GoSend
A progress tracking app for outdoor climbers
Native mobile app
Native mobile app
GoSend is a tracking app for outdoor climbers to log their achievements and share with friends. It has been developed as a native app for both iOS and Android.
You can view the Behance version of this case study here.
If you'd like to view the prototypes first, both iOS and Android versions are available.
UI Designer
Feb - Mar 2022, Apr 2023
Adobe XD, Adobe After Effects
CareerFoundry student project
Currently, there are very few apps that help climbers track their progress outdoors, which is one of the most concrete ways to nurture their motivation to continue to improve. Some climbers go old-school and use the checklists in the back of their guidebooks to check off each ascent. Other more statistically minded people create their own Excel sheets and manually input their statistics. These methods require a lot of time and effort. There are various climbing apps available, but most focus on either indoor training or sharing information on climbing areas. GoSend aims to fill in this gap.
With GoSend, climbers will be able to search for their climb, log their "sends" or ascents of these climbs, follow the progress of their friends, and set their own project goals. One of the most exciting and rewarding parts about climbing is seeing the progress and improvements along the way, so this app aims to make these achievements trackable and easy to share.
As an avid climber who would fall into the target audience for this app, I already had a good idea of what it should do. However, before jumping into designing it, I conducted a competitive analysis of other climbing oriented apps.
Of the various climbing apps available, KAYA and Stōkt offer the closest services to GoSend's primary objectives. By evaluating each app, I found features and UI patterns that I wanted to emulate in GoSend's final design.
KAYA's badges inspired my achievements page, which gives users set goals to keep them motivated throughout their climbing journey.
Stōkt's stats page was well organized and easy to read, so I modeled a portion of the GoSend stat page after their design.
The basic tasks that the user needed to be able to accomplish with this app were as follows:
From this list, I developed the user flow diagram below.
Learning from my last project, instead of sketching with pen and paper (which has its uses), I went straight to sketching low fidelity wireframes in a note-taking drawing app on my tablet.
At this point, wireframe development diverged into both the iOS and Android platforms, using the Human Interface Guidelines and Material Design 3 standards, respectively.
For clarity, only the iOS wireframes are shown.
Once the mid-fidelity wireframes were established, it was time to give them some character. To start, I created a mood board based off of keywords that the app should convey to its target users.
A pattern began emerging from the imagery I selected for my mood board: warm accents against cool backgrounds with high contrast elements. I used this trend as a starting point for my style guide.
Logo - Cubano Regular
Headings - Agenda
iOS Body - SF Pro
Android Body - Roboto
#2C2C33
#515765
#F1C22C
#E6EBE0
#98A0B3
#87C1B9
While the design was developed for both iOS and Android, only the iOS screens are shown below for clarity.
The onboarding process involves just two questions that help personalize the experience for new users. These can be changed at any time via the settings preferences.
Landing screen
Sign up
Onboarding question 1
Landing screen
From the home screen, you can:
You can view and follow your friends' profiles, watch their uploaded videos, and keep each other motivated with a congratulatory message and positive vibes!
Search by name
Follow and socialize!
When logging a send, you can provide extra details including your rating of the climb and any photos or videos. When you post it, the send is added to your profile and logged with all your other sends. Watch how your stats grow with each climb!
Add send menu
Provide send details
The send page
We know lots of climbs take years of projecting to finally send. Keep track of what you've learned over each session by logging a project. Your projects are private and available offline, so you can access them in the most remote locations. No cell service needed. Keep adding details and notes after each session until you send!
Add project menu
Add project notes
The project page
You can track your progress in the "My Sends" tab, whether you're more statistically-minded or like reviewing each send one by one. You can view both completed ascents and projects in progress. Under the "Profile" tab, fun achievements with preset goals provide further motivation to keep exploring and pushing your limits.
"My Sends" tab
Achievement badges
It's always nice to know what other people are saying about a climb: Is it worth trying? Do other people like the movement? How the heck did everyone else do the topout? If you're curious, go to the climb's page and see! Watch videos to see how other people completed the ascent.
And if you want to figure out the climb on your own, don't worry. The other people's beta comments are kept hidden until you want to see it.
You can also socialize with likes and comments on other people's sends! See what they thought of the climb. Celebrate (or commiserate) together!
Once I completed the first version of the high fidelity screen designs, I used the prototyping tool in Adobe XD to create prototypes for each platform. I shared the prototypes with seven colleagues who provided constructive criticism. The feedback on the overall design was positive with suggestions on cosmetic changes, such as color use and text hierarchy.
I returned to this project after a UI animation course, and created walkthrough videos to show in more detail how users would complete their tasks and interact with the app.
After completing a UI Animation course, I returned to the project to put my new skills to use. I created UI animations that explored transitions, micro-animations, and video play screens in further detail. Revisiting the project allowed me to fix errors, refine the design, and even create some new screens for previously unexplored user flows.