SkiMe
By Connor Steffens UX Design and Research
Executive Summary
SkiMe is an app concept that aims to help Alpine skiers. Currently, if you go to an alpine skiing race, all of the information you need for the day is very disorganized, being located in multiple forms of media. SkiMe would put all of that information in one place. I got to this point by conducting multiple forms of research, rapid prototyping, and usability testing. I then presented my findings and work in a presentation, annotated wireframes, and video walkthrough.
Goals
Research pain points and opportunities
Determine which feature would be useful
Design a user-friendly interface
Methods
Competitive Analysis
Participatory Research
Journey Map
Feature Cards
Desirability Survey
Kano Analysis
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Ski Racing is stuck in the past
Emails
Word of mouth
Old Websites
I love alpine skiing; I’ve done it for practically my entire life. But like anything in the world, it’s not perfect. During a race day, you have to be exactly on time for many events throughout the day, e.g., training runs, inspections, race runs, etc. Also, things never run on schedule, and plans change a lot. The current way of communicating information on race day is through email, word of mouth, or old websites that are difficult to use. That is why I wanted to create the app SkiMe to help communicate information effectively by putting all the information you need for a race day in one place.
Research
I found out that…
There are currently no apps in the market that do anything
From the people I interviewed, there is a need for this app and it primary feature is highly desirable.
User Quote -
“ I love it, I want it, I wish had this”
Link to some of the research I did if your are interested
Identified the main pain points on race day, which were knowing where to go, and keeping track of when events take place.
I created a journey map to help me visualize the pain points and opportunities during a week of a ski season.
Rapid Prototyping
Feature Cards
I then moved into rapid prototyping. Since SkiMe is a new idea, I wanted to think of a bunch of features to see what this app could really look like.
Kano analysis
Now I wanted to see if the features I came up with would be useful, so I created a desirability survey.
When I got a good amount of responses back, I took that information to create a Kano analysis to see which features I should prioritize.
Prototype V1
Taking all of the information that I gathered, I started digitizing my wireframes.
I got some feedback at this stage and realized I forgot to add some important information, which was the bib number for the racer.
They also mentioned that the app could use some more color, so back to the drawing board.
prototype V2
Now my prototype is starting to get into a high-fidelity state. I took the feedback I received and acted upon it.
Also, I looked back at my research and remembered the need for smartwatch compatibility. Users noted that on cold days they would be less likely to take out their phone and use it while skiing.
One challenging aspect for me was thinking about how this app would be laid out. With this being a new concept, there wasn't much I could take inspiration from.
check out my full Figma file here Which includes annotated wireframes, journey map, and feature cards
and if you would like to see the flows in the interactive prototype check out this video walkthrough below
Presentation
I got the opportunity to show off all of the hard work that I completed so enjoy the quick presentation!
next steps
I designed this project with the mindset of the primary users, the athletes. but next, I would like to design more of the pages for secondary users (spectators, coaches, and race crew).
Also, I would like to see if there are other markets this app could apply to, like cross-country skiing or raceboarding.