MoonBoard
User Needs Assessment
Climbing enthusiasts felt stuck using an app to improve their skills.
Roles: UX Researcher
Duration: April - May 2021
Challenge
As a user researcher, how could I learn about an app which I've never utilized and gain insights from users to develop solutions for improvement? Answer: Listen, be empathetic and analyze the data.
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To find an app I had never used, I asked two climbers I know what they used for their training. They told me about the MoonBoard climbing app. MoonBoard is used by climbers for training at home or climbing gym setting. They utilized if for their home gym training. I was excited as it was my first opportunity to conduct user interviews.
Project Goals
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Conduct a user needs assessment on an existing app or product and provide suggestions for app improvements.
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Define solutions to address user's needs that could lead to an increase in satisfaction with the app.
Research Process
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Conduct qualitative research through user interviews, observations, and data analysis.
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Understand different types of users needs and how they relate to user’s context of the app use.
A climber with MoonBoard style holds.
Photo by baddy abbas on Unsplash
About MoonBoard
The MoonBoard app gives climbers access to shared problems (what climbers call rock climbing routes) to test their ability on a climbing MoonBoard (standardized interactive training wall). Climbers can purchase the holds to construct their own climbing wall or visit a climbing gym that utilizes the MoonBoard system.
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App users can access a worldwide community of climbers to view shared problems, to rate submitted problems and add new problems.
Research Phase
About the Research
For part one of the user needs assessment, I conducted preliminary research through the MoonBoard website and videos about the app and how climbers utilize it. I also read user reviews on various websites.
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For part two, I developed a plan on how to conduct user interviews with interview protocols with targeted research questions.
Semi-Structured User Interviews
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Two participants who are avid climbers, ages 45-50 years old.
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Two 30-minute interviews with two warm-up questions and six core questions done through phone and video observation.
Overarching Questions
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What problems are users facing when utilizing the MoonBoard app especially when searching for climbing problems suited to their level?
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How can the submittal and rating system for user submitted problems be improved upon to match climbers with routines meeting their needs?
Interview Questions
Below is a sample of the questions:
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Talk some more about finding climbing problems for your particular skill level?
a. What is the biggest challenge related to this search feature?
b. Share with me what you were thinking after you tried a climbing problem you thought was your skill level and it turned out to be easier or harder?
*Constraint: Due to time and availability, I was limited to the two users I knew who used this specialty app. But on the flip side, it was an app I knew nothing about so it was fun to dive into it.
Interview Protocol
Coming up with an interview protocol with questions when I didn’t know much about the app proved to be harder at first.
Interview confidentiality was especially important to me as well. I included in the protocol to let users know how their answers would be utilized since I’m very familiar with data privacy through the EU’s GDPR, Canada’s CASL law and U.S. Can-Spam Act.
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*Lesson Learned: I thought about if I conducted interviews in a real-world scenario, how is data shared in a team? For me, a big question is how can interview ethics be maintained across the research phase?
Meet the Users
A1: She is an avid and experienced climber. She trains on their home board 2-3 times a week regardless of whether they can also get outside and climb. She uses the app to improve her skills through trying new climbing problems.
J1: He is also an experienced climber. He only trains on the home MoonBoard with the app when they can’t get outside to climb usually during cold weather.
Key Issue #1
Climbers submit problems to the app database without any formal quality control leading to duplicates and rating inconsistencies.
With over 40,000+ problems in the database, users felt like because of the considerable number, there were many duplicates of the same problem. When uploading a new problem themselves that the users had created, there were no parameters to check or notify them that the same problem already existed.
Also, the problem rating system is inconsistent as one user said, “Climbing is subjective so is the rating system.” The other user mentioned sometimes, “It’s more of an ego thing if the problem is harder than you thought.”
Key Issue #2
App loses functionality unexpectedly and saved lists or progress created by app users can be lost.
The users found that sometimes the app just quit for no reason and several times they lost all saved lists they had created with different problems as well as their current levels of climbing progress. This bothered the users as they had utilized quite a bit of time setting up their lists, adding problems and knowing their status with the lists.
Once the lists were lost, the users had to try and remember what was on the lists they had created or just start over again. The users had tried to reach out to the company but had not heard back about why the issue had occurred or a fix to the problem.
Define Phase
After the user interviews, since the users trained together, they had many of the same challenges but also ones that were unique. I considered if I had a larger interview group what other trends could I uncover.
Problem Statement
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Our two users are climbing enthusiasts who need to find unique and customizable climbing training geared to their experience levels because they want the ability to workout in their home climbing setup or a gym.
Pain Points
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Due to the climbing problems being submitted by other users there doesn’t seem to be a consistent system for rating and curating submitted problems.
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Utilizing the app is the only way they can find new climbing problems, so they don’t have to create themselves.
“This app is the only one we can use to find climbing problems.” - J1
Affinity Wall
After the interviews, I distilled the two users' responses into an affinity wall in FigJam. The users like having access to a global climbing community but repeated issues with the app have led one user to comment, “It’s a necessary app but multiple, repeat issues make it hard to use it as I’d like.”
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*Lesson Learned: After adding text to the cards, I then grouped by color and category which helped me gain insights of user pain points and areas for improvement.
Key Findings
The users felt the app had features which worked well and especially the filter feature for choosing problems. They could choose problems based on a variety of choices, difficulty or from a favorite climber they followed.
There were several features that didn’t work well for the two users and two key issues emerged.
Recommendation for Key Issue #1
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In the problem database, add a built-in feature which could recognize when someone is uploading a problem which has already been uploaded by another user and could notify the current user.
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Bearing the above issues in mind, a solution would be a standardized rating system for problems. There could be examples or videos to give climbers a better idea which ability level their newly created problem is better suited to rate.
Recommendation for Key Issue #2
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A solution to the lost lists and climber progress, could be to have weekly progress or status emails sent to the climber along with what is on their current lists.
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While there is an FAQ on the website and contact form, there may be a need to be a way for a climber to check on the status of an issue submitted or a communication through the app to all climbers when a known bug occurs.