The Climb Hub

A website to learn to rock climb through video tutorials and games.

The Context

The Climb Hub helps climbers of all abilities learn more about rock climbing. 

The primary audience is any climber who aims to further their skills.

Through our site, they aim to gain more users and gym partnerships.

The Problem

People are commonly introduced to climbing by friends and often know very little about it prior to trying it out.

If people are not introduced to climbing by friends, it is unlikely they will feel comfortable trying to learn a new skill on their own.

Another gap identified is that climbers who once frequented the gym tend to fall into a rut and do not know how to progress.

This plateau is a time where people need inspiration.

Here, we see an opportunity to keep climbers coming back to the gym.

Finding a solution to this problem is important in order to help eliminate the barrier to entry as well as inspire, educate, and preserve the passion.

User Interviews

  • Five research interviews were conducted with rock climbers

  • Questions were asked to determine their experience with rock climbing and understand their motivations 

  • The purpose of this research method was to identify patterns and problems existing amongst real climbers. 

User interview findings

Through user interviews we were able to determine that climber’s motivations were mostly around socialization.

User Interview Findings, cont.

Finding out that 100% of users were introduced to the sport by a friend was interesting and ended up being a crucial piece of our problem statement.

User interview findings, cont.

We found that users may have experienced a rut or did not continue to climb if they experienced any of the following roadblocks:

  • Distance to gym

  • Lack of progress

  • Injuries

  • Friends stopped

  • Cost

Defining the user

Personifying the research findings

  • To help give perspective

  • To aid future decisions

  • The Social Climber

    Taryn has been climbing on and off for several years. She was introduced to it during orientation for her masters program at the University of Washington. She and her fiancé have a gym membership and go up to three times a week with friends. Going to the climbing gym has been a great way to build community and socialize, especially during the cold winters. Afterwards, sometimes they get dinner or drinks nearby. She grew up playing competitive softball, so she enjoys the benefit of staying fit and hopes to improve her skills.

    Motivations
    • Bonding with friends and fiancé
    • Making connections within the community
    • Fun-centered fitness

    Challenges
    • Only visits gym with friends or her fiancé
    • Relies on others to help keep her accountable
    • Despite going a few times a week, her skills aren’t improving as much as she would like
    • The climbing sessions can get boring

    Goals and Needs
    • Games and activities to keep the group entertained
    • Meet new people to add to existing friend circle
    • Improve skills to keep up with friends

  • The Novice Adventurer

    Devon just moved to Burlington to start his career in medical sales and is trying to find some new hobbies. He grew up camping on family vacations and loves spending time outside, so some friends suggested he tries rock climbing. He didn’t play organized sports growing up because his family moved a lot, so picking up a new activity like climbing is both exciting and intimidating. He hopes to find a passion that aligns with his desire for adventure and meet cool people along the way.

    Motivations
    • Interest in learning new skills
    • Craving for adventure
    • Desire to create a community

    Challenges
    • Thinks the gym can be intimidating
    • Minimal fitness background
    • Lacking accountability partner or someone to learn with
    • Fear of losing friends since he moved a lot growing up has caused some social anxiety

    Goals and Needs
    • Learn and improve climbing skills
    • Instruction/guidance
    • Make friends in town
    • Find a hobby and passion

The questions we began to ask ourselves

How might we…

  • explore ways to provide guidance to ensure climbers have an enjoyable first experience?

  • explore ways for climbing gyms to promote socialization?

  • provide climbers with the proper knowledge and skills to keep coming back to the gym?

  • encourage climbers to improve their skills while having fun?

  • transform a climbing gym day pass user into an avid rock climber?

We’d like to explore ways…

  • to ensure people have the guidance to have an enjoyable climbing gym experience since it can be intimidating

  • for climbing gyms to promote socialization since many climbers are there primarily to spend time with friends.

  • to keep climbers coming back to the gym since some may not return if they did not have the proper knowledge and guidance.

  • to encourage climbers to improve skills while having fun so they can both socialize and stay fit

Assumptions

At this point, we assume there is a need for an online space to help those who are just starting out or just need inspiration to keep climbing. Next, we outline our process to finding a solution.

Brainstorming Solutions

To find a solution, we brainstormed as many solutions as possible. This involved the tried and true method of pen to paper.

Storyboarding potential solutions

We translated the potential solutions we initially came up into storyboards to put into context how these products might be used.

The first solution is a site that helps climbers find partners to go climb at the gym with through social events.  

Storyboarding potential solutions, cont.

The second solution is a site that uses QR codes in the gym to lead to instructions on how to play fun climbing games.  

Why it’s better than existing solutions 

  • These solutions acknowledge the gap that is missing for climbers in their journey to learn and improve their skills

  • Many of the existing solutions are products that are only intended for intermediate to advanced climbers. 

  • The solutions are focused on fun and socialization more than fitness

Project Goals

Defining these goals helped to prioritize everyone's needs while accounting for technical considerations. 

Mood and Core Values

Information Architecture

  • Card sorting helped to identify user patterns before really diving into the information architecture

  • The sitemap evolved quite a bit, but the main structure remained the same, or similar once moving onto wireframes

Solidifying the solution

  • Ultimately, it became clear to us that the gamification portion of the website would no longer be the primary focus for the product prototyping. 

  • The “Play a Game” section is what will be focused on in the next steps

  • For now, the focus became the learning portion of the website

  • The learning section entails video tutorials so climbers can gain skills through watching exciting content 

Lo-fi Wireframes

  • Determined what layouts would work best for the content and information

  • At this stage, wireframing was still focused on the sites “Play a Game” section and ultimately evolved to be more centered around the “Tutorials” content

Mid-fi Desktop Wireframes

  • Desktop mid-fi wireframes of the home, tutorials, and games pages

Hi-fi Desktop Wireframes

  • Header evolved to have the contents on the left side and Login and Search on the right side

  • The overall layout did not change much here from mid-to-hi except the categories and library of tutorials were sorted in a more simplified manner.

User Testing for Mobile Wireframes

Five rock climbers were used to test the usability of the hi-fi mobile prototype. Their feedback was collected, analyzed, and prioritized, then revisions were made accordingly.

Mobile Pages: Before & After

The full prototype can be viewed through the following link.

Next

Project Two