Camp me over

THE THINKING

Living in British Columbia means a close relationship with nature. With a clear view of the mountains at any given point in the year, it’s safe to say that Vancouverites love the outdoors. But with the recent popularity of online streaming tv shows and, well, the internet, people just don’t seem to leaving their house that much anymore and heading to take in the wide open vistas of the Pacific Northwest. Make sense, but something else had to be going on. What was stopping people from camping and hiking? I had to find out.

To kick off the project, I was given the brief to design a free web application that would allow users to find more about camping in British Columbia, related camping equipment and purchase online through a joint partnership with MEC and BC Parks.

But first, I had some challenges. As a self-described ‘non-camper’ (aka I stay at hotels), my empathy towards the issue at hand was rather low. However, once I dived deeper into my own psyche and reluctance to feeling the inevitable chagrin of camping, I became aware of some of my personal challenges:

• transportation (I don’t drive)
• what to pack (a recurring issue, regardless of destination)

and

• where to go

With this in mind, I approached my research in a similar manner.

THE RESEARCH

For the web-application, I adopted a survey method to ask my future users during a series of in-person interviews and phone calls. In addition to general background information and interests, I asked them what their camping level and how many times they have gone camping in the past year. Some of the questions were:

What are the top 5 reasons you go camping?

What are the top 5 biggest deterrents that stop you from camping?

What are you trying to get done when planning a camping trip?

and…

How far in advance do you plan your trips?

A few recurring themes began to appear. People were looking at camping and hiking resource websites to find information on where to go, driving access/distance, booking information, and what gear to bring. However, not all of this information was available.

What was missing?

The gear list was the biggest one.

With this in mind, during the interviews I asked people if I designed a website that would you provide you with information on trails, hikes, driving times, campsite locations, popularity and trail/camp-specific gear lists, would you use it? The answers were pretty interesting.

Users who rated themselves between 6/7 on the camping scale, said “yes”, while more advanced, experienced campers said “no.” Their response was a reaction to their hesitation to use camping or gear information from a large corporation or organization because it wouldn’t feel authentic. Makes sense. You want to head outdoors and feel released from the big city life, not feel like you were told what to bring from “the man.” Because of this, I decided to create my own domain and only use MEC for the e-commerce integration.

A few User Persona’s began to appear, and I decided to use our mid-level camper, someone who wants to invest in their outdoor experience and wants to explore B.C more, but doesn’t know where to go.

THE WORK

After collecting my research findings, I created ‘Trail Advisor.ca’. It was pretty clear that my users were after three main pieces of information:

These three needs influenced my design decisions and are addressed right from the get go.

With just a two-week turnaround, I focused on making the user experience simple and seamless. I went through my user flows and broke down those steps into web pages and actions where the user can navigate through the site on their own terms. Based on my testing results, my users appreciated the navigation choice because it added personal touch to the experience. Success!

The user can filter their previous choices after the results page is populated.

For the campsite information page, the information is expandable and can be exported to any device as well. My User’s stated that they were frustrated organizing camping information for everyone and people forgetting to bring items. I wanted to solve that problem.

The final project saves prospective campers time and stress by giving them gear lists and driving distance for their upcoming trip. Happy travels!