Investigations & Ideation

 

It all started with…

In discussing our ideas around what to take up for the project, we quickly realized that as a group we all loved hiking and are passionate about how and what we do. We realized that while the information we need to plan for a hike are the same, the way each of us looks for the information - the order, granularity, context, preference, and priority is very different. 

 
 

To get a better understanding of this information finding process, we created an affinity diagram around what each of us does when planning for a hike. We used post-it notes of assorted colors to write down how we would start to a planned trip/hike and then did a thematic analysis of sorts around the main themes that emerged from this process. Some important points to note were recreated in the below affinity diagram: 

 
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The important themes that came up were around what questions do we ask first. Each of us had a different sequence to the questions we asked. Knowing this, we realized that this could be one of the reasons why hike planning needs to be dynamic and flexible to allow users to find information in a way that works best for them. 

With this insight, we decided to go out and talk to other hikers like us, to see how they planned their hikes, their expectations, needs, behavior, and priorities. To do this, we created a draft of questions that were important to us, and then further distilled the questions in a way that allowed them to think broadly first in the context of travel, and then talk about hiking. 

To do this, we drafted the following list of questions (to be asked in the sequence presented): 

Q1a. What kind of outdoor activities do you like? What are some activities do you like to do when you go to the outdoors? 

Q1b. How would you rate yourself in your proficiency level? 

Q2. How do you plan for an adventure in the outdoors? What do you think of first? 

Q3. What are the biggest challenges that you encounter when you are planning or participating an outdoor activity? 

Q4. How do you pack for a hike? List the first five most important things you think you’ll need on a hike, please. 

Q5. What are some of the questions you ask yourselves 

Q6. Worst experiences? Why was it so bad? 

Q7. If there was one thing you would like to change/improve through a service provided to you, what would it be? 

Alongside these questions, we also asked them to give us information on the following points that are pertinent to our idea at that stage: 

  • Information Needs

  • Top 5 Hiking Gear

  • Favorite 3 Brands (brand alignment, identity)

  • What time of year they usually do their hikes

  • Profile (Rank using 1 (lowest) - 5 (highest) scale)

    • Fitness (How fit do they consider themselves, when it comes to hiking and exploring new trails?)

    • Confidence (How confident are they about going out on their own, exploring new trails, conditions and challenges?)

    • Proficiency (What do they consider their proficiency level in terms of terrains and conditions of a hike?)

    • Experience (How experienced are they in different quality, difficulty levels, duration, etc. of hikes?)

 

For more details on the field investigation & interviewing process, please download PDF of the investigation process report using the button below.