Client:
U.S. Air Force / NASCAR

Product:
Interactive micro-site

My Role:
As Interactive Art Director for the project, I handled visual and interaction design for the individual panels and content screens. Working along side a Lead Programmer in a direct partnership, to establish interaction patterns and styles and identify problems and test solutions in real time. The end result was a custom UI and create this robust 3D experience in a very tight time window.

Problem:
The team was asked to develop an interactive micro-site to support a large U.S. Air Force recruitment initiative that coincided with their sponsorship of NASCAR Driver Reed Sorenson.  

Audience:
This audience was mostly made up of NASCAR fans that had graduated high school and were interested in pursuing careers that required mechanical and tech skills.

The Solution:
A full 360 degree panoramic experience that highlighted how skills received in Air Force training could be applied to a variety of situations as a NASCAR Pit Crew and Driver switch places with a team of USAF Airmen. The site featured sortable video content, full crew bios, user Q&A and polls, custom map integration, downloadable resources, and access to Air Force Career Advisors. 

Project Details:
Click or tap an image to read additional details.

Outcome:
This site was only live for the duration of the Air Force’s NASCAR campaign, which lasted one season. During that time, it won a Design Licks Site of the Day award and a Dope Award. In addition, it generated over 4,000 qualified recruitment leads, which was a 175% increase over the previous sponsorship. The site had 106 MM impressions and users averaged over 5 mins. on the site per visit. To this day, it is one of the most unique sites that ever went live.

Lessons Learned:
I would say without a doubt, that the most important thing I learned while working on this project was, that size of your team doesn’t make or break a project if you’re all on the same page. Because we were so tight knit and able to collaborate effectively, it made the things run so much more smoothly than if we were working with an offsite team. Not only that, despite working harder than I ever had before on a project, it was a blast and in the end we were really proud. The awards are nice, but the coolest thing I can say about this site is that I’ve never seen anything like it again, even when people were still using Flash to make insane stuff.