Mature-stage
- Branding
- Graphic design
- Web App
- Bootstrap
- outdoor recreation
- adventure planning
- geospatial mapping
- community-driven
Hikers often face fragmented tools for trip planning, requiring multiple apps for navigation, trail details, safety preparation, and group collaboration. This disjointed experience leads to inefficiencies, a lack of personalized recommendations, and potential safety risks.
Art of the Trek streamlined the outdoor planning process with an all-in-one platform. It offered collaborative trip planning, tailored trail suggestions for less-traveled paths, tools to check land-use permissions, and safety features like emergency plans—all designed to empower hikers with a seamless, community-driven approach to exploring the outdoors.
- Planning outdoor adventures is time-consuming and often overwhelming, especially for beginners.
- Poor planning or inadequate data can lead to safety risks or negative outdoor experiences.
- By simplifying planning and ensuring access to accurate information, the app promotes safe and enjoyable outdoor experiences, encouraging more people to explore nature.
Users: Professional hikers, Route guide planners and outdoor enthusiasts of all levels who needed a unified platform for trip planning.
Stakeholders: Art of the Trek's founders, who envisioned creating an ecosystem to address these gaps and enhance outdoor recreation experiences.
Lack of confidence in route selection due to insufficient contextual information.
Fear of failure stemming from unclear or overly complex planning tools.
Users often abandon planning tools midway due to frustration (high drop-off rates).
Typeform
Gather quantitative and qualitative insights about personalised adventure planning preferences and desired features.
Preferences on hiking destinations and activities. Preferences on trip features.
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of other outdoor planning platforms to identify opportunities for differentiation.
- User interface (UI) design.
- Core functionality.
- Pain points from user reviews of competing apps.
Usability testing with small groups of target users.
Test design concepts and interactions to validate assumptions and refine the user experience.
Allowed users to share and co-edit trip details with their hiking group. It also incorporated safety features, such as the ability to share emergency plans with trusted contacts.
Offered excellent trail databases and navigation but didn't prioritize group collaboration and emergency preparedness as core features
Aimed to deliver hyper-local and tailored recommendations for lesser-known trails. This was especially appealing to users seeking off-the-beaten-path adventures not covered extensively in more popular apps
Extensive trail databases and user reviews without recommendations or inclusion of less known paths.
Included tools for checking land use permissions to help users ensure they were hiking legally and responsibly.
Provided information on trail difficulty and geography but didn't prioritize land-use checks to the same extent.
Combined curated trail recommendations with weather forecasts, water sources, and campsite availability, which were integrated into planning tools.
Excelled at advanced navigation and detailed maps but no combination of features aimed to streamline trip preparation for casual hikers and backpackers alike.
We made trip planning easier by breaking it into smaller, clear steps.
This keeps users focused and helps them make decisions faster.
We provide pre-filled routes lists as suggestions to guide users right away.
This reduces stress and makes planning feel simple.
Breaking down detailed route information into digestible sections (e.g., route type, optimized for, feature guides) reduces cognitive load and keeps users engaged.
We show each route’s pros and cons.
This helps users make balanced and informed decisions.
We added a feature where users can invite friends to plan trips together.
Seeing others join builds confidence in the choices.
We highlight the expert's bio that prepared the specific route.
This builds trust and helps users feel confident about their decisions.
Users place more value on something they’ve built themselves.
Creating their own route gives them a sense of ownership and pride in their plan.
The app also provides the choice to view set routes on a list.
Users feel empowered when given control over their decisions. The DIY option satisfies their desire for autonomy and personalization.
If users spend time and effort crafting a route, they are more likely to believe the route is superior to pre-made ones.
Some users might prefer familiar options (pre-made routes) over building their own route, fearing the effort or uncertainty of using the map tool.
Centered popups dominate the screen and focus the user’s attention on a specific piece of information.
Centered popups provide a controlled framing of details, allowing you to steer user perception.
Popups leave a lasting impression because they’re the last thing users see before making a choice or performing an action.
Centered popups naturally place key content (e.g., trail stats or decision buttons) at the highest priority on the screen.
A popup prompting users to "Add this waypoint" nudges them into making micro-commitments, increasing their likelihood of sticking with the route.
When the popup provides partial information or teases a next step (e.g., “Add this route to finish planning”), users are more likely to follow through.
Centered popups can help reduce cognitive load by narrowing user focus to fewer, clearer choices.
Implementation of filters and shorting options as well as 'feature trails' is coming soon, in order to avoid overwhelming users and lead to indecision and dissatisfaction.
People prefer structured information that is grouped into meaningful categories.
Throughout the Art of the Trek project, challenges arise in maintaining data accuracy and consistency across various platforms, given the app's reliance on crowdsourced information. For example, discrepancies in trail details could cause confusion for users.
Introduction of data validation process, involving community moderators and automated tools to cross-verify entries and flag inconsistencies. For more known trails a structured team of Trail Analysts has been introduced that is curating and verifying trail information in order users to feel more confident in their planning,
Difficulty familiarizing users with the platform’s full capabilities, especially for route guide planners.
Introduction of interactive courses (The Art of the Trek Academy) and simplified UI to guide first-time users.
Pre-fill routes with a "default best option" (editable) to guide users even more.
An AI personalized route coaching assistant that:
- Suggests optimal routes based on the user’s skill level, gear, and location.
- Sends time-sensitive recommendations, such as “This route has perfect weather conditions this weekend” (Scarcity Effect).
- Provides real-time route validation
Ensure the final trip screen is visually pleasing and ends on a positive note to leave a lasting impression.
Usage of progress bars to encourage users to complete their plans by emphasizing incomplete tasks.
Introduce a gamification system to get users feel compelled to return to the app for their next adventure.
- Badges + levels
- Discounts from local shops
- Log miles or adventures completed
Showcase success stories from experienced hikers using the app to plan multi-day adventures.
Offer a “Trust Indicator” score for each route, with safety metrics like emergency exit points.