Problem

It’s time-consuming to weed through online hiking groups to find a compatible hiking partner. People sometimes find themselves frustrated with these methods because the groups tend to lack specificity about fitness levels and goals, which means it can take a lot of trial and error.

Solution

Finding hiking partners does not need to be complicated. My solution is simple: automate the process by providing people with the opportunity to set up their hiking preferences in an app and let the algorithm do most of the work for them.

My Role

I am the sole UX and UI designer in this conceptual UX case study. I defined and conducted user research. I also designed and prototyped the interfaces.

Timeline

• 120 hours

• Discovery & Research: 3 weeks

• Design & testing: 8 weeks

Tools

• Figma

• Miro

• Adobe Illustrator

Secondary research

Through my secondary research, I started to confirm my assumption that the level of specificity needed to find local, compatible hiking partners can be challenging and require a large time investment. There are two main issues:

1. Finding people with the same level of comfort, experience, and fitness levels

2.  Goal compatibility – some people want to summit a mountain as fast as possible, while others take their time

Screener survey

After my research, I wanted to recruit interviewees to learn more about how they feel about finding compatible hiking partners. I turned to social media and sent out a screener survey using a Google form. I received 17 responses and filtered through the results to find participants that met my criteria:

1. Individuals who enjoy hiking as a hobby

2. Individuals who are open to finding new compatible hiking partners

Personas

I wanted to form a deeper understanding of our users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors. So, I created 3 personas for each of our user segments. They were based on user interviews. I used these personas whenever I wanted to step out of myself and reconsider my initial ideas.

• Bell - The Motivated extravert
  Makes friends easily but longs for better hiking experiences with others

• Mikey - The Analytical
  Short on time and particular about who he hikes with

• Alexis - The Parent
  An avid hiker before having children and now wants to find parents who are like-minded
  

• How might we inform users about potential matches?

• How might we help users connect with others by leveraging their hiking preferences data?

• How might we help users plan and coordinate upcoming hikes with others?

• How might we help users get motivated to find new hiking partners?

User Stories

User stories allow me to build a common language and a mental model of how I need to structure the product. User stories help me empathize more with target groups. With the user stories, I then started working on the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) by sorting the stories from highest to lowest priority to create fundamental values for users.

 As a user,  

• I want to include hiking style and fitness goals so that I can be better matched with hiking partners.

• I want to see potential friends’ profile pictures so that I have greater trust that I am talking to a real person.

• I want to have a direct message option so that I can confirm plans with matched users.

• I want to be able to see nearby trails so I can see user activity in that area.

• I want to see people's past adventures so I can be inspired to take action.

01

Sign-up and set up hiking preferences

02

In the Explore tab, find someone specific by using the filter

03

In the Map tab, find and message a new friend nearby

I created a style guide for the app to ensure that all screens have a consistent look and feel. The style guide includes information on fonts, colors, and other design elements. I had to time-box myself for this exercise, so I chose to create a simple wordmark as the logo.

As I worked on the style guide, I kept in mind the adventurous and inspirational brand personality. The style colors, fonts, and iconography evolved and changed as I iterated the designs. As I iterated, I always went back to my mood board to stay aligned with the brand personality and attributes.

The next step was to take the low-fidelity wireframes and transform them into high-fidelity screens by adding in more detail. I worked towards making sure all the screens were unified in style and clear in action.

I added in interactions and flows to show how the user will interact with the app. By doing all of this,  I created screens that are much more detailed and give a better idea of what the final product will look like and how it will behave.

Usability testing was conducted to understand the overall usability of 3 main flows:

1. Sign-up and set up hiking preferences

2. In the Explore tab, find someone specific by using filters

3. In the Map tab, find and message a new friend nearby

I conducted 5 remote moderated usability tests. Two people were previously interviewed in the discovery phase and three were new to this project. This was intentional to get some fresh perspectives. As the participants shared their screens and completed all 3 user flows. I was looking to discover initial impressions and usability issues, and hear observations and ideas for improvement. I was looking for any moments when they struggled or became frustrated. This helped me discover 3 main issues:

Issue 1

Setting up hiking preferences is difficult to navigate through

Solution

• Keep the button that moves to the next screen fixed on the bottom so users don’t have to scroll to see it

• Categorize the options better to reduce the overwhelm

• Make the activity tracker connection optional

Issue 2

On the Explore tab, the friend search filters are hard to find and users are frustrated with the available options

Solution

• Bring the filter button to the main menu of the Explore page

• Reduce the overwhelm by reducing the available options to age, gender, relationship status

Issue 3

On the map tab, users found the task of finding and messaging a friend to be to have too many steps

Solution

• Simplify this flow by removing the pop-up menu

• Change the location icon to avatars of suggested hiking partners nearby

The results of the tests showed the #1 critical issue is the process of setting up their hiking preferences. Many users felt overwhelmed by the options and had trouble locating the next button. I solved this problem by:

• Make sure the "next" or call to action button is visible above the fold

• I rewrote and reorganized the preference tags.

While users responded positively to the UI, there were elements I took the initiative to improve on:

• Recolored the maps to match my brand colors

• Added a couple of illustrations to make the app feel more vibrant with some additional pops of color

01

Included an education section on hiking safety and trail etiquette to be more inclusive and welcoming to beginner hikers

02

Added a calendar feature to help the user plan their adventures with other hikers

03

Conducted more rounds of useability testing and iterations

Users come first

I couldn't have come this far without the help of remote interviews and usability testing. Seeing the product from a user's perspective, I challenged myself to ask the same question on every page of the app: does the user know where to go next from here? If not, what do I need to change to do that?

Take a step back

I got excited with the ideas I generated in the ideation and sketching phases and ended up pursuing a dead end for longer than I probably should have. Next time I have doubts early on about a user flow, I will go back to the drawing board and sketch out some new ideas to see if I can unearth a simpler, more effective solution.

Detail matters

I learned the writing aspect of UX design is just as important as the visuals. One of the biggest frustrations communicated by users was that the verbiage on the walkthrough screen was overwhelming and confusing. So I made sure to dedicate some time to rewriting for the next iteration.