Background – From fan blog to rehaul

Eleven Warriors was founded in 2006, by Jason Priestas, as a way for him to connect with Ohio State fans after leaving Ohio. The site grew from being a small personal project to supporting multiple contributors within a year, and by 2010 the site was in need of a rehaul, to accommodate the involvement of the community of fans, as well as the growing need for a fully realized mobile experience. A new responsive site was needed.

Process – A close collaborative with a clear vision

A collaborative project from the beginning, the project brought three distinct creative forces together: Studio Elsa, Eleven Warriors' founder Jason Priestas, and Walt Keys, Eleven Warriors' Creative Director and, Studio Elsa contributor. Jason has a background in tech, and had a clear vision of where the site needed to go. The Eleven Warriors team would be responsible for the build of the new site on Drupal, with Studio Elsa designing the user experience Ohio State fans would interact with on the site. Including information, user experience, and interface design as well as providing overall best practices and recommendation. Walt Keys would provide the art direction of the project, as well as brand graphics, and photography.

We did a review of the competitive landscape. SB Nation as a benchmark for what sports news sites could look like, and Polygon or its inventive design, and community involvement.

As Eleven Warriors entire team, are not only contributors to the site, but fans themselves, the discovery process was smooth. What we learned was easy to define, and translated into wireframes and user flows. See Below:

Solution – the fan at the center of the design

To better serve the community and its involvement the new site got user registration, forums, polls with comments, as well as a design that responded to every view point. And as we are always putting the human at the center of design our focus was to provide an overall improved user experience for Eleven Warrior's audience.

Visiting the site today, we are excited to see that the design is holding the test of time. Eleven Warriors, have maintained it well with some new enhancements. Still, seven years after the new site launch the site design is still very much relevant and functional. Have a look for yourself at Eleven Warriors.