A design perspective on the new (and frustrating) Formula One TV graphics
How being mindful of minute details can significantly improve the heuristic experience for viewers.
As the new spring season began (or autumn if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere like I am), motorsport fans worldwide were looking forward to the 2022 Formula One Grand Prix.
Watching those races as a new viewer last year, I remember thinking about how sleek and concise the TV graphics were. Formula One is a sport that relies heavily on data visualizations, and in my opinion, they did a fantastic job executing it last year. Being a designer myself, I’ve always held this aspect of the sport in high regard.
This year, my eyes immediately caught the design changes that made a more modern and minimalistic look. I hadn’t thought about it until I was trying to find the tire compound detail.
“Where is it? Is that it?”
I squinted to get a clearer view. It was tough to read. Instead of a giant TV screen, watching it on my desktop monitor only put me in a more unfavorable position. As the race continued, I kept having issues digesting the information pieces on the screen.
“How am I, an experienced viewer, having a much harder time understanding this year, as opposed to last year when I was a new viewer?”
That was when I knew that this new design did not work very well. I was more convinced that this was a common perception when I found a relatable meme on Twitter about this new graphic. The following day, I decided to dissect the graphics based on the fundamental design principles, which became a compass for me in attempting to improve the viewers’ experience.
Contrast
Starting with the first and most atrocious issue I’ve mentioned before; the tire compound information. The design removed the 2021 Tire Compound Icons and them into colored tire initials in 2022.
The colored initials on a dark background don’t give enough contrast for our eyes to recognize it. Additionally, using a thin and small-sized font doesn’t help anything. It may work on brighter colors, but the tire information becomes completely illegible when it comes to red.
The position numbers, brand colors on texts, and several other elements could apply the same assessment.
Patterns
Another frustrating example is the visualization of team flags or team logos. It is widely known that one of the most distinctive elements of a brand in human eyes is colors. Human brains can associate these patterns of colors with an idea instantaneously. In Formula One, team flags and car colors are the teams’ identities. Car colors were my first reference in identifying the teams when I was a new viewer.
This design somehow thinks otherwise by removing the flag colors from the list, leaving only the logogram behind. The flag color only shows up when a specific driver is highlighted. As a result, none of the team is recognizable. It makes you think… Is Ferrari yellow now?
Unity and Repetition
Formula One graphic introduces a new idea this year, or maybe old since I didn’t notice it last year. The design now displays the drivers’ numbers on the list. How could I not overlook this year, you may ask?
It’s hard to miss when you suddenly see a string of funky numbers in a well-confined data space. The design’s experiment to stick to the branding is painfully misused. Some of the heavily styled numbers are unintelligible against the black background. The lack of unity and repetition in this design is causing confusion and aesthetically disappointing, to be frank.
Emphasis, Balance, and Proportion
Emphasis has become one of the most striking principles within the new F1 graphics. However, there are better ways to execute this principle.
Emphasizing the current lap seems to be the most sensible thing in this section. The only questionable thing is, with such minimal design space, why does the emphasis have to use a larger font? The way it is laid out with such small proximity to other elements does not accommodate differing font sizes to sit well. Having an “odd-one-out” in this graphic throws off the balance and proportion of the design.
There are several other elements that I find disproportionate in the new design. The primary logo and the position movement indicators are just a few to mention.
Spacing
Spacing in a design principle reduces clutters, which data visualization design is highly susceptible to. Unfortunately, Formula One is not an exception to this rule. Creating a clear space definition between the driver’s name and the timestamp will make things more concise.
Typography is another element that would benefit from effective spacing management. Appropriate line spacing is a massive contributor to paragraph legibility. A tight line spacing will make the text harder to read. The FIA notification flag on the new graphic doesn’t have enough line spacing, and the uppercase style of the font makes the reading a lot more strenuous.
Hierarchy and Movement
A designer must always be familiar with the natural tendency of human eye movements. When you create visual information, you rearrange typography and other elements to lead a natural hierarchical flow for the readers’ eyes.
Once awhile, Formula One highlights two competitive drivers and compares their speed when they’re wheel-to-wheel with each other. The design is a nod towards both speed units, but having them next to each other without clear distinction, will only mislead people from understanding the actual message. My eyes scanned from left to right, like they always do when I read. They tricked me into thinking, “Wow, Verstappen’s speed was 132,213 KMPH?!”
Their attempt to establish a hierarchy by only using a dimmed color is clearly not enough. Incorporating the right size and alignment is the only way to make this work.
How the improvements would look like
Enough with the talk. It’s time to walk the walk. Here are my attempts to improve all of the elements I’ve mentioned before. We will see the impact that I did only by changing a few minor details.
Other than the apparent team flags incorporation, another impactful change that I made was the typography. I removed all of the Italics font styles in the design and replaced them with a regular font style. Italics tend to reduce legibility in a text, especially in data visualization. Kerning adjustment is also equally important in maintaining legibility. Font sizes, as well as colors, are the additional crucial elements that I mended.
Instead of using the driver’s number logo, I decided to create new number flags that are uniform with one another. The teams’ branding elements can be integrated using official brand colors. Hence, the design can present both unity and distinct differences while displaying the driver’s numbers.
Moreover, I modified the position arrow designs to be more subtle and proportional to the position numbers. The design looks cleaner yet still usable with this subtle design.
A circle shape has replaced the tire information with a color-coding method embedded in it. By using a solid colored circle instead of a colored initial, viewers will be able to pick up the colors better and associate them with their tire types. Now, it could be challenged that this colored circle is not the most accessible thing for color-blind people. As a designer, it’s important to remember that accessibility is an important aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Therefore, there needs to be an additional adjustment on the Current Tires list. Currently, the design uses a colored-text respective to the tire colors. Again, the lack of contrast makes it a lot harder to read. The ideal solution would be to attach the solid colored circle and assist them with a white text to give enough contrast and accessibility, even for color-blind people.
It’s time to talk about the Speed Comparison Statistics design. Similar to the previous approach, I removed the brand colors association on the driver’s name to enhance legibility. I believe including the actual team flag instead of the logogram, alongside the association of brand colors on the decorative line element, will surely be enough.
Furthermore, defining the hierarchy of the speed comparison data is the most crucial task of this graphic element. Because of its global usage, I decided to put the KMPH data as the primary information. I made sure to reduce the size of the MPH data and reorganize the layout to show a clear distinction between the two.
Finally, I’m saving the toughest for the last. The FIA Notification flag is tricky to work with due to the inherent characteristics of the font family itself. I was forced to use a different font-weight because I could not find the official F1 Font Family.
Regardless, I ensured everything else was identical, including the flag width and the font size. After a couple of kerning and line spacing tweaks, the result speaks for itself. Even though a compromise has to be made by increasing the flag height, its impact is powerful and worth the viewer’s accessibility.
Conclusion
Now, does this mean Formula One has failed the design principles? No, not entirely. The rest of the new F1 TV graphics work pretty well. Unfortunately, their mistakes are on the prominent pieces of information, which has been disruptive to the viewing experience. Even worse, this has affected both new and veteran viewers.
The fact that the design is fresher or younger is almost menial. Visual appeal is only one aspect of the design. Design should always be functional at the end, especially in data visualizations. A good design may not always be the prettiest, but it is always helpful and never misleading.
