🥋 IMMAF – Tournament Website

🎯 The Challenge

IMMAF (International Mixed Martial Arts Federation) organizes elite amateur MMA tournaments across the globe. As the sport pushes for Olympic recognition, the organization needed a professional, accessible, and scalable website to showcase tournament details, match results, athlete bios, and global rankings.

The existing site lacked clarity, structure, and visual appeal, impacting credibility and usability for fans, fighters, and national federations.

🧠 The Goal

• Improve the visibility of upcoming tournaments and live events
• Showcase fighter rankings and match outcomes clearly
• Support Olympic-level credibility through a polished design
• Create a responsive, mobile-friendly experience for global users

💼 My Role

As the sole freelance designer, I led the entire design process from research to final delivery. I collaborated with IMMAF stakeholders, including the communications lead and CFO, to shape the direction and define the success metrics.

📊 Market Research & Benchmarking

To ground the design in user expectations, I conducted a competitive analysis of sports governing bodies and tournament websites such as:

• FIFA
• IBJJF (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation)
• UFC (for stylistic cues)
• Olympic event platforms

Key insights:

• Tournaments needed real-time visibility and hierarchy
• Rankings and fighter info must be instantly accessible
• Clarity and structure beat flashy aesthetics for this audience

The findings helped get full stakeholder buy-in before moving into design.

🎨 UI Design

Using Adobe XD, I translated the research insights into high-fidelity UI mockups that:

• Highlighted upcoming tournaments with intuitive filters
• Streamlined fighter profiles and ranking visibility
• Used bold, athletic aesthetics to match MMA’s tone
• Included scalable modules for tournament brackets and schedules

Design considerations:

• Modular structure for scalability
• Brand-aligned color palette and typography
• Accessibility and mobile responsiveness

After multiple feedback sessions, I finalized the design and delivered assets via Zeplin for developer handoff.