Problem #1

Hiking. is. stressful.

It’s so difficult! Planning, executing, recovering - all of it. Can you imagine how much harder it is in a different country? But it’s not like people don’t hike in Asia. So why is it so hard?

“How might we… decrease stress levels before, during, and after a hike?”

Secondary Research

I was conducting secondary research on how hiking effects a person’s emotional and physical state of well-being when I came across this:

“We have hiking club traditions and the hikes give us the chance to talk about things the kids like. We are also able to share stories about the things we experience on our hikes together. I think that all provides another added benefit on a family level.”

From the National Center of Biotechnology Information

Problem #2

a trusted community is difficult to find the further you are from home.

Barriers like language, introversion, and general unfamiliarity, makes it increasingly difficult and uncomfortable to find a community you trust.

“How might we… guarantee a community for traveling and non-traveling hikers?”

The Solution

WElcome to ASCEND, your go-to mobile hiking application from East asia to north america!

User Interviews + Affinity Mapping

I interviewed 5 hikers (3 from the United States, 2 from Japan) of different experience levels, to understand their personal relationship with hiking. It was important that I interviewed people from the US and Japan because I wanted insight on similarities and differences across nations. Following the interviews, I ogranized my notes using affinity mapping and found these major themes.

Research Questions

1. What was your first experience hiking like, before, during, and after?

2. Were any hikes uninteresting? Why?

3. What kept you going on more hikes?

4. What is your process for planning and executing your hikes?

5. Tell me about a hike you would have done differently, and why?

Major Themes

Competitive Analysis + Comparison

The competition didn’t have these!

1. None of them had a community feature (aside from sharing to facebook or instagram)

2. Their hiking and trail database and availability was strong in North America but lacking in Asia.

The Persona

Are you this person?

I transcribed all my data into a persona of my potential users. This persona is important because it gave me a better understanding of my users by putting myself in their shoes. Brian Johnson, “the avid hiker,” helped maintain the vision and goal of ASCEND moving forward. Well, he was supposed to do that for me, but more on that soon!

User Flows

it is a hiking app before a social media app.

“What would Brian do?” I thought. I wanted to focus on how Brian would select a hike or trail from the application’s database. However, having been so focused on creating user flows to select trails, I completely neglected the community portion of this application until I started creating high fidelity designs.

Design + Iteration

Always room for improvement!

I conducted from 5 virtual guerilla tests on sketches using Marvel, and they could have gone better. It was my first time ever conducting an application test, so I found myself looking for answers instead of allowing the users to speak freely through their experience. Once I took myself out of that habit I gained valuable insight for my low to high-fidelity designs.

After some time, I conducted and 5 virtual usability tests on a high fidelity prototype using FIGMA. I found myself, again, almost nudging the users towards the right answer. I knocked some sense into me and my tests went much smoother. After receiving feedback and iterations, I conducted 5 more usability tests, but in-person. The in-person tests were valuable because I observed how their hand motions stepped through the application on my mobile device and physically seeing their emotions and body language.

I continually iterated my design with three major improvements to note:

FInal Frames + Prototype

The final product

Prototype

Style Guide

Conclusion + Lessons Learned

1. Time is of the essence. Despite the freedom I had with the timeline, I found myself working really slow, and in turn motivation to work dwindled. But other times I was at a breakneck pace. I failed to communicate this with my mentor and progress ultimately slowed. Setting hard deadlines is important. However, consistency is key.

2. You are not an imposter. I’ve learned a lot about the UX process and practicing my UI skills through ASCEND. However, I would sometimes find myself in a lull due to imposter syndrome. But I always came back. It is okay to question, because if you don’t challenge your own decisions, there won’t be room for growth. And regardless of title or experience, abilities are meant to be improved.

3. Review and refresh! One of my biggest errors when designing ASCEND was completely neglecting the community portion. I was so hyperfocused on the next step that I ended up NOT reviewing my HMW statements or persona to verify I’m still answering the right question. If at any point in the beginning stages I had just looked back, I would have had deliverables for ASCEND’s community page and could have iterated for better design.

4. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. From noticing mistakes in my UI to uncovering more foundational UX problems in my app, I’m thankful for the feedback from my peers and mentor. I pushed to have the app as best I could and did not let my own thinking stop me from questioning if my own decisions were truly best for the user. I’m thankful to have gone through an entire UX process so I can see what it’s like.

NEXT STEPS

Based on the feedback from my usability tests and advice given by my mentor, ASCEND could use some tweeking to put it over the top. I will need to start another iteration of ASCEND with design changes and improvements to the UI, with another usability test following closely afterwards. Once I see feedback as minor, I will handoff to software engineering for further development.