OVERVIEW
Mothering is a uniquely all encompassing experience.
For birth mothers there’s the giving over of your physical body to grow a tiny human for nine months. Also, mothers often experience a deep emotional connection to their babies and children, influenced in part by powerful hormones like oxytocin. And then there's the mental load—an often invisible weight of planning, remembering, anticipating everyone’s needs, and managing family life—which can lead to stress and exhaustion.
Moms have a hard time carving out time to connect with friends.
Moms have the challenge of coordinating endless ongoing commitments for their kids and family. When the weekend rolls around and there is a choice between going out or staying in pajamas and watching movies, well... Even going on a hike, something that could be beneficial for everyone, becomes a chore when planning is tedious.
Moms put their health and wellness aside as a last priority.
Often kids’ activities take top priority, pushing out time and space for mom’s self care. Getting out into nature is great for physical, mental, and emotional well being and supporting moms to do that should be more accessible.
I saw an opportunity to support moms’ mental, emotional and physical wellness by creating a space for connection and encouraging exploration in nature.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
I wanted to get an idea of the ways current apps handle the topic of hiking and planning.
I conducted a thorough competitive analysis review including the following apps: Strava, All Trails, Komoot, Cairn, Doodle, Meetup, and Calendly.
Current mobile apps each excel in a narrow focus on hiking.
Strava highlights fitness tracking.
All Trails excels in trail discovery.
Komoot emphasizes route customization.
Cairn spotlights safety and live tracking.
ALL TRAILS
All Trails features filters and quick reference cards for hikes as well as an extensive hike detail page.
KOMOOT
Komoot utilizes maps to feature nearby hikes and gives options to customize and save routes.
I also looked into a few group planning and scheduling apps.
Doodle is a platform for creating polls to find best meeting times among a group.
Meetup excels in connecting people with similar interests for group activities.
Calendly is designed for people to request a meeting with you within the parameters of your availability.
DOODLE
On Doodle you can create a poll with multiple dates and times and people are allowed to select “yes”, “maybe”, or “no” in response to help find the most convenient time for a group meeting.
MEETUP
You can find group meetups by subject and join them to connect with people in your area.
CALENDLY
Calendly allows you to set your availability and home location in your profile.
INTERVIEWS
I wanted to understand people’s motivations and considerations around hiking and their planning process when meeting friends.
I interviewed 5 people who enjoy hiking and connect with friends on hikes. At this point the interview pool included people with and without kids.
People depend on insight from others who have hiked trails previously.
Having a review from someone who has already hiked a particular trail gives people valuable feedback on the trail’s appropriateness for different ages or abilities when searching for new hikes.
"I love to get “real person feedback” and detailed trail descriptions when planning hikes for out of town guests.”
-KIM
People find it essential to get updates on trail conditions and weather.
All interviewees cited that they either found it important to know weather and trail conditions ahead of time or had experienced a frustration for lack of updates on trail conditions.
“I really like how the Rocky Mountain National Parks website offers current conditions, weather updates, and seasonal road closures.”
-LYRA
“One time we were planning to go hiking but there was a wildfire in the area that we didn’t know about until we left the house.”
-KATE
There is no app that has a centralized location for hike discovery, navigation, and planning.
People are using a wide range of websites and apps to get information about trails to assist in their selection and plan hikes with others.
“I use All Trails to find new trails, Google maps to find the proximity of said trail to my location, and WhatsApp or Messenger to coordinate with friends.”
-KIM
PERSONAS
I created two personas to personalize and ground the research.
PROBLEM
Moms struggle with motivation to go on hikes because planning can feel overwhelming.
Considerations include difficulty finding hikes that are suited to their family, coordinating meet ups with other families, and getting up to date information on trail conditions, weather, and parking.
PROJECT GOALS
IDEATION
With some early ideation, the ways for Olivia to find, plan, and keep track of hikes started taking shape.
I explored how to present different categories of hikes, how she could create group polls, and track her scheduled hikes.
After extensive research, initial ideation, and taking into account project goals, the following features were identified as essential.
TRAIL FILTERS
For trail discovery to meet unique user needs
CELL SERVICE
Indicators of reception strength to expect at a trail
TRAIL SUGGESTIONS
Based on location and user preferences
DOWNLOADABLE MAPS
For offline navigation on remote trails or areas
GROUP PLANNING
Polls and communication about a hiking meetup
TRAIL ALERTS
Notifications about relevant trail or area alerts
I had five people participate in a card sort to help group content into categories guided by the user’s perspective.
Social sharing or Group communications
Hike details-for filters or trail descriptions
Trail highlights-for featured trails or recommendations
Preparing for hike or Planning
Safety & Updates
SITE STRUCTURE
TASK FLOW
FIND HIKES
Olivia can find hikes “By Location” and choose from hikes near Home, Group, or a City/Area. Selecting near Home or Group utilizes her saved address to recommend nearby hikes. Icons allow a quick view of trail features.
PLAN NEW HIKE
Olivia can choose her group and whether kids are joining or not. Then she can choose to plan by location or time first. After selecting dates, times, and hikes, she can submit a message and poll to the group to vote on.
POLL INTERACTION
Olivia can view her upcoming hikes and their status. Trail Mamas will recommend a time and hike location if there is a favorable choice among the votes. Messages among the group are also visible for planning purposes.
EARLY USER TESTING
Some early testing on a mid-fidelity prototype gave guidance on matching Olivia’s mental models.
Clarify language: Indicating hikes with only adults or hike with kids
Make the poll process clearer: Selecting single hike or creating a poll and adding locations/times
Make Community Recommendations more discoverable: Display on Home & bottom navigation labeled
Calendar View: for dates
Map/List View: choice for planning hikes
Updates to hike cards: Whole cards clickable for viewing details and visual indication of favorite hikes
BRANDING
Now it was time to consider branding that would represent my social hiking app for moms.
I settled on the name Trail Mamas which reflects the casual and friendly way moms chat with each other. I chose colors that were earthy and grounded, rich and feminine. Finally the logo, the classic image of baby ducks following along behind their mama.
PROTOTYPE
With the visual direction in place, I worked on building a hi-fidelity prototype to bring the project goals and features to life.
Olivia can set up a free account that captures her information to guide trail recommendations and streamline planning hikes.
Olivia’s address will populate trail recommendations near her home.
Her preferences also direct which trails are recommended.
Olivia can add family members, and trail recommendations adjust to the lowest skill level in the group.
She can create groups to quickly access later when planning hikes.
All entries and selections are available to review and edit.
Hikes can be quickly populated near a group’s location in a map or list view with relevant key details to support hike selection.
Map view with hikes populated near the group.
List view of the hikes populated near the group.
Scroll down to see trail map and option to download or get directions.
Hike detail page with clickable icons to indicate trail features.
Scroll down to see weather conditions at the trail and reviews.
I redesigned the planning process into a wizard-style flow to reduce the mental load of making multiple selections on one page.
Option to create a poll with multiple hike times and locations or to quickly set a hike.
Clear visual confirmation of all selections made.
Whether kids will join helps determine the difficulty level of the suggested hikes.
Olivia starts with selecting the group that she wants to hike with.
Olivia can continue through the plan process with built-in support at each step to confirm and track her selections.
A snack bar appears to confirm Olivia’s latest selection and suggest what to do next in the poll creation process.
Calendar view preferred in user testing. (*Also note the “Your Plan” tab to track selections)
Option for Olivia to include a message before sending the poll to the group for a vote.
Clicking on the “Your Plan” tab expands to show all selections up to this point.
Ability for her to review all hike selections and edit them before sending to the group.
From the home screen Olivia can see her upcoming hikes, solidify hike details after poll results are in, and vote in polls from other people.
A summary of the confirmed hike and attendees will be sent to the group.
Upcoming hikes that have been resolved revert to the unhighlighted state.
The snack bar highlights the most popular poll choice and gives Olivia the option to confirm and finalize the hike details."
(Note: Group communications are tracked in the chat below.)
The home screen displays a list of upcoming hikes, with those requiring attention highlighted.
Olivia can vote on dates, times, and locations for hikes other members in her groups are hosting. She can also indicate who will attend the hike from her family.
The final usability testing provided valuable feedback for the last adjustments to the prototype.
CONTEXTUAL POP-UPS
For extra clarification on polls (adding multiple dates, times, & locations) and plan progress tracking (Your Plan).
“I’LL CHOOSE”
Include alternate option to “Accept Recommended” in finalizing poll selections.
WHO VOTED FOR WHAT?
Add avatars to indicate who voted for which options in the polls and clarify weighted results.
ADDITIONAL FILTERS
Add other categories like “Dog-friendly” to list of filters.
FILTERS IN FIND HIKES
Ensure that filters (seen in profile preferences) are available in “Find Hikes”.
SUMMARY
Overall the app was enthusiastically received as filling the need of relevant problem space for moms.
Planning hikes was generally intuitive. Users appreciated setting profile preferences and the flexibility of the map/list view. The presence of in app weather conditions and options for downloadable maps was a delightful feature.
I would definitely use this app if it was developed!
-RACHEL
“The map view that recommends hikes next to the group member avatars is really innovative.”
-HELEN
OPPORTUNITIES
There are still opportunities to continue developing features for the Trail Mamas app.
Develop external email or push notifications or option to share phone numbers within a group.
“Start hike” check-ins with emergency contacts or GPS tracking.
Differentiate further between ages of participating kids for more refined hiking recommendations. (ex: teens vs. toddlers)
Carpool & picnic planning.
Expand the social features to connect with area moms.
MORE PROJECTS
Diversity Corner is a feature addition concept to help community members access titles highlighting diversity & inclusion through the HPLD website.
Redesigning the Arvada Adventist Church’s website to address issues of church engagement and retention especially in youth and young adult populations.