Company
REI (Concept App)
Oct 2023 - Nov 2023
Contribution
Strategy Lead
Research Co-Lead
Team
Alisha Liu (Interaction Lead)
Adithi Deepak (Project Lead)
Aspen Ma (Research Lead)
Who is REI?
Since 1938, REI has grown to become one of the nation’s leading retailers and resources for outdoor recreation. By providing top-quality gear and apparel, expert advice, rental equipment, and guided experiences, they have been able to build a brand known for its commitment to those who choose to spend time outside - from those new to the outdoors to seasoned pros.
Project Brief
Since 1938, REI has grown to become one of the nation’s leading retailers and resources for outdoor recreation. By providing top-quality gear and apparel, expert advice, rental equipment, and guided experiences, they have been able to build a brand known for its commitment to those who choose to spend time outside - from those new to the outdoors to seasoned pros.
User Research Process
Interviewing Climbers
After reviewing the brief, we determined that the most effective approach was to conduct interviews with individuals who engage in rock climbing as a hobby or passion. We interviewed 15 participants with varying levels of experience and skill, ranging from beginners to seasoned experts.
Takeaways
Rock climbing is an excellent opportunity for individuals to push themselves both physically and mentally.
Climbing is an excellent activity to mingle with like-minded people and make new friends and climbing partners.
“Climbing provided a social space where I could interact with people face-to-face, make friends, and establish regular personal connections.”
Market Research Process
The Competition
To better understand what is already in the market, we conducted a Competitor &Comparator analysis mostly focusing on our competitors which we identified as Mountain Project, Kaya, and Vertical Life Climbing. Some features we started to notice commonly in our competitors were these apps focused primarily on route discovery and tracking progress.
Market Opportunities
We identified an opportunity based on user interviews and analysis of competitors. We discovered that there were untapped market opportunities in the climbing industry – specifically, a website or app that emphasized the social aspects of climbing.
Merging Research Outcomes
Meet Calvin
Calvin is an amateur climber who indulges in recreational climbing. He finds the social aspect of the sport to be highly motivating and enjoys meeting fellow climbers and learning more about the activity. Despite his less experienced status, he is eager to improve his climbing skills and knowledge with each climb. Calvin's passion for climbing makes him a valuable member of any climbing community.
Meet Henry
Henry is an experienced climber who has mastered various techniques to improve his abilities. He trains rigorously to maintain his physical fitness and mental alertness, targeting muscles used in climbing. He tracks his climbs meticulously, using data to identify areas where he can improve and set new goals. Henry is known in the community as a respected and skilled climber, constantly challenging himself to climb harder routes and overcome his fears.
Calvin’s Journey
We created a customer journey map for Calvin's experience with Mountain Project because our app didn't exist yet. However, his experience was negative as it didn't meet his need for finding climbing partners and making friends.
The Problem
“Calvin needs a way to find compatible climbing partners based on their skill and experience levels, because he wants to be safe while testing his climbing abilities with people he can trust”.
How Might We?
How might we create a secure platform for climbers to connect and establish trust before deciding to climb together?
How might we suggest potential partners based on users’ profiles and interests?
How might we enable climbers to specify their preferred climbing styles to connect with like-minded partners (e.g., bouldering, trad, sport)?
Design Ideation Process
Based on the research we synthesized we began our design process by ideating with a design sprint. Ultimately we took design elements from each team member and combined them into one wire flow.
Ideation Takeaways
Certain screens were deemed unnecessary to design because they didn’t help us solve our users’ problem.
Design sprints allowed us to speed up the ideation process by quickly creating a higher quantity of basic sketches.
Bringing together the best elements of all of our designs allowed us to quickly come up with an appealing and functional design.
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Our main goal was to assist Calvin in finding compatible climbing partners who share similar skills, experience, and interests as him. We understand that having like-minded individuals to climb with is essential, and we aim to help Calvin become a better climber.
Here's how we achieved this objective.
We created a simple home screen with 3 calls to action; find a climbing partner, find an event, and blogs.
The find a climbing partner section allows the user to browse profiles and filter by distance, skill, and climbing interests.
The find event section allows users to browse events and filter by distance, date, indoor event, outdoor event, and type of climbing.
Usability Tests
Our design was validated as 90% of our users found the tasks easy to complete, with only a few minor feedback trends.
Found the V and number system for skill level confusing as a beginner.
Would like to see the day of the week for the events, because they did not want to open their calendar to see which day the date fell on.
Users found the (i) icon for reporting other users confusing and couldn't tell what it was for.
Branding
Final Output
Final Thoughts
This was my first collaborative project working with a team of UX Designers, and there’s a few things I would’ve done differently.
Advocate for my ideas more passionately. I found myself giving into my peers' ideas even if I disagreed with them.
Be more proactive and participate in phases that I was not directly involved in producing. When it came to some of the design phase I took a step back to not step on anybody's toes.
There were also a few things I thought I did quite well.
Mediating group discussion, when my teammates were having a hard time deciding our design decisions I was often the person to come in and help us come to a compromise.
Proactively recruiting and setting up multiple user interviews and testing. I made sure to stretch my network to ensure we had users to gather enough data.