SURF BUDDY APP

UX DESIGN

CLIENT: Personal project
DATE: July 2019

I caught the surfing bug as a child when I spent long summer days at the beach with my brother, sisters and friends. It’s been a passion of mine since then. Today, a good surf always leaves me with a sense of nostalgia about those times and a desire to re-live them with my friends and family.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

There are very few surfing opportunities with friends due to peoples busy lives and the difficulty of planning due to surf conditions and other factors, which often means people surf alone or not at all.

INITIAL ASSUMPTION

My initial assumption was that an app that simplifies the surf conditions and forecast data, as well as having social aspect to keep friends in touch about upcoming surfing day-trips could help them have better surfing experiences with their friends more often.

RESEARCH

Survey responses – 175
One-on-one interviews – 7
Competitor analysis

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The surfboard (above) is my first ever board which was given to me by my parents at the age of twelve. I used it for the introduction of my final project presentation to explain the nostalgic link I have with surfing and then revealing all of the survey data which I had drawn onto the back of the board. It was an unexpected and engaging way of presenting the data which received a great response from the audience.

KEY OUT-TAKES FROM SURVEY

The two key out-takes were that 84% of people wish they could surf more often and that when 90% of people were unable to find a friend to surf with they were prepared to surf alone.

KEY QUOTES FROM ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEWS

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COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

There are many surfing apps currently available. My survey identified: SwellNet (50%), MSW (45%), Coastal Watch (37%) as clearly the four most popular surfing apps on the market. They are all content heavy and graphically cluttered with only average levels of satisfaction regarding their functionality.

 

AFFINITY MAPPING

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Key insights:
Common themes and pain points were identified by 
synthesising the qualitative and quantitative data.

  • Predominately male activity 89%

  • The social aspect of surfing is important to people with 72% preferring to surf with friends

  • Surfing alone is considered more dangerous

  • Even those who live close to the beach wish they could surf more often

  • People need help to keep surfing top-of-mind

  • Current surfing apps are not that great

  • Many people use apps and social media to get surfing information and organise surfing day-trips

 

PERSONAS & JOURNEY MAPS

PRIMARY PERSONA

 

SECONDARY PERSONA

 

IDEATION SESSION

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After fleshing out the personas, empathy maps and identifying pain points, I drew up Dan and Sarah’s journeys to conduct an ideation session.

Dan’s journey was indicative of a typical busy day and how we might help him plan surfing opportunities better, while Sarah’s journey was the problems associated with a typical day- trip for a surf.

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REFINING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

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How might we:

Enable people to have more opportunities to share quality surfing experiences with their friends and family, making it more enjoyable and safer than surfing alone.

 

MVP

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The features identified for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP):

  • Swell, wind, tide

  • Group (invite friends)

  • Notifications (forecasts)

  • Solo surfers (finding like-minded surfers)

 

IMPLEMENTATION

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Agile methodology was employed throughout the implementation of this project. Information architecture, user-flows, wireframes, lo-fi and then hi-fi prototypes were developed using firstly pen and paper, then Pop and Figma with key features designed, developed, tested and refined continuously over the final week of the two-week sprint.

Key features:

  • Homepage - swell, wind, tide

  • Group - chat/organise calendar/day-trips

  • Notifications - forecasts/planning tips/traffic

  • Solo surfer - finding surfers of equal ability to surf with

As part of user-testing additional features were suggested and included with positive response in progressive iterations.

Additional features:

  • Surf condition indicator

  • Beginners beach icon

 

HI-FI PROTOTYPE

Key features are highlighted in the above video.

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NEXT STEPS

The work above is the outcome of one two-week sprint.
Next steps are another two-week sprint to further interrogate the prototype.