations not surfaced clearly
• No information hierarchy — IA organized around an operational list rather than guest intent
• Fragmented, unbranded booking — jumps to third-party system with no brand continuity
• Confusing hours — entertainment center and JB's Axe & Tap hours not distinguished
• Dated, templated presentation — makes a fun, local venue look generic

Research

Information Architecture

The original site organized around an operational model — a flat list of attractions with no hierarchy. I restructured it around guest intent. Everything a guest can do maps to one of four questions.

Play

Go-karts, laser tag, axe throwing, bumper cars, arcade, sim bays

Bowl

Leagues, standings, youth programs, pro shop

Party

Birthdays, groups, events, corporate

Eat & Watch

JB's Axe & Tap bar, cinemas, menus

• Axe throwing stays under Play

  Despite being a lane-rental attraction operationally similar to bowling, guests think of axe throwing as an activity — so it's grouped by intent, not operational model.

• Bowl earns its own top-level section

  As a recurring-community destination (leagues, standings, youth programs, pro shop), bowling is structurally different from a one-off activity and warrants its own nav section.

• A utility bar that earned its way out

  An initial persistent utility bar (booking, wait times, showtimes, account) proved redundant through the process — its functions redistributed to where guests actually look. A simpler, less cluttered structure emerged.

• Plan as a fifth neutral section

  Practical reference information — hours, pricing, FAQs, directions — lives in a dedicated Plan section, separate from the intent-based navigation.

• Four user flows documented

  Booking a lane, booking a birthday, checking a movie, and reloading an arcade card — each mapping how guests move between the WoS-designed experience and the fixed third-party systems.

Wireframes

Working structure-before-skin, five desktop templates were built in grayscale before touching any visual design: Homepage, Attraction Detail, Group Landing, Party Hub, and Plan. The most-reused template — Attraction Detail — drove the key layout decisions.

• 01

  Quick-Facts Strip First

  Price, height requirement, duration, and capacity placed immediately under the hero on every attraction detail page — surfacing practical info instantly rather than burying it in prose.

• 02

  Flexible Optional Modules

  The Attraction Detail template handles eleven very different attractions via optional modules rather than a rigid one-size shape — some with height requirements, some with packages, some walk-up only.

• 03

  Status Ticker Module

  A venue-wide "Right now" status strip surfaces live wait times, lane availability, and showtimes — the amusement-park status board made concrete, without requiring a native app.

• 04

  Mobile as a System, Not a Shrink

  Mobile wasn't designed as a compressed desktop layout — it's the same system flexing. Type compresses via mobile styles, cards stack or become swipe carousels, utility functions relocate to native patterns.

Design System

High Fidelity

01 / 05 — Homepage

Navy Frame, Color in the Content

The homepage establishes the visual principle immediately: navy holds the chrome, the four group hues live in the content. Intent cards use real photography with a thin hue top-border and a subtle bottom scrim — the photos carry the energy, the color codes the wayfinding. A family-owned story section and Instagram wall reinforce the local-not-franchise positioning.

02 / 05 — Attraction Detail

Practical Info, Instantly Surfaced

The quick-facts strip — price, height requirement, duration, capacity — sits immediately under the hero, directly solving the audit's biggest problem. The attraction hue (Tier 2) appears in the strip and accent elements, making each attraction visually distinct while staying within the system.

03 / 05 — Play Landing

Every Attraction, One Entry Point

The Play Landing page is the entry point for every attraction at World of Sports — go-karts, laser tag, axe throwing, bumper cars, arcade, and sim bays. Each attraction is surfaced as a card with its Tier 2 hue, photo, and a direct link to the full attraction detail page. Guests can scan everything available in one view befores committing to anything.

04 / 05 — Party Hub

Birthdays Made Easy

The Party Hub walks prospective birthday planners through the full decision journey — What's included, how it works, and a clear path to booking. Individual package detail lives on dedicated package pages rather than a comparison grid — keeping the hub focused and the decision simple. Booking hands off cleanly to CenterEdge with a branded transition moment.

05 / 05 — Plan

Everything a Guest Needs Before They Arrive

The Plan page is a practical reference hub — hours (entertainment center and JB's Axe & Tap separately), pricing by attraction, FAQs, and directions. The Right Now ticker appears here surfacing live wait times and lane availability. Hours for both venues are clearly distinguished, directly solving the original site's most confusing feature.

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Results

Reflection

• Design around constraints, not past them

  The most valuable constraint was designing around CenterEdge and pfestore rather than pretending they could be replaced. It forced feasibility-aware decisions throughout — the ticker, the booking flow, the arcade-card reload — and kept the redesign grounded in what the venue could realistically ship. Constraints are creative fuel when you accept them early.

• A scope decision I stand behind

  The project was initially scoped to include a companion app. Through the process I concluded a native app wasn't warranted — app adoption depends on visit frequency a local, occasional-visit FEC simply doesn't have. The Right Now ticker delivers the core on-site utility value with zero install friction. Right-sizing the solution to the venue's actual scale mattered more than adding an impressive-looking artifact.

• Structure before skin pays off at the end

  Building the responsive tokens, the two-tier color logic, and the flexible components up front meant the mobile reflow became a matter of the system flexing rather than redesigning from scratch. Slow at the start, fast at the end — and consistent throughout. The design system was the project.

• If I took this further

  Commissioned photography of the actual venue would be the single biggest upgrade for the local-not-franchise positioning. A full build-out of the Party subpages, live data integration for the status ticker via CenterEdge's API, and WCAG-compliant pause-on-interaction for the ticker animation would round out a production-ready build.

Final Thought