Stayke: Camp Finder App
Ideation, creation, and design of Stayke, a mobile app that helps users find dispersed camping.
My home state of Colorado offers an immense amount of camping, but given the tourism that the state sees, finding and reserving available camping can be difficult if not impossible to accomplish on short notice. Another camping option that Colorado offers is dispersed camping, which is non-reservable, non-regulated camping on public land, and is great if you’re looking to beat the crowds and feel like you want to get off the beaten path. However, the current biggest issue with dispersed camping is the difficulty locating it, and finding general information about the campgrounds. Given my own familiarity and grievances with dispersed camping, I wanted to explore how the overall experience could be improved.
My Role
Designer and researcher
Duration
3 weeks
Tools & Methods
• Sketch
• Zeplin
• User Interviews
• Affinity Mapping
• Userflows
• Task Flows
• Sketches
• Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
• High-Fidelity Wireframes
• Prototyping
The Problem
As a frequent camper myself, I tend to turn to dispersed camping pretty regularly. While this is a great option, the campsites can be difficult to find and locate and typically the information online is lacking and inconsistent from one campground to the next. Through my love of dispersed camping, and my own lived challenges, I found a definite need for a more intuitive and easy-to-use app to find and locate dispersed campgrounds.
How can we make the information pertaining to local dispersed camping more easily accessible and readily available to everyone?
User Interviews & Affinity Mapping
I had a well defined problem with the dispersed camping system, but I wondered if others had their own concerns with dispersed camping so I decided to begin with asking potential users varying questions about their own camping behavior. Through this, I was hoping to uncover what information people found most useful for dispersed camping, and any missing issues that I may not have considered myself. I conducted 5 user interviews with campers of different geographic locations, ranging in ages from 25 to 37. It was more important to me to interview younger campers, because of their general familiarity with apps, so this age range would cover the target audience for my app. Through the results of the interviews, I was able to construct an affinity map showing trends that I saw between all of the interviews.
The Results
I began to notice patterns between my user interviews and this newer generation of campers. The desire to camp was apparent, but the means of finding camping is shifting, moving away from paper maps to mobile GPS. I also noticed how simply having access to campground information, such as the size of the campground and amenities that could be offered, was important to users.
The Analysis
Using the results of the user interviews and affinity mapping, I concluded that it was that simply accessing information was of great importance, but that also incorporating a map and navigation feature could be of value to include moving forward.
Nate “The Campground Navigator”
“I would love to have an easier and more reliable way to find camping!”
Nate loves the outdoors, and when it comes to camping, he really enjoys the privacy that dispersed camping has to offer. However, Nate finds it difficult to locate and navigate to dispersed camping spots in his area, especially when there is no cell phone service. He feels the current process for finding these spots is undesirable. He wishes there was an easier way to search for, and navigate to, dispersed camping spots so he can spend less time getting lost and more time enjoying the outdoors.
Nate’s Userflow
Nate’s primary interest is finding and locating campgrounds using the GPS on his mobile device. His flow shows him searching, selecting, and then navigating to the campground. If Nate wished to save the location of the campground to his device for offline usage, he is given the option to save the location pin to his Google account, if applicable.
Paige “The Particular Packer and Planner”
“[Dispersed] camping can be so unpredictable and I hate not being properly equipped with the gear I need for camping trips!”
Paige enjoys spending her weekends camping and mountain biking with her friends, and prefers dispersed camping especially when there is biking trails nearby. Her favorite spot is Moab and she is willing to travel to other out-of-state spots when necessary. Her biggest hesitation with dispersed camping is not knowing what to expect ahead of time since the information she gets from the Forest Service websites is limited. Paige also wishes she could be aware of any possible amenities the campground has to offer, which would help be more prepared for her trips to help her packing and planning process. Paige desires a way to find dispersed camping, and the information about each individual campground so she can better prepare for her trips.
Paige’s Userflow
Paige is mainly focused on accessing information regarding the campground, so I wanted to create a place where she can find recommendations for what to pack. Ideally, the information for each campground would be crowdsourced. Within each campground profile, there is a list of amenities, plus a recommended packing list for that particular campsite based on what other users have suggested.
Sketching, Wireframing, & Prototyping
The interface design for this app was my primary focus. I wanted to create a clean and easy to use design, while also maintaining organization within my Sketch file in the instance that I would be working with other designers or developers. I began with basic sketches that I turned into a prototype for immediate user testing. Once user testing was conducted, I designed my hi-fidelity wireframes while implementing the feedback from user testing. In this final round of design, I had a specific focus on my Sketch file organization using symbols and text styles. Once my wireframes were complete, a Zeplin file was created for a quick and easy developer handoff.
Sketching
Lo-Fidelity Wireframes
After completing the detailed sketches, I had a vision for how the app would be laid out and interacted with, so I moved into lo-fidelity wireframing, prototyping, and user testing.
User Testing & Results
I wanted to start user testing right away to start finding any potential flaws in the initial designs. I prototyped the lo-fidelity designs in InVision and tested on 6 users, all of which were familiar with camping and using mobile apps. The results mostly confirmed legibility and text sizing plus scalability issues. There was an expressed frustration with the size of the text and buttons. There were 2 users who also expressed a confusion around not understanding what the checklist function was and wanted more clarity around that in the app. With these results in mind, I moved into the hi-fidelity designs and implemented feedback from user testing. Most issues were easily resolved by removing the 2 column layout in some instances, which allowed me to increase the font size and add in clearer section headers.
The Final Product
For the final designs, I decided to hone in on what deliverables would be passed off to developers, and focused on clean and clear symbol creation in Sketch, organized text styles, and design consistency across the board. Since the app was focused on mobile users, I also designed a responsive iPad version for each page. When the final designs were complete, I created a Zeplin file that could also be passed off to developers.
