About Random Wheel Spin

Updated: November 6, 2025

How It All Started

A few years ago I walked into a room at home to find my children sitting on the floor, huddled around a box. Inside the box? Scraps of paper with their names on them. They were playing a game and trying to decide who got to pick something. It was surprisingly intense! That simple moment sparked an idea. "There has to be a better way to decide something" I thought. Something digital that I can create with a bit of code. Something visual. Something that feels fair and still brings that same excitement. That's when I thought about a random spinner wheel. My experience coding is developing bespoke CRMs, enterprise level ERP and order processing applications with large backend databases so this was a lot smaller project compared to those but at the same time a challenge because I had never created this before. Plus I work full-time and have a family. It wasn't going to be simple. Why would I do this? Quite simply because I enjoy challenges and love solving problems. I wanted to create something that is completely free and very simple and easy to use for anyone around the world.

I am a coder with over 20 years of experience (writing bespoke hand-written code) and although a wheel spinner looks simple there is a lot that goes into creating it. Perhaps AI could be used to create this - sure it can but only in a very basic format. To create a fully functioning application ready for the public was going to take time and a lot of thought about how to make my spinner wheel unique and different.

After six months of planning, research, designing and testing hundreds of versions (literally) I came up with my first working prototype. I tested it with my children first. That was when I noticed its first use-case: one of my daughters has autism and one morning before school she was very anxious and I handed her my test wheel and the change in her was instant. She went from being stressed and anxious to focused and much calmer. The wheel had a benefit for autistic users through its predictable structure and sensory interaction - the sounds and the visuals, like an online fidget spinner. I had no idea until she tried it out. And after lots more research I found my biggest use-case was education, teachers in the classroom or parents home schooling (home education). As well as there being a lot of potential in interactive games, work presentations and team-building events.

How could I make the random wheel unique? I decided to develop the wheel to hold "hidden information" underneath each wheel entry. This could represent an activity, action, question or prompt. The wheel can also speak out loud the selected result and hidden information. This makes the whole "spin the wheel" process two-tiered and much more interactive and engaging.

Why I Built Random Wheel Spin

I wanted to build a completely free, simple, fun, and fair tool that anyone could use - from families deciding on movie night, to teachers picking students, to coworkers assigning tasks, or even streamers doing giveaways. Decision-making can be tricky. People want it to feel unbiased. No favourites. No arguments. No dice-rolling or number-picking that feels too random to trust. A spinning wheel adds a sense of transparency and anticipation - and the best part? Everyone gets to watch it spin together. So I built a wheel of names that's not just colorful and easy to use, but also provably fair. Behind the scenes it's powered by cryptographic randomness and verifiable hashes - meaning every spin can be traced, audited, and verified.

How People Use It

I've been amazed at the creativity people bring to the wheel:

Teachers use it in classrooms to randomly call on students or assign group roles or use the hidden activities and actions feature to make learning a lot more interactive, for example in discussion topics.

One of my daughters has autism, as mentioned, and I have found the wheel to have a visibly calming effect on her. She especially enjoys getting the wheel to speak our pet's names in funny ways. So now every time I see her stressed or anxious about something I pass her my phone with the wheel on it to distract and calm her (it doesn't always work but it has certainly helped).

Twitch streamers spin it for prize giveaways during live streams or raffle competitions may use it for a random number generator (there is no technical limit to the number of wheel entries however above 1000 entries the small font size becomes harder to read).

Families use it for chores, games, and yes - movie night decisions.

Businesses use the wheel of names at team-building events and raffles.

Party planners use it for fun games and challenges.

Every time someone tells me, "This saved me a ton of time and stopped the arguing" it makes my day.

What Makes It Different?

ℹ️ Hidden activity and action feature: The ability to have facts, questions, answers or actions behind each wheel item, that can be displayed when an item is selected by the wheel.

👄 Wheel can speak out loud: The wheel can speak out loud results as well as any hidden information. This is really good for accessibility and auditory learners.

🔄 Advanced randomizing technology: cryptographic randomness and verifiable hashes, using the SHA-256 algorithm (used by major banks and government agencies).

🔒 Provably Fair: You can see the hash of the seed before every spin and verify the actual seed after. It's randomness you can actually prove.

🎨 Customizable: Add as many entries as you want, change colours, labels, and even share or save your wheels.

🧠 Smart Design: It auto-adjusts fonts, spacing, and display so it always looks good, whether you've got 2 names or 1000.

A Final Word

This whole project started as a side hobby - a simple tool I made for my own family. Now, it's grown into something used by people all over the world, and I couldn't be more grateful. If you're here, you probably need to make a decision - big or small. Whether you're trying to choose a winner, assign a task, or just break a tie, I hope the wheel helps you do it fairly, quickly, and maybe even with a bit of fun. I am constantly evolving this website and welcome all feedback about improvements or bugs as well as things people enjoy about it.

Thanks for stopping by. Please share the wheel with as many people as you can!

Matt - The Random Wheel Spin Creator

Total Spins

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