UX Case Study
St. Jude
Fit Day
St. Jude's internal check-in tool — used by staff and volunteers at the Memphis Marathon and Rock 'n' Roll Running Series events nationwide — to manage bib pulls, track runner incentives, and process thousands of St. Jude Heroes across expo hours.
Overview
Project Overview
The Problem
The existing check-in software made it nearly impossible for volunteers and employees to quickly identify pulled bibs, know what items each runner should receive, or track overall event progress — creating long lines and frustrated runners on race day.
Business Goals
User Goals
My Role
I led the redesign end-to-end, from research through shipping. Rather than interview users in a conference room, I worked the events firsthand — staffing the booth, observing where volunteers got stuck, and interviewing territory leads during and after expo hours. That field research is what surfaced the real friction points and shaped every design decision that followed.
Design Constraints
This was an internal tool built for speed. The engineering team needed to ship quickly, and the product had to stay simple and maintainable — which meant the design had to work within existing component libraries and avoid anything that would require heavy custom development. There was no room for elaborate UI patterns or experimental interactions.
That constraint shaped every decision: layouts needed to be clean and scannable without relying on visual complexity, and any new UI element had to earn its place by solving a clear problem rather than adding polish. Getting new design elements adopted inside a large organization is genuinely difficult — teams move fast, standards are locked, and anything unfamiliar adds friction for developers and product owners alike.
Speed over polish
Engineering needed to move fast. Every design decision had to be defensible in terms of development cost — no speculative complexity.
Standard components only
The team worked within existing UI libraries. Custom components had to have a strong functional justification to make it past review.
Clarity over style
Volunteers and employees use this tool under pressure, in noisy expo environments, often for the first time. Intuitive and scannable beat visually ambitious every time.
How the Marathon Works
St. Jude partners with Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series to offer runners the option to fundraise for St. Jude instead of paying a registration fee. Runners who choose this path commit to raising a certain amount before race day. Depending on how much they raise, runners earn different incentive levels — Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum — each with different perks and swag.
The Challenge
What Wasn't Working
The Bib Pull Problem
When a runner chose to fundraise instead of paying a registration fee, they committed to raising a minimum amount. If they didn't hit that goal before the event, Rock 'n' Roll pulled their bib from the standard check-in process. Those runners were redirected to the St. Jude booth at the expo to retrieve it.
The problem: the old software had no way to flag that a bib had been pulled. When a confused runner arrived at the booth, volunteers had to look them up, make an educated guess about why the bib was pulled, and then physically search through a box of bibs sorted by number — a number that didn't always appear clearly on the profile because it had to be uploaded through a separate platform.
The cascade of confusion:
The Old Profile
The original profile showed participant data but gave no clear indication of pulled bibs, and the layout made it hard to scan quickly under pressure.
The Profile Clarity Problem
The old profile was hard to scan. Volunteers couldn't quickly determine what items a runner should receive — different fundraising levels earned different incentives, and there was no structured way to know what had or hadn't been handed out. T-shirts in particular were a constant source of friction: volunteers had no way to record whether a shirt had been given or what size, leaving future event planning as guesswork for organizers.
No incentive tracking
Volunteers had to mentally cross-reference what each participation level was entitled to — information that wasn't surfaced on screen.
No t-shirt record
There was no way to log whether a runner had received their shirt or what size, making year-over-year inventory planning impossible.
Hard to scan under pressure
With lines forming during expo hours, a dense unstructured layout slowed every interaction at the busiest moments.
Solution
What We Built
Bulk Bib Pull Upload
Admins can now upload an Excel file of all pulled bibs — with names and numbers — directly into the system. The profiles of affected runners are automatically flagged with a 'Not Met – Bib Pulled' badge on their commitment field, so volunteers know immediately why the runner is at the booth and where their bib is.
Check-In Checklist
A structured checklist on each participant profile tells volunteers exactly what items to hand out based on the runner's fundraising level. Volunteers check off each item — including t-shirt size — creating an auditable record per runner and giving organizers usable data for future inventory planning.
Rainbow Progress Bar
A color-coded bar at the top of the event dashboard shows how many runners from each fundraising level have checked in. Gold, Silver, Bronze, Platinum, and Other are each displayed with their live counts, giving territory leads an at-a-glance picture of event progress across all levels.
Advanced Participant Filtering
The participant list gained filters for Participation Type, Checked In status, and Bib Pulled status. Volunteers can now instantly surface who still needs to pick up their bib, or pull a list of everyone in a specific fundraising tier — dramatically reducing search time at the booth.
Check-In Counter
A live counter at the top of each event shows total checked-in vs. registered participants, keeping staff informed of how many people are still expected throughout expo hours without needing a separate report or spreadsheet.
Exemption Notes (Role-Restricted)
When a runner has a legitimate reason for not meeting their fundraising goal — financial hardship, personal circumstances — staff can add an exemption note directly on the profile. The note is hidden from lower-access roles, keeping sensitive information visible only to those who need it.
Rainbow Bar — Live Example
The bar shows remaining participants in gray, with each fundraising tier in its own color. Territory leads can see at a glance which levels are still largely un-checked-in and where to focus attention.
Designed Under Constraints — Adopted Org-Wide
The rainbow bar started here — and is now used across multiple applications in the organization.
Building a new design element that gets adopted at scale inside a large organization is genuinely rare. The bar was designed within tight constraints — standard components, fast delivery — but it solved a visualization problem clearly enough that other teams picked it up independently.
Design
The Screens
Bib Pull Management
The bib pull screen allows admins to upload a bulk Excel file of all runners whose bibs were pulled. Once uploaded, the system logs the date, time, and uploader, and creates a searchable table of affected participants.
Each entry shows P2P ID, name, phone, participation level, check-in status, commitment status, and upload type (Bulk or Manual). Admins can also add individual P2P IDs manually for edge cases.
Event Dashboard & Participant Search
The event view surfaces everything a territory lead needs at the top: location, date, time, event code, and the live check-in counter. Below that, the rainbow bar shows checked-in counts by level.
The participant search lets volunteers look up by first name, last name, phone number, P2P ID, or email. Below the search, filter dropdowns let staff narrow the list by participation type, check-in status, or bib pull status — surfacing exactly who they need in seconds.
Filtering in practice
Setting "Checked In: No" + "Bib Pulled: Yes" instantly shows every runner who still needs to collect a pulled bib — a list that used to require manually scanning a physical box with no digital equivalent.
Redesigned Participant Profile
The new profile gives volunteers everything they need in a scannable layout. The participant's name and check-in status are prominent at the top. Contact details, P2P ID, participation type, and team info are organized in a clean grid.
The Payment section clearly shows whether a runner's commitment was met — and when a bib was pulled, it appears as a red "Not Met – Bib Pulled" badge directly on that field. No guessing required.
Top-of-page alert: 'Participant needs a Card on File or complete commitment'
Red indicator on the commitment field — visible immediately on load
Structured list of items to hand to the runner, with checkboxes and shirt size dropdown
Free-form note field for any additional context, saved per participant
Check-In Checklist
Check-in checklist — items and shirt size
Upload in right panel
Volunteers check off Bib and Tech Shirt / Singlet as they hand them out. Shirt type and size are recorded via dropdown, giving organizers real data for next year's orders.
Exemption Note
Exempt from paying modal
Upload in right panel
When a runner has a legitimate reason for not meeting their goal, staff can mark them as exempt and leave a note. The note is visible only to roles with the right access level.
How We Validated the Design
User testing for this project happened in the field. I worked the events firsthand — standing at the St. Jude booth during actual marathon expos and watching the check-in process in real time. That direct exposure made the friction points undeniable.
After and between events, I sat with volunteers and territory leads who do this work at every major marathon. Their insights shaped every feature.
Volunteers
"I never know if the bib is here or why it was pulled until I've already told the runner I don't know."
Territory Leads
"We order t-shirts every year without knowing what sizes we actually gave out. We're always over on smalls and out of mediums."
Event Staff
"When someone has a personal reason for not meeting their goal, I don't want that on the screen for the person behind them in line to read."
Outcomes
What We Delivered
The redesigned Fit Day software shipped and was used at St. Jude marathon events across the country. The changes reduced friction at the booth, gave volunteers and employees confidence in their check-in decisions, and created a data trail that didn't exist before.
Impact Summary
See It in Action
A walkthrough of the redesigned check-in flow captured during QA testing — from participant search through checklist completion.
QA Walkthrough Video (.mp4)
Upload in right panel
Next Steps
What's Next
Key Takeaway
"The best research happened on race day — not in a meeting room."
Working the events firsthand meant I saw exactly where the process broke down — the moment a confused runner walked up, the scramble through a physical box, the volunteer's apologetic shrug. That experience made the design decisions obvious in a way no stakeholder interview could have.
Build post-event reports that aggregate shirt sizes given across all participants — giving organizers exportable data for next year's orders without manual counting.
Expand the exemption note system to support role-based visibility tiers, so different levels of staff see different levels of detail without a shared credential workaround.
Add a runner-facing notification or confirmation mechanism — so participants whose bibs are pulled receive advance notice before arriving at the event, reducing confusion at the booth.
Explore a mobile-first redesign of the check-in flow for volunteers working with tablets or phones during high-volume events.
Introduce a post-event feedback loop: a lightweight survey for volunteers and territory leads after each event to surface emerging friction points and inform the next design iteration.