Racing Minds

Our Client

Who is Racing Minds?

Racing Minds is a nonprofit organization focused on improving mental health through running experiences. They work with people of all ages and abilities to help show them the positive impact of running on one’s mental and physical health.

racing minds logo - a cartoonish brain made of bright blue, greens, and yellows, with white lines for the brain details. there is a grey silhouette of a person running above the text "Racing Minds"

What Makes Them Special?

Racing Minds is a nonprofit organization focused on improving mental health through running experiences. They work with people of all ages and abilities to help show them the positive impact of running on one’s mental and physical health.

Stakeholder Meeting

Goals

The top goals for the Racing Minds board members included strengthening the brand, increase participation and engagement, and creating a user-friendly and accessible design for users to navigate.

Priorities

Priorities of the Racing Minds board members included to highlight inclusivity and mental health focus, streamline race info and communication, and making a user-friendly and visually appealing site.

Target Audience

The target audience for this project was for potential members of the Racing Minds website

Brand Audit

First I conducted a analysis of the existing Racing Minds website to see what their current visual style was like and evaluate the sites consistency

  • Original site mostly used a variety of blues and greens

  • The original site used non-rounded rectangles for buttons, input fields, and images. Their buttons had a very slight color change for a hover state

    The store used a built in Zeffy feature that had rounded elements

  • Icons on the site included logos for Facebook and Instagram, as well as an email symbol, where were linked to their respective accounts

  • The site mainly used the fonts Roboto and Droid Serif for text and headings, as well as Montserrat for text such as input field labels

  • The Racing Minds logo is of a brain in bright green, blue, and yellow, with a silhouette of a person running on top

A selection of squares representing 16 colors used on the original Racing Minds website. they are a variety of whites, blues, and greens, as well as a black and red
logos for facebook, email, and instagram
Two sets of the same rectangular button with the text "INSTAGRAM @RACINGMINDSATX" the first button inside is white and the second button shows the hover state which is a very light grey that is hard to see is different
Different fonts/uses of text on the original Racing Minds site "Body Text" - Roboto "Event Details" bold Roboto "Clickable Links (Email/Sponsor Form)" bold & underlined Roboto "Event Titles" bold Droid Serif "Page Section Headers" bold Droid Serif
racing minds logo

Research

  • a hand holding a magnifying glass

    Heuristic Evaluation

    Evaluated the existing site to see what it did well, what they wanted to do, and what they could do better

  • hands writing on a piece of paper

    Rewriting Prompts

    Rewrote tasks and cards that the group proposed in order to reduce user bias and make the objective clear.

  • two people standing in front of a computer with a sitemap diagram on display

    Sitemap

    Made a sitemap of all the different pages on the existing Racing Minds site and how the all connected with each other

“How Might We amplify the positive aspects of family-focused events to inspire parental engagement?”

Initial Designs Created & Presented to Client

Upcoming Events

  • Shows races, explains Kids Run Club, provides running resources

Event Details

  • Downloadable race guides, explains who is allowed to run, provides weather policy, parking information, and Athlete’s Guild information

Past Events

  • Real user testimonials, photos and videos from previous events, social media links, leave a review

Upcoming events page for the Racing Minds site redesign. Includes a light hero image, anchor links, featured event, upcoming events, with the rest of page cut off
Event Details page. Includes a light hero image, anchor links, downloadable race guides, info over who can run and race routes, and weather policy, with rest of page cut off
past events page for the Racing Minds site redesign. Includes a light hero image, anchor links, testimonials, gallery, social media links, and leave a review section with the rest of the page cut off

Design System

I created a design system to help provide the team and client with guidelines to help maintain consistency across different pages on the site

  • Colors

  • Typography

  • Icons

  • Buttons

  • Text Groups

  • Cards & Other Elements

A variety of squares containing the colors used for the design system for the Racing Minds redesign. They are made up with a variety of shades of blue and green with white, black, grey, blue, and red for special features
Primary, secondary, and gallery button states fand icons for the Racing Minds redesign design system.
A few of the elements from the racing minds site redesign design system including the donate now card, the upcoming event card, and the anchor links
The different fonts in the Racing Minds redesign design system. They are made up of Bebas Neue all caps for decorative text and Lato for body text

Footer Redesign

original footer redesign. the contrast is too light at multiple places making it inaccessible

Original Footer Design

Contrast Errors

  • Button background too light for footer background

  • Button text too light for button background

  • White & grey text too light for background

redesigned header with lighter background and darker text and darker button

Alternate Footer Design #1

Contrast Changes

  • Footer background made lighter to contrast dark text and button

  • Button background darkened and button text changed to white

  • Footer text changed to dark grey to contrast lighter footer background

racing minds redesigned footer with a darker background and white text that meets contrast guidelines. the button is dark blue with white text but has a border dark enough to contrast footer background color

Chosen Footer Design

Contrast Changes

  • Footer background made darker

  • Button given a border that correctly contrasts with footer background

  • Button background made darker and used white text

  • White text is correctly contrasted against darker footer background

Redesign to Fit Design System

  • Upcoming events page redesigned to fit design system. shows 5 upcoming events and info over kids run club
  • event details page redesigned to fit design system. user can download race guides, find info over who can run at each event, routes, weather policy, and parking info
  • running resources made its own page and designed to fit design system. gives info over benefits of running, running tips, rest after running, and couch to 5k
  • past events page redesigned to fit design system. Shows testimonials, gallery, socials, and leave a review section

First Impressions Survey

After conducting a first impressions survey, it was found that the event pages gave clear and inclusive information, clear call to actions, and did a good job helping build the users trust with the organization.

Recommendations included reducing the amount of events shown at once to help reduce chances of visually overwhelming the user as well as improving the visual design for the gallery.

Post-Survey Upcoming Events

  • A list of 5 upcoming events. The first 3 event cards includes a date, picture for the event, name, location, and register and more info buttons. while the last 2 only include picture, name, location, and "MORE DETAILS COMING SOON"

    Pre-Survery Upcoming Events List

  • A list of 3 upcoming events. Each event card includes a date, picture for the event, an icon to designate if all ages or 14 and below, name, location, and register and more info buttons. under the events is a show more events button

    Post-Survey Upcoming Events List

    Changes Made Include

    - Only shows 3 events and hide rest under a show more

    - Includes icons to designate if event is open to all ages or if it is only children 14 and below

Post-Survey Upcoming Events

  • the gallery for the first redesign to fit the design system. it includes basic arrows to scroll through photos while showing previews of photos/videos in the folder below the main photo. the gallery photos are bright green when selected

    Pre-Survery Gallery

  • redesigned gallery with image preview on the carosuel arrows instead of under the picture and says what # photo you are on in folder. the folder buttons are a dark blue border and dark blue color when selected. the hide folders button has a border

    Post-Survey Gallery

    Changes Made Include

    - Arrows now show preview of next photo

    - Section that says what photo you are on out of all photos in folder

    - Hide folders more easily recognized as a button

    - Changed color scheme of folders

Prototyping

I made the prototype of the final design and connected all the different pages as well as the different interactions within the site, including: the:

  • Navigation Bar

  • Anchor Links

  • Button States & Button Actions

  • Donation Card

  • Gallery

The final prototype of the Racing Minds site redesign

Client Handoff

On April 23rd the group presented our final designs to the Racing Minds team. I walked them through the designs for the 4 events pages, and let them know why I made the choices I did, how to implement the changes, and how those choices would help them reach their goals

Upcoming Events

  • Only show next 3 events to help not overwhelm user

  • Use icons to designate ages to help make clear what events apply to their needs

  • Explain what Kids Run Club is and why parents should enroll child to help motivate users to sign up

Event Details

  • Use icons and color to help make the weather policy stand out

  • Explain what races parents can run alongside their child for free, and what events they must register to run with them, in order to help reduce confusion and upset on race day

Running Resources

  • Make your own infographics in order to not use copyrighted materials

  • Keep information brief and too the point in order to reduce user boredom which leads to them leaving page prematurely

Past Events

  • Separate photos and videos into folders based off of the event they were taken from in order to help users find photos relevant to themselves

  • Make gallery accessible by including a caption and showing user what photo number they are on out of the number of photos in folder

Research Section Vectors From Freepik [1] [2] [3]

Racing Minds Logo From Racing Minds