Being only fair weather sailors (and occasional Thursday evening racers in the summer), we were honoured (if a little intimidated) to be asked to design and build the new International Rating Certificate (IRC) website.
Not unlike a golfing handicap, IRC is a rating rule to handicap different designs of sailing keel boats allowing them to race together on a level playing field (apologies for the mixed metaphors). The handicap is based on the physical measurements of the boat.
When we race on a Thursday evening in the Solent, there are a number of different classes that start at different times. The IRC rated boats have their own start. This is a fairly relaxed race compared to the global regattas that use the IRC rule.
The existing IRC website contained a massive amount of information in a variety of formats. Some documents were PDF downloads, some Word, some Excel and some simply links to other web pages. The main challenge here was that all of the links looked the same, so the visitor had no idea what would happen after clicking.
In addition, many of the sections and pages of the website had become somewhat disconnected – and some were repeated. An amalgamation process ensued and we created simple icons to differentiate the various types of downloads available.
A very early sketch of the IRC website home page
The finished result - the IRC Rating home page
