Hikes Near You Case Study
The idea from Hikes Near You was born on a mountain top when my friends and I were talking about how we wish there was an easier way to find hikes we haven’t been on, understand what current trail conditions were and a means of having safer hikes, as we had crossed paths with search and rescue that morning, and could see the helicopter searching as we were chatting.
Hikes Near You looks at removing the mystery around where your next hiking adventure is going to be, what the trail conditions actually are and making sure you get home safe.
Research
I knew I had my work cut out for me, there are a ton of hiking apps on the market. Some had great information with trail-head access directions, and user added photographs. Some had poorly documented information about hikes, that hadn’t been updated in years, plus they included city walks as “hikes” and I knew that wouldn’t fly with my dedicated hiking friends.
One thing I noticed was that none of them really addressed the safety concerns that we had brought up that day. None of the hiking apps on the market addressed if you got off the mountain safely or not, and if you had not where on the trail you might have gone missing, and what was your hiking plan for that outing.
User Interviews
After I searched around online looking at all the different hiking apps and what they brought to the table, I decided to call my friends and do an informal town-hall style user interview, I madly took notes as they discussed their thoughts and feelings around the topic. Asked them questions about what apps they were using, and why. I started getting a clearer picture of their mutual struggles and desires, and was able to start narrowing down what they were really looking for.
-Finding new hikes, being inspired
-One place to see current conditions and trail information
-GPS locating for safety
-A way to let your emergency contact know sooner if you were not off the trail (responsible hikers log a day plan with someone and check in after the hike is done for the day)
Emily is our outgoing adventurous hiker. She has a group of friends whom she loves to hike with, she is knowledgeable about her hiking skill set and the mountain safety, but knows its time to spread her wings and try new hikes.
She is driven by the escape into the wild, to reconnect with her friends, and see new places.
-As a user I want to set up an account on a hiking app
-As a user I want to learn about hikes in the Metro Vancouver area
-As a user I want to find hikes that are different lengths difficulties, and ones I have not done
-As a user I want to have all the trail information so that I am prepared
-As a user I want to add pictures and see pictures of the hike I am deciding to do
-As a user I want to have access to safety features on the phone as well as know if there are safety issues on the trail.
-As a user I want to have access to offline GPS so that I don’t drain my battery.
As the data rolled in, and the user needs started taking shape, it became clear that the safety feature was going to be the stand out element, and a User Journey needed to be cultivated around a best case scenario and a worst case scenario.
Deciding on the beginnings of the flow were relatively straight forward, the user needed to get on-boarded to the app, find and learn about hikes that matched their search parameters, select said hikes and go adventuring. In a perfect world situation, they would have a happy trip, enjoy their hike and come off the mountain safely. In the less perfect world, something may have gone wrong and they needed help.
This is where more attention needed to be paid.
What happens on a hike to change the planned happy ending into something else?
-it took longer than expected because you were enjoying yourself
– you got off track but found the trail again, all is fine but you are still hiking
-you got straight up lost and need help
-you or someone you are with has been injured
These are issues that “Hike Safe” Hikes Near You’s safety feature was looking to address
I addressed this in the user flow by:
-having a push notification to make the user acknowledge to the app that they have completed the hike
-giving the user the opportunity to add more time to their estimated hiking time set when “Hike Safe” was originally set
-if the user does not add time or respond to the push notification within 30 minutes the app notifies the users emergency contact, giving a detailed summery of the hike the user chose to do, and any GPS information about the user’s whereabouts.
The emergency contact set by the user can then try and contact the user themselves or the user’s known hiking buddies as well as take the information to search and rescue if they believe that something has gone wrong on the user’s hike that day.
Sketching and Prototype
After the User Journey was sent though its passes, it was time to make Hikes Near You come to life. I started hand sketching out what it would look like. What types of menus and sliders would be applicable to this type of application. I wanted it to be very visual, giving the User the opportunity to see the hikes they were choosing from. Have quick graphics for ratings and hikes they already liked, and even a simple understanding for approximate length of time giving the user all they needed at their fingertips so they then could simply choose the hike for their next adventure.
The response to the prototype has been amazing! People are loving the ease of use, but the big winner is the safety feature! A whole secondary user group has sprung out of the safety feature. All the people who are charged with being emergency contact, they are really loving the peace of mind that they will be notified when their loved one is out hiking and hasn’t checked in. I am really curious to do some user interviews with this group to see what other features they feel would help them feel better about accessing the information and what knowledge they may prefer.
Future work for Hikes Near You. I really want to get this fully built to test the GPS and the safety features on this app. I want to get it into the hands of my users and get out in the mountains! The initial reaction to the prototype for the user flow and the hike information has been great. I am very excited to see what will come of building it out and making it happen in real life!
