Digital Field Guide for Hikers
Hike·n·Seek
Hike·n·Seek is a mobile application that allows users to search for hiking trails, plan hikes, and identify wildlife while hiking.
My Role
Project Manager
UX Designer
Duration
8 Weeks
Year
2023
Skills
User Interviews
Personas
Storyboards
Wireflows
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Visual Design
Overview
We started this project by investigating current problems that people routinely encounter while hiking and strove to discover how we might make the experience better. We ended up deciding to investigate the idea of combining the features from conventional hiking apps and digital field guide apps into a singular experience.
We put together a research-based approach to understand hiking preferences and field guide usage, and to gain insight into what users would expect or want in a mobile app that allows them to manage their hike, as well as identify flora or fauna along the way.
The Team
This was a collaborative effort among four UX designers. Everyone contributed to the entire project, with each person taking a leading roll in a specific part of the project. I was in charge of project management.
Addie Moore
UX Research
Carnette Urayan
Visual Design
Andy Nardone
Project Management
Steven Wett
Prototyping
The Problem
Outdoor enthusiasts want to understand the local plants and animals on their hikes. Because their hiking apps don’t have a field guide and their citizen science database apps don’t let them record their information, they’re not able to properly track what they’ve seen.
This is a problem because they can’t remember what they’ve seen and where they saw it.
Research Approach
User Interviews
Qualitative insights into hikers' experiences, pain points, and motivations
Personas
Identify opportunities by empathizing with our target users
Storyboards
Visual storytelling to better understand user needs and behaviors
Prototyping
Clickable high-fidelity prototype
Wireflows
Roadmap of how users move through key features, screens, and actions
Usability Testing
Identify usability issues and areas for improvement
User Interviews
Methodology
We conducted 10 remote moderated user interviews and asked the participants about their hiking experiences, familiarity with field guides, and what they look for in a hiking excursion. This exploratory user research allowed us to gain essential insights from our potential target audience for this app and to better understand people’s needs and wants from a hiking app with field guide capabilities.
10 Participants
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6 men, 4 women
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Ages 32-65
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4 had used field guides
Objectives
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Understand their current hiking habits and whether they have used a field guide.
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Learn about the experiences they've had while hiking and preparing for a hike.
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Learn how they currently identify things while on a hike,
High-Level Findings
01
Interest in Field Guides
People have limited knowledge or experience with field guides, but want to use them more.
03
Popularity of AllTrails
AllTrails is extremely popular amongst hikers, but other apps are required to identify wildlife.
05
Offline Use
People want to be able to use the app offline. Downloadable maps for offline use were found to be helpful, especially in places with limited cell service.
02
Identification
People want the ability to identify flora and fauna while on an outdoor excursion.
04
Limit Phone Use
People don’t want to be on their phones too much while outside. They want to enjoy what is in front of them.
06
Importance of Safety
Safety was a common theme among participants, including: medicinal field guide, finding water, avoiding poisonous plants and animals, and properly planning a trip.
Key Insights
Simple and all-in-one
Users want very simple design and interactions when using an app while out in nature. They don’t want to spend time digging through app features or other apps. The app needs to be straight forward, seamless, and with very few clicks.
Organization
People currently take lots of photos while being outside, but typically don’t go back and connect them and their location afterwards. There is a desire to have a more organized and streamlined process for remembering what they see while on a hike.
“I think one of the reasons why sometimes I don't take a lot of photos is because I don't want to organize them later.”
Social Aspect
Users want a social aspect of this app. The outdoor and hiking community tend to rely on each other for insight and recommendations, so a majority of the participants expressed the need for connecting with others within the app.
“I guess something that comes to mind would be that social component that Strava has. And of course you know, you could always make it private, but just having that option to post that you hiked this trail and then you can maybe choose to also share all the photos and other things too...”
Get informed and educated
Users want a social aspect of this app. The outdoor and hiking community tend to rely on each other for insight and recommendations, so a majority of the participants expressed the need for connecting with others within the app.
Personas
To better understand our target audience, we identified two user types and created two user personas.
Storyboards
We created three scenarios for key features of the app and created a storyboard for each scenario.
Wireflows
Wireflows were created to visualize user flows for the key feature areas. They provide a roadmap of how the user moves through features, screens, and actions within the app. We designed wireflows for our three user scenarios to understand how users will navigate the app and help to identify key interaction points and opportunities for micro-interactions.
Find a Trail
User Goal
Find a trail based on recent flower sightings
Identifying Wildlife
User Goal
Identify a tree while on a hike
Planning a Hike
User Goal
Plan a group hike with friends
Design System
Implementing a design system helped us streamline collaboration among the designers and was instrumental in providing a seamless and cohesive user experience.
Since cell phones are the main form of technology used while hiking, we took a mobile-first approach. Battery life is important to hikers so we designed for dark mode. Our color palette and typography are inspired by nature, classic notebook field guides, and trail signs.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Utilizing the design system, we created a high-fidelity prototype that showcased the three user flows and conveyed the core functionalities and interactions of the app.
ROUND 1
Usability Testing
Methodology
We conducted five virtual moderated usability tests where we presented the participants with three scenarios that pertained to our app's functionality.
Findings & Insights
01
Confusion with the functionality of the field guide filters
03
It wasn't clear that the field guide's search box functioned as an input field
05
When planning a hike, users didn’t know whether their action of inviting people to their hike was confirmed
02
Confusion about the field guide “Skip” button
04
Positive response to the camera being a tool for identification
06
Uncertainty about whether the packing list was an individual list or a group list
Solutions
The following updates were made to the prototype to address the problems users encountered during the usability tests:
Identifying with the Field Guide
Problems
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Confusion with the functionality of the field guide filters
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Confusion about the field guide “Skip” button
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It wasn't clear that the field guide's search box functioned as an input field
Planning a Hike
Problems
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Users didn’t know whether their action of inviting people to their hike was confirmed
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Uncertainty about whether the packing list was an individual list or a group list
Updated Prototypes
Below are the prototypes for our three scenarios. Click on the prototypes to use them!
Scenario 1
Find a trail based on recent flower sightings
Scenario 2
Identify a tree while on a hike
Scenario 3
Plan a group hike with friends to Dragon's Tooth Trail
Impact
Overall, the layout and design was well received. Users like the clean interface and darker background, and are able to easily navigate throughout the app.
By taking the feedback from our first round of usability testing, we made updates to the user flow of creating a group hike, and the identification feature. We then conducted a second usability test to determine if the updates were beneficial to the user. The impact of our updates were:
Identification
Users now understand the functionality surrounding the field guide identification feature.
Invite Transparency
Users are now able to see the status of invitees of a planned group hike.
Ease of Planning
Users can more easily adjust and edit the details of their planned group hike
Next Steps
Add More Functionality
Add more functionality to the hike planning feature including adding multiple trails, assigning packing list items to specific people, etc.
User-Generated Content
Explore user-generated content such as photos, ratings, and opinions of the trails.
