Special Olympics' Coaster Challenge

Every year, Special Olympics of Illinois hosts a wonderful event to raise money and awareness for their cause. It's called the Coaster Challenge. Instead of running a marathon, thrill seekers get to ride that same distance in roller coasters. I worked with UX designers and developers to create a website to promote this event. I was involved with the UX design/research, character development, client communication, and helped organize an event to promote the launch of the site.

Click to see the proposal.

We came up with a few goals at the beginning of the project to accomplish along the way. 

1. Reach out to new participants and get them to sign up in the Coaster Challenge.

2. Increase donations to Special Olympics of Illinois.

3. Raise awareness of the event through a cool new website.

Our efforts were well received. The Coaster Challenge ended up having a record turnout in 2017!

Click here to see some of the visual research, sketches and low fidelity prototypes.

Go here to see one of the high fidelity prototypes.

My favorite part about working on the Coaster Challenge, besides being able to help an incredible cause, was creating Donorsaur and his dinosaur friends. He started as a simple whiteboard drawing-- initially, we hadn't even planned on using dinosaurs. But we thought why not match an incredibly fun organization with colorful and exciting designs?

Question: What happens when you put a bunch of Interaction Designers in a room and ask them to make an event?

Answer: You get a pretty cool outcome.

The ask was to create an experience that would help call people to the website, which would in turn create more awareness for the event and increase participants.

You can find some photos of the event here.