Sports events / 2026
NovoTicket, the race registration platform that now sells without getting in the runner's way
How Heuristik reviewed the purchase experience and the organizer area of a Brazilian sports platform, found 38 issues that were costing sales and trust, and turned it all into a work plan the development team could execute.
- Client
- NovoTicket
- Services
- User experience research, Product design, Prioritization, Product management
- Timeline
- 2026, ongoing engagement
- Team
- Heuristik in partnership with the client's technology team
The beginning
Two very different people, the same product
Road running in Brazil is a large, emotional market. People train for months for a race and choose the course, the shirt size, the kit. On the other side is an organizer who needs to sell entries, manage stock, set up price tiers, pay suppliers and answer anxious runners on pickup day.
NovoTicket was created to serve both sides on the same platform. When Heuristik joined the project, the request was simple and narrow: design screens. The product already existed, was already selling and already had real events running, with thousands of registrants.
The problem is that no one had stopped to look at the whole platform through the eyes of the people using it. There was working software. There was no honest reading of the experience.
The first decision was to widen the lens before designing anything new. You can't design a good screen on top of a flow that loses people halfway through.
The problem behind the request
The platform wasn't broken. It was leaking trust.
The request was to improve the screens. The business reading was different: the platform was losing sales and trust at silent points that don't show up in the financial report. Here are some real examples found in the review.
- 01
Sold-out size sold anyway
The size M shirt appeared selected by default at checkout, even when it was sold out. Runners went all the way to the end believing they'd get a size that no longer existed.
- 02
No way back for organizers
Organizers had no way to recover their password. Without a forgot password option, anyone who lost access was simply locked out of their own event.
- 03
Rules accepted on their own
Acceptance of the race rules happened automatically, without the person checking anything. That's a legal risk for an event involving physical exertion and health liability.
- 04
Sign-up without consent
The newsletter sign-up in the footer collected emails without clear consent or a link to the privacy policy, which conflicts with the LGPD (Brazil's General Data Protection Law, Law No. 13,709/2018).
- 05
Numbers that contradict each other
In the organizer dashboard, an event with 1,659 registrants showed zero on one of the screens, and each screen showed a different revenue total.
What Heuristik did
UX consulting for a sales platform, in five workstreams
From reviewing both areas to writing tasks on the team's board. Each workstream delivers one piece of the plan, and none of them ends in a report.
- Etapa 01
Full review of both areas of the platform
We went through the platform the way a runner and an organizer do, and evaluated each screen against ten classic usability criteria. The result was a map of 38 issues: 21 in the area where people buy registrations and 17 in the area where organizers run their events, each with a severity rating, an effort estimate and a clear recommendation. No invented methods: runner interviews were not in scope, and saying so openly is worth more than pretending research happened when it didn't.
- Etapa 02
Priority before solution
Every issue went into a severity versus effort table. This made it possible to separate quick wins, solved in hours, from projects that would take weeks. That's how it became clear that seven high-impact fixes cost almost nothing in development. They went to the top of the queue.
- Etapa 03
Purchase journey redesign
We rebuilt the full path of someone registering for a race.
- Sign-up in four short steps, with instant document validation and the address filled in automatically from the postal code
- Course, category and kit selection in a simple configurator, with the price updating in real time
- Honest inventory: sold-out sizes can't be selected, aren't checked by default and don't carry over to the summary
- Two-step checkout for guests and one-step checkout for account holders
- Explicit acceptance of the race rules, with the document accessible before confirming
- PIX payment with real-time confirmation on the same screen
- Etapa 04
Organizer area redesign
We structured event creation as a six-step flow: courses, categories, price tiers, kits, files and financial setup. Organizers stop staring at a giant form and follow a sequence with a beginning, middle and end. We also structured team delegation by role, so the finance person sees finance, the marketing person sees marketing and full access stays with whoever should have full access.
- Etapa 05
Delivery in a format the team can execute
A polished diagnosis that doesn't become tasks changes no product. That's why the final delivery wasn't a report to file away, it was work ready to start.
- Full report with findings and recommendations
- Priority spreadsheet with severity, effort and owner
- Clickable prototype of the corrected journey, to see it working before coding
- 21 tasks written on the team's board, each with context, expected behavior and acceptance criteria
Diagnosis and solution
From the issue map to the redesigned path
The evaluation was done on the real product in use, with an actual event as reference. Each finding got a severity, an effort estimate and an owner.
The screens
What changed, screen by screen
Four moments in the product, from first contact with the race to the organizer's dashboard.
The outcome
Finding problems is easy. The value is in the order.
The platform now has a defensible purchase journey from start to finish: whoever comes in knows what they're buying, how much they'll pay, what comes in the kit and what they're agreeing to.
The organizer area gained a logical sequence, consistent numbers and team access control by role.
And most importantly: the development team now works from a prioritized, written queue with a definition of done. The project's bottleneck stopped being what to do next and became purely execution.
Heuristik's work on the project evolved from screen design to product leadership, defining what goes in, in what order and how it should look, in direct partnership with development.
The result
A delivery the team can start on the next day
Report, priority spreadsheet, clickable prototype and written tasks. Nothing that needs translating before it becomes work.
- Issues mapped
- 38Issues mapped21 in the buyer area and 17 in the organizer area, with severity and effort.
- Tasks ready for the team
- 21Tasks ready for the teamWritten with context, expected behavior and a definition of done.
- Journeys redesigned
- 2Journeys redesignedRegistration purchase and event operations, from start to finish.
- Clickable prototype
- 1Clickable prototypeThe corrected journey working before a single line of code.
- Compliance risks avoided
- 3Compliance risks avoidedRules acceptance, data consent and account recovery.
- Accessibility level
- AAAccessibility levelContrast and touch targets fixed on the critical checkout screens.
Learnings
What carries over to other products
- 01
Small details sink big sales
A sold-out size checked by default costs more than an entire badly designed page.
- 02
Consistent numbers build trust
If the dashboard shows one value and the report shows another, the business owner stops believing both.
- 03
Compliance isn't just a legal matter
Terms acceptance and data consent are interface decisions, solved on the screen where the person clicks.
- 04
Prioritization is the most valuable deliverable
Finding problems is easy. Saying in what order to solve them is what moves the product forward.
Services applied
What was hired in this project
- Usability and user experience audit
- Product and interface design
- Purchase and payment flow redesign
- Prioritization of improvements by impact and effort
- Writing requirements and following development
- Supporting leadership on product decisions
- 01
Discovery Sprint
Research, analysis and opportunity mapping. We identify what is holding back growth and conversion before you invest in development.
- 02
Product Design
Wireframes, prototypes and design systems focused on conversion. Every screen is designed with intent: clear hierarchy, intuitive flow, zero noise.
- 04
Strategic Consulting
Product positioning, roadmap and strategic direction. For founders and PMs who need clarity before scaling.
Questions
Frequently asked questions about this work
What people usually ask before hiring a project like this one.
How long does a usability audit like this take?
A full review of a product with two areas, as was the case with NovoTicket, usually takes two to four weeks, including the report, priorities and prototype.
Do I need a development team to hire you?
Yes, for execution. Heuristik designs, prioritizes and writes the requirements. If you don't have a team, we help you scope the work so you can hire one.
Do you only work with sports event platforms?
No. The method applies to any digital product with sales, sign-ups or a management dashboard. NovoTicket is an example of a marketplace serving two audiences at once.
How do you measure the results of your work?
Together with the client, we define which numbers will be tracked before changing anything: checkout completion rate, support ticket volume, time to create an event and drop-off by step.
Does Heuristik only deliver a report?
No. The delivery includes a clickable prototype and written tasks, ready for development to start the next day.
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Next step
Your product already sells. Could it sell better?
Most of the revenue lost in digital products isn't due to missing features, it's due to friction. Heuristik finds that friction, measures how big it is and hands back a plan your team can execute.