Project Overview

Climbing is a diverse sport enjoyed by many for its physical and mental challenges. Who better to help than REI? REI aims to become the top destination for climbers, both online and offline. Our task was to enhance REI's online presence by identifying usability issues and implementing solutions. We focused on understanding climbers' needs and preferences to create a dedicated platform tailored to them. This project, created during General Assembly's UX Design Boot Camp, was purely educational and not a commissioned assignment.

General Assembly

UX Generalist

Duration: 2 weeks

Programs used: Figma, Google Drive

What is climbing, who climbs, and why? Climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, down, across, or down natural rock formations or indoor climbing walls. Climbing is a sport, so everyone can do it. Some people enjoy the thrill of getting to the top, while others may treat climbing routes as a puzzle to solve. A comprehensive analysis of an existing climbing website revealed significant limitations:

Sparse information on events
Fragmented user experience due to scattered content
Lack of interactive community feature

Competitive Analysis

To gain insights into effective community engagement, we examined industry-leading platforms such as Reddit's r/climbharder, Mountain Project, and Kaya. These platforms showcased robust features facilitating seamless communication and resource sharing among climbers.
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r/climbharder
Reddit has robust community-building features that allow users to join and actively engage with users of similar interests through seamless communication channels. Users can create a post and then wait for other users to answer them, fostering user-centered engagement organically.

Mountain Project
‍Brings up a way to search for climbers with similar skill levels and locations, which may lead to in-person connections.

Kaya
‍A mobile app that connects climbers by allowing users to post pictures and videos of their climbing experiences. This app also can track the history of climbing routes of their user base.

Design and Testing

Utilizing feedback from user interviews, we developed a user-friendly interface aimed at addressing identified issues. Through moderated usability tests, we assessed the effectiveness of our design and iteratively refined it. Key improvements included clearer labeling, streamlined layouts, and enhanced profile options.

Key Learnings and Takeaways

Effective labeling and layout are vital for user comprehension and navigation.
Collaborative teamwork fosters diverse perspectives and innovative solutions.
Climbers value platforms that facilitate community engagement, event organization, and resource sharing.

High-Fidelity Mockup & Next Steps

We made sure to pick fonts that are similar to what REI currently has, and kept our color scheme to blues, browns, tans, and greens. We chose these as our color scheme because it reflects the outdoors, maybe even what a user would see when they climb up on top of an outdoor route.

With the next iteration, I’d like to work on the option to create groups and events, add a way for members to create group chats, with the permission of admins, and include different climbing skills while filling out the profile.

Conclusion

Through a user-centric approach, we aim to create a vibrant and inclusive online community for climbers. By addressing key limitations and incorporating user feedback, we strive to cultivate an engaging platform that fosters connections, knowledge sharing, and growth within the climbing community.

Key Learnings and Takeaways

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