Since 2020, like many others, I was spending time at home and practicing safety measures during the pandemic. I noticed that many people have been going into nature and hiking; while also looking for ways to support their local eateries.
That’s why I designed Fultrek, a hiking app that helps people find trails and download maps for offline use, premium-free, with additional features that benefit local communities.
I analyzed a few apps that use the scavenger hunt model in unique ways, Actionbound and Pokemon Go! and AllTrails because it is used to find hiking trails. I evaluated their usability, layout, navigation structure, compatibility across platforms, differentiation, and calls to action.
User Research
Using the data from the competitive analysis I was able to come up with questions in order to conduct a survey on SurveyMonkey that I shared to several hiking groups via Facebook and Reddit. I also wrote a script and interviewed several hikers I had met through meetups.
Defining the Problem
I started off by determining possible problems users might encounter while trying to find a trail to hike and narrowed it down to a simple problem statement:
"Casual hikers and travelers need an easy way to search for trails. I will know this to be true when I see an increase in hikers signing up, downloading maps and posting photos."
This data led to some brainstorming. I thought that an incentive for hikers to find set destinations, take photos and share with friends would be exciting, so, they can collect points and redeem them at a locally owned restaurant for a free drink or small appetizer which will provide a unique experience for the hiker while supporting local restaurants.
A local-based advertisement before the user downloads the map will provide a revenue stream so the hikers do not have to pay a premium in order to download a map.
Understand
User Personas
Applying the insight I obtained through analyzing the market and empathizing with the users I crafted a few personas, as a reminder of the needs and goals of the people I was designing for. This applied direction and stability to the iterative process.
User Journeys
Taking the goals, needs and pain points, I was able to construct a task scenario and empathize with the the constructed personas thoughts and emotions during each phase of the task. This led to some insight on opportunities and ways to mitigate pain points.
Design
User Flows
Based on the task scenarios and goals I crafted a few user flow charts to visualize the information architecture.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
I began to sketch out some low fidelity wireframes to better visualize the user flow. The sketches are easy to show a team or participants so I can bring them into the design conversation. This led to some important changes while cost is still low.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
I built out the mid fidelity wireframes, connected the components and screens on Adobe XD. This helped me quickly perform user tests to gain valuable feedback that I used to further reiterate the design.
Branding
Logo Design
The logo is built from the letter 'F' of Fultrek and was designed with pencil/graph paper and Adobe Illustrator.
Refine
User Testing
I was quickly able to link up the wireframes to create a prototype that I tested with potential users I recruited by Slack.
Affinity Diagramming
After recording all the user tests (with their permissions) I transcribed the audio using Temi, an audio to text transcription service, so I could easily copy and paste the data into my notes. I then organized the notes into an affinity diagram. This helped me visualize the quotes and observations into clusters so I could easily apply solutions.
