Adults who enjoy exploring the outdoors often feel unprepared when they make their journey on a hiking trail, even after using the information they find online. They also tend to avoid going out alone because it’s difficult to prepare for all of the potential dangers on a trail. We believe that creating an app that connects hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts who may have safety concerns with a trusted contact if an unexpected emergency happens to arise while exploring. We will design an app that provides reassurance to users through a Safety Mode feature, reminding them that they are being looked after during their treks.

After analyzing our interviews, we found that a lot of people love to be outside, but their main concern was not feeling safe while exploring the many wonders and beauties of nature. This has stopped many people from trying new paths because they don’t feel comfortable going alone. After deciding to hold off on the community aspect of our app, we focused on how we might make our users feel safe if they feel adventurous and decide to go out on their own.

While we knew we wanted to have a “Safety Mode” feature, it transformed multiple times before we arrived at our final product. It began as its own tab on the Home page, but we wanted to encourage users by prompting them to turn on the feature each time they started a trail. 

We also wanted to appeal to both beginner hikers and experienced hikers, so we added a rating system to inform hikers the level of difficulty and how other people like the trails. 

Our ambitions started to get a head of ourselves, so we made some cuts and save them for a future iteration. 

After several user interviews and a survey, we had three main objectives: 1. Uncover people's prior experiences in hiking areas such as community parks, state and national parks, 2. Understand what resources people use for hiking or walking a trail, 3. Understand what feelings users have when accessing trail information and the risks associated with exploring. It outlined what features we needed to prioritize. The questions we asked under each objective helped us get a better understanding of the most valuable steps of preparation that a user may complete before embarking on a trail.

Taylor struggles with anxiety and hopes going on hikes can help relieve some of her stress. However she feels overwhelmed when deciding what trail to visit due to her inexperience. Taylor is also overwhelmed at the fact that she will mostly be going on these hikes alone. She wishes there was some way of letting her friends and family know where she is at all times during her hike. Taylor prepares for her first solo hike as best as she can. During her hike Taylor gets lost and has no phone service. She feels scared and overwhelmed with the fact that no one knows where she is on the trail. Thankfully she makes it home. After sharing her story with a friend Taylor learns about TrailScout.

Since we put our Community feature on the backburner this time around, we know we could work to develop that more in the future if possible. We also would add to our “Nature Facts” tab with helpful information about plants and animals users may encounter on trails to help them prepare for that potential danger. We would also consider other ways to better tailor the experience for users who may fall outside of Taylor’s demographics.

The most important lessons that we learned were that it’s okay to set certain ideas aside and save them for later. Not everything has to be packed into an app from the very beginning. We loved that all of us respected each other’s time, and we learned how important it was to make everyone feel heard. While we divided and conquered the work, we also learned how much user testing and iterating was really necessary for success.