Summit Trail App
Problem
Hikers in the Pacific Northwest struggled to find trails matched to their skill level and current conditions. Existing apps were cluttered with ads and buried essential information like elevation gain and recent trail reports.
Process
User research with 12 hikers revealed that difficulty rating and recent conditions were the top decision factors. I designed a card-based discovery flow with filter chips, offline map support, and a condition-report feature contributed by the community. Prototypes were tested in the field on actual trailheads.
Result
The beta reached 2,000 users in six weeks with a 4.8-star rating. Trail completion rates for first-time users improved by 25% thanks to clearer difficulty labeling and pre-hike condition summaries.