First published in Technology Magazine. You can view the original full article here.
For many seriously ill children, the opportunity to meet their Disney heroes is a chance to step away from hospital appointments to create a magical memory.
Make-a-Wish ® UK is a leading charity empowering such children with the opportunity to choose a unique wish and make it a reality. With many wishes involving Disney characters, and many families unable to travel due to the child’s condition, they teamed up with The Walt Disney Company UK & Ireland to offer a unique Disney Wish experience in the UK. The event was made possible due to the support of The Kentown Wizard Foundation
Make-a-Wish approached Totem to create an event app for families that would put everything at their fingertips, plus add a little extra magic.
A bespoke app delivered in just six weeks
The aim was to make life easy for families with personalised digital schedules, key information about what to expect, as well as an event map and the ability to select menu choices.
“Our strategy was to start simple, get the core functions working perfectly and then explore other possibilities” explains Sarah Watson, Director of Finance and Technology at Make-a-Wish. “We chose Totem as we knew they would be a flexible partner, providing strategic direction as well as rapid creative and technical implementation.”
Totem came up with an attractive UI design that adhered to strict brand guidelines and brought the experience to life with animated video backgrounds.
Building a sense of anticipation
In the lead-up to the event, families were sent push notifications as functionality such as menu choices were turned on one by one. Watson commented, “The app is the first touchpoint on this magical journey, it not only needed to look amazing, but we really wanted to create a sense of anticipation and delight.”
Personalised schedules and QR scanning
With over 200 families in total, 40 families per rotation and six different types of rotation, the app needed to be able to handle complex schedules. “Understandably things can change at the last minute for our families” Watson commented. “We really valued the ability to reschedule activities quickly and easily.”
The final enhancement was QR code scanning, allowing families to collect badges which appeared on personalised certificates to take home.
The future
The Make-A-Wish team are excited about the possibilities of the app. As Watson explains, “We’d like to enhance more of our wish experiences to really build anticipation, to make the admin side of things really seamless and to give more control to our wish children and families who expect to do things digitally.”
Find out more about our event app here.
