Barrett-Jackson
Designing and rethinking high-stakes buying and selling experiences for one of the world’s most trusted automotive auction brands.
This engagement was structured from the outset as a multi-phase, long-term digital transformation of Barrett-Jackson’s digital ecosystem. DodgeUX partnered closely with the organization to reimagine how public-facing experiences and core workflows worked together, positioning design as a foundational driver of how users discovered vehicles, consigned cars, registered to buy, and managed their participation over time.
Barrett-Jackson’s website served as both its primary marketing surface and the entry point into business-critical applications, making clarity, trust, and findability essential. While the brand carried significant prestige, the digital experience had fallen behind, creating friction across high-value user journeys at a moment when the business needed its platform to operate at the same level as its reputation.
Generative Research
Product & UX Strategy
UX & UI Design
Design System & Interaction Patterns
Brand & Visual Direction
Video Editing
Scope
Role & Ownership
DodgeUX served as the lead UX and design partner for Barrett-Jackson’s marketing website, working closely with executive leadership and marketing stakeholders to redefine how the brand presented itself digitally and how users entered key business journeys.
The team was responsible for shaping the end-to-end marketing experience, spanning information architecture, content strategy, UX design, and visual direction. The website needed to function as both a premium brand surface and the primary entry point into high-stakes actions such as consigning a vehicle or registering to bid, making clarity, trust, and narrative flow essential.
DodgeUX led alignment across marketing and adjacent teams, translating business priorities into a cohesive site structure and page-level storytelling. This included restructuring navigation, clarifying content hierarchies, and guiding UX-driven messaging to ensure users could easily find vehicles, auction information, and next steps.
Design execution was led across UX and UI, with DodgeUX coordinating designers and collaborating closely with engineering to ensure the marketing experience was cohesive, performant, and extensible as the platform continued to evolve.
The Real Problem
The challenge was not incremental usability improvements, but a fundamental disconnect between Barrett-Jackson’s in-person brand and its digital presence.
While the live auction experience is premium, energetic, and trusted at the highest level of the automotive world, the website did not reflect that equity. The visual design felt dated, the structure lacked clarity, and the overall experience failed to communicate the scale, quality, and authority of the brand.
From a UX perspective, the site functioned more like a content-heavy archive than a modern marketing platform. Navigation had grown overly complex, findability suffered, and users struggled to locate vehicles, understand auction details, or confidently take next steps. This created friction at the exact moment when the website needed to establish trust, showcase inventory, and guide users into high-value actions.
What Mattered Most
The digital experience needed to carry the same energy, credibility, and sense of occasion as the in-person auction, without redefining the core brand. DodgeUX focused on translating the excitement and authority of the live event into a modern digital presence that felt premium, intentional, and unmistakably Barrett-Jackson.
Findability was a critical priority. The site needed to make it easy for users to quickly locate vehicles, auction details, and time-sensitive information, particularly for an audience that valued clarity and efficiency over novelty. Navigation and page structure had to reduce friction rather than add complexity.
Equally important was surfacing essential auction information. Upcoming events, key dates, registration deadlines, and participation requirements needed to be immediately accessible and clearly communicated. The website had to function as a reliable source of truth, helping users understand what was happening, when it was happening, and how to take action with confidence.
Key Decisions
To address these priorities, DodgeUX focused on a small number of structural decisions that reshaped how users navigated the site and initiated key actions.
The information architecture was reorganized around clear user intent. Buying, selling, auction schedules, and past results were grouped into distinct, easy-to-understand sections, replacing a fragmented navigation that had become difficult to scan. This reduced cognitive load and made it immediately clear where users should go based on what they wanted to do.
Vehicle discovery and auction information were elevated as primary entry points. Finding cars, viewing vehicle details, and accessing upcoming auction dates and deadlines were surfaced prominently in both navigation and homepage placement, ensuring these high-interest actions were easy to find rather than buried in secondary pages.
Finally, the homepage was redesigned to actively guide users into core journeys. Instead of functioning as a static brand page, it became a launch point for exploring vehicles, reviewing upcoming auctions, registering to participate, and revisiting past results. These pathways were refined to balance clarity, prominence, and brand presence while directly supporting Barrett-Jackson’s business goals.
The Work
Several key areas of the marketing site best illustrate how these decisions were brought to life.
The Auction Details page became one of the most critical destinations on the site. DodgeUX designed it as a comprehensive hub for each event, bringing together auction dates, schedules, and the vehicle docket alongside key actions such as purchasing tickets, accessing VIP experiences, and finding travel and sponsor information. This consolidation ensured users could understand an auction and take action without navigating across disconnected pages.
The homepage was restructured to clearly surface what mattered most. The hero area highlighted the current auction with dates and immediate access to primary actions, including viewing available vehicles, registering to bid or consign, and purchasing tickets. Featured vehicles were prominently showcased to support browsing and discovery, reinforcing the site’s role as both a brand destination and a gateway into participation.
Navigation was redesigned to reflect user intent rather than internal organization. Buying, selling, auction information, and past results were clearly grouped, making it easier for users to find relevant information quickly and confidently. Together, these elements created a marketing experience that aligned brand presence with usability and business priorities.
Outcome
The marketing redesign fundamentally reset how Barrett-Jackson presented itself digitally and how users engaged with the brand online.
Information became easier to find, easier to understand, and easier to act on. Vehicles, auction details, and time-sensitive information were clearly surfaced, reducing friction for users making high-confidence, deadline-driven decisions. The website shifted from feeling dated and content-heavy to feeling premium, intentional, and aligned with the energy of the live auction experience.
The redesigned marketing experience also created a clearer entry point into key actions such as consigning a vehicle, registering to bid, and participating in upcoming auctions. Internally, teams gained a modern digital foundation that better supported customer engagement and ongoing operations.
Overall, the work resulted in a cohesive digital presence that matched the strength of the Barrett-Jackson brand, improved usability for a broad audience, and established a durable platform to support future growth.
