Virtual race mode: creating new ways to engage in response to a global pandemic
When the pandemic brought a temporary end to in-person races, we saw an opportunity to bring virtual races to everyone, everywhere.
A need for virtual events and social connection in a time of isolation
MoveSpring brings fun and approachable activity challenges to companies and organizations. The product encourages simple, consistent movement among a largely sedentary workforce, while boosting company culture and morale through a sense of community. But when the pandemic hit, corporate clients were looking for new ways to inspire and engage their employees.
At the same time, we saw an increase of leads in the fundraising space. With in-person events being cancelled indefinitely, charities and non-profits were looking for new ways to generate revenue and continue bringing events to everyone from afar.
We saw the opportunity to fill a gap in the market by bringing virtual races to everyone.
The problem
How do we translate an in-person race into an engaging mobile experience?
We set out to bring the best parts of an in-person race to the MoveSpring app. After interviewing dozens of 5k participants and seasoned marathon runners, we identified some of the most important and engaging parts of an in-person race that would need to be translated into our digital approach.
Competition & reward
Whether you’re looking to set a personal record or finish in the top 10% of your age category, competition is a key theme in race participation. No matter the result, people love collecting race medals and feeling a sense of reward and accomplishment.
Energy & social connection
In-person races come with an energy that’s almost electric. There’s an excitement and anticipation at the starting line. Everyone running together toward the same goal and spectators along the route come together to create a sense of support that pushes you onward.
Location & theme
People often sign up for events with a unique location, theme, or fundraising cause. Different themes and charitable causes bring people together around a common interest or desire to do good.
The solution
Virtual race mode: Bringing the energy and excitement of an in-person race to the MoveSpring app
By leveraging our established patterns and design system, we were able to quickly design a new feature to address this timely need.
In virtual race mode, as users move in real life, they progress through a horizontal-scrolling illustrated map. By combining this new, gamified racetrack experience with a redesigned leaderboard, we were able to provide a digital space for races to continue on. Considering the fact that participants from all over the world could be competing in the same race, we looked for opportunities to create a sense of community and compete in new ways.
Reward & motivate
Finisher medals: We built out a typical race-style leaderboard, complete with badges to recognize all finishers as well as the coveted 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medals for the winners.
Multiple ways to win: In-person races only last a few hours, but virtual races can last days or weeks. Adding overall distance moved as a secondary way to win encourages users to continue to move and engage even after reaching the finish line.
Milestones along the way: Clients can choose to incorporate milestones by uploading custom content, messages, or videos for users to unlock at specific distances throughout the race.
Connect with the competition
Track stats & progress: We made it easy to view and track each other’s stats along the way. Participants can see how many people have reached each milestone and how long it took them to reach it, highlighting friends at the top of the list.
Easy-access profile summaries: We introduced profile overlays, allowing users to get a quick glimpse at another participant’s activity summary and profile by tapping their avatar throughout.
Supportive community: Group chat gives participants a place to cheer each other on and share photos of their own milestones and wins along the way.
Themed & customizable maps
To bring a sense of place to our virtual races, we worked with our illustrator to create a library of over 20 map options. These maps give users something fun to explore as they move towards the finish line. The expanding library of maps also provides clients easy click-and-pick programming with a variety of different themes to build upon. Clients can choose to pay a premium and customize their entire map and and milestones; a great option to create a branded race experience.
The result
A customizable virtual race experience for companies, charities, and non-profits
We set out to create virtual race to fill a gap in the market and provide a digital space for races to continue on in the pandemic. But we didn’t expect how quickly this new feature would take off.
Companies running virtual race challenges found users more engaged than ever. Our expanding library of maps and customization options provided incentive for companies running one-time events to convert to annual subscriptions.
Charities and non-profits found a way to continue generating revenue when the pandemic put a temporary end to in-person races. Hosting fundraising walks and runs on the MoveSpring platform continues to bring value through its unique way of supporting worldwide participation, encouraging ongoing engagement, and including sponsorship opportunities within the virtual race environment.
Virtual race quickly became the most popular, profitable challenge mode, offering new options for charities & non-profits to host engaging, virtual fundraising races amidst a pandemic and beyond.
“The app that made a global walkathon initiative easy! [I loved] how interactive it was to talk in the group chat to all the participants in our month-long walkathon event and see all the beautiful pictures posted from people on walks all around the world.”
— Kathleen C, admin at an 1,000+ employee enterprise
”Great experience for a non-profit virtual walk/fundraiser. MoveSpring was extremely easy to setup on the backend and there was someone always available to answer questions. The user interface was fantastic and we were able to push out content to participants all week to keep them updated on the challenge and educate them on our cause.”
— Jessica F, admin at an 1,000+ employee enterprise