Le Bloc
Le Bloc is the french name for "Boulder". Much of this project was influenced by French references, so it was fitting to give it a French title. The goal is to build an application that is a guide for bouldering specifically. It shows routes and hand & foot placement on boulders to simulate a personal instructor. Necessary information about boulders of interest, such as locations, dimensions, and grades are also included. The app will allow photo/video sharing and social networking to help with improving climbing techniques.
Field Work
On a trip to India, in November of 2016, I spent some time in Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for it's splendid boulders. People travel from all over the world to experience climbing there. I used this as an opportunity to interview people of different skill levels. They expressed their wants and needs when it comes to climbing. I gained valuable insight about their likes and dislikes, the tools available to climbers, and thought about ways to improve them.
Early Ideation
After doing some user testing and further research, some adjustments needed to be made to the idea.
On the bouldering guide, I added hand and foot placements to give a better idea on how to approach a climb. This was also implemented to better simulate what it would be like if the user had an actual person guiding them.
Most of the app will be in color, but in guidance mode the photos of the boulders will be in black and white, allowing for better visibility of the guide trails.
When bouldering outdoors, you can see the chalk left behind on the spots that other climbers used as supports, this is usually used as a clue to help figure out how to approach a boulder. During interviews and testing, people mentioned that similar markings would be helpful along with the hand and foot placements.
On my trip to Hampi, I met so many people that had never seen videos of themselves climb, and people who asked me to video them so that they could use it to improve. This is when I came up with the idea of adding video sharing to the app.
User Mapping
Based on the information that I gathered, I started thinking about what the digital experience would be like. I created site maps and user flows as a guide to what the design should be.
HOME
Launch the app to find bouldering adventures
SKILL LEVEL
Choose the skill level of boulders that the user wants to explore
LOCATIONS
The user then searches for locations anywhere in the world that they might be interested in.
BOULDERS
Once they find a location, they can refine the search even more and search for individual boulders
DESCRIPTIONS
Once they find a boulder, they can get more in depth information about it , such as size, and unique characteristics.
GUIDE & SHARE VIDEOS/PHOTOS
The user can choose to see a climb guide of the boulder, see videos and photos of past climbs on it from other users. And the user can also share videos of themselves climbing it.
INSPIRATIONAL SKETCHES
I created hand sketches of what the mobile application screens would look like. It was based on the past interviews and research. I would use this as an additional framework for the digital app.
Low Fidelity Mockups
User launches app to discover possible bouldering adventures.
The skill level is entered here based on the Fontainebleau Grading System.
Choose any place in the world to climb.
After finding a general location and choosing the skill level, the user can filter through the various boulders to climb.
Once a boulder is chosen, a map is created to find it.
The user receives a notification once they have arrived. They can choose the guide, or shared video and photo modes.
Watch shared videos to see how to approach a boulder or just for the social aspect.
Videos and photos can also be created and stored on the application for personal use or to share with the app's bouldering community.
Le Bloc's climbing guides uses hands, feet, and markers as a way to diagram climbing routes.
High Fidelity Mockups
Future Work
For the future designs of this app, I would like to include more interactivity between climbers. Chats, bulletin boards, and real time video of climbs. Bouldering is a social experience, and it would improve the app so much more if it reflects that.