My role: Product Design
Project type: Mobile App
June 2023
Stage 0: The Spark
In Sport climbing you need at least some gear (climbing shoes, harness, helmet...), a belaying partner and a minimum of knowledge/experience. Indeed, climbing requires (in most cases) other people, and that’s part of the beauty of it. But it’s also what hinders the chances of practicing if there is no access to other climbers.
During Research, it became clear that there was a gap between what was offered by IRL climbing groups vs. the existent online alternatives.
Even though there was an abundance of Apps and Blogs scoping from topography to training tracking, there wasn’t anything like the self-enriching and always active network of local climbers. The social factor in climbing is key in making the sport complete by providing a source for motivation, learning and encouragement, while building trust and sharing a bond with your partner(s). Then, how could this act of sharing within the climbing community be translated to the online world? And, more importantly, was it something people would use?
Stage 1: The Quest to find a solution
Ropes was envisioned like an ecosystem, where individuals with different needs could benefit from being in touch with one another. This meant bringing together climbers in all levels of expertise, so that information and knowledge could be shared and partnerships and services created. It’s easy to see why this could be useful for newbie climbers, but what’s in it for more experienced ones? Do they have any needs?
For this system to work, I needed a minimum of 3 profiles that I labeled as Junior (just or recently started), Experienced (over 2 year and 6b Font. level) and Professional (licensed mountain guides).
After a few interviews I realised all three profiles had different pains and needs, yet it would be highly beneficial for them to have a way of connecting, with some guarantees.
The project started taking shape after the following scenarios were brought up:
#1 Juniors would appreciate partnering and learning from someone knowing the ropes BUT if they climb frequently, they may “not be able to afford a Professional”.
#2 Experienced climbers interested on a side gig would love sharing their climbing time, knowledge and gear with others for some bucks BUT “what if they got hurt on their watch”?
#3 Professionals would like to teach full-time BUT they “didn’t know how to find more potential customers” (Juniors & Experienced)
Stage 2: Building the thing right
The term ‘useful’ has a different meaning depending on which goal the user is trying to achieve. To make Ropes as ‘universally’ useful as possible, customisation is at its core. “Recommendations” is the homepage’s highlight section. It’s a shortcut to whatever is the user’s need(s). Its preferences include basic filtering options (location, distance radius, gender, age) and more specific fields like needs to-be-fulfilled, experience level or climbing style.
Whenever a new relevant profile appears, the user will be noticed with a CTA to ‘say hi’ in just one tap, making the need-matching process too easy to ignore.
Ropes is looking to create awareness around the existing yet latent climbing communities by showing climbers nearby. By default, the app displays fellow climbers in your locality, making their profiles and needs visible, hence a step closer to being met.
A message board is also available in the homepage, as a medium to bring up issues, sharing tips or making public announcements within the community.
IRL local climbing groups always had access to prime news on the state of certain climbing areas through word-of-mouth. Given that taking informed decisions in high-risk sports is critical, Ropes provides global access to user-generated hints under ‘Alerts’, propelling reports by making the sharing process simple and accessible.
Safety and protection under adverse circumstances were legitimate concerns shared by a few of the interviewees. Because of climbing’s nature, Ropes offers an insurance option that covers the mentee or student if an accident takes place during the session. This is added to the pro/mentor fees which are paid in-app.
To provide profile veracity, every Ropes account is linked to a verified phone number introduced during the sign-up. In order to claim a Professional account, a valid license is required.
Over 65% of the surveyed climbers weren’t satisfied with online climbing information and couldn’t rely on it entirely to plan a climbing getaway. The #1 reason was disaggregated information. Many mentioned there was lots of information coming from different sources (webs, blogs, apps...). They found it time consuming and inconvenient to then keep the information at hand. Many of them, in fact, relied heavily on physical guides, going online just to search for directions and best approaching points.
The ‘Plan’ section is a logbook where you can gather up key specs while planning (gear needed, length of the route, approach details...). Its integration with Wikiloc and The Crag, allows to import available data on specific routes while keeping a route’s all relevant info together. A ‘Plan’ can be filled in collaboratively with friends and has a comment section for communications relevant to the route. Once completed it can be shared with family, for safety, or within the app to motivate other climbers to do that same route.
Stage 3: Interface, Branding & Design system
The app was ideated to evoke familiarity by referencing commonly used apps in elements such as the Feed, Chat section, Weather forecast or the Add button. Given its network nature, the IA focused on a simple navigation built around Ropes’ offering. There’s two main sections, Home and Plan.
Home includes the customisable heading section according to each climber’s needs. Underneath, there’s three other key sections (posts’ feed, all climbers around you and alerts) encouraging connection and communication with fellow climbers and collaboration by creating a safer climbing space through the alert-reporting feature accessible from the home add button.
Plan is the collaborative prepping space. It follows Home’s section scheme - a heading section displaying the Weather (the most determinant factor for outdoor climbing) and underneath the on-going Plans, climbing-related Lists and basic Safety checks.
CTA-enriched notifications are displayed on Chat. On top of open chats, there’s a quick chat access to climbers near you sorted by latest connection.
Lastly, in Profile users can access general settings and update their personal info (offers, location, needs, availability, about...) or share their profile outside Ropes.
Dark mode was chosen to emphasise profile’s image content, so that users feel closer and more empathetic to one another.
Brand’s voice is friendly and inclusive, promoting the use of neutral language.
Regarding colours, the scheme is a low-key with a subtle hint of purple, with a few vibrant highlight colours reminiscing climbing gear.
The modern, yet easy to read Satoshi font was used in different weigths across sections to provide a minimal look.
The app’s UI was built with scalability in mind. A card-based design system with format variations gives a cohesive appearance and is easily expandable as Ropes keeps evolving.
The icons used are free-access Feather Icons.
Stage 4: Next Steps & Context limitations
Test and improve: UX and business measures are to be set in place to test the app’s performance and know how to make it better. Feature engagement rate: which parts of the app are performing better? Is there anything specific getting no clicks? why? App engagement rate: How often are users using the app? NPS: Is the app useful? New users: How many new users per week? Where are they coming from?
Monetisation: A platform bringing together so many people interested in climbing is as good for advertisers as it is for professionals. Both parties’ target audience is already there. A first paid tier program could be implemented for professionals to be able to answer over a certain number of interested people. And a second, for relevant local-first ad content.
New features: Some ideas were left out during feature prioritisation. It’d be interesting to try a gps safety tracking for mentors and mentees, enable public registering of gear, to collaborate with local mountain clubs and to build more integrations with other climbing platforms.
The totality of Rope’s research- market and competitor’s analysis, interviews, surveys, etc -was conducted within Spanish territory, accounting for local climbers’ needs that might differ a great deal compared to climbers’ context in other parts of Europe or the U.S.
Spain is known internationally for its vast outdoor climbing spaces. It’s only since 2020, when climbing was included in the Olympics, that there’s been a proliferation of climbing gyms as meeting points, popularising the sport and making it more accessible to individuals unrelated to the climbing scene.
Given Spain’s precious land and blessed weather, it seems fair to try and keep outdoor climbing as accessible as indoor although it requires more experience and specific gear. This is where Ropes steps in, providing an online meeting and exchange point for climbers or others’ yet to be.
As appealing as it might be to try and export Ropes beyond Spanish borders, there should be an international market analysis to explore if it’s equally relevant abroad, or if a slightly different Ropes should be proposed.
Stage 5: Prototype in action