Product Requirements

Turning User Information Into Requirements: Across the Board Summary

In my research findings, I discovered that the priorities for most users in finding what hiking tail to take are the level of difficulty, the view, and features of the hike such as waterfalls and cliffs. Trail blazes, pet access, and weather come secondary. Parking seems to be more of an issue than pet or handicap accessibility because in past user experience, finding a place to park near the trail has been troubling. It was found that most users would rather pay for a national park yearly pass, or not pay at all. It was also found that users prefer shorter travel times to get to the trails, and a unique factor is preferred if travel time is extended. All users said they would use a calorie tracker and heart rate monitor, but most requested a GPS feature along with the tracker for safety and navigation. Other features that were requested by the interviewees were trail blazing maps, hiking checklists, a mile tracker, and a suggestions/ review board.

Product Requirements

1. This app should provide details about hiking trails such as level of difficulty, terrain, and what the important views are on the trail because when users pick a trail to hike, they will likely base it on what they want to see, and whether they think they can handle the difficulty or not.
2. This app should provide information about admissions/fees, because students are most likely not going to want to pay for a hike, unless it is in a national park where the money goes towards the preservation of the park to make trails safer, or they want to buy a yearly pass to go more frequently.
3. This app should include a GPS feature where users can discover how far away they are from certain trails, because people often do not want to travel over an hour unless the trail has a unique feature. This app should also provide a live tracking feature in case you have to send your location to someone in case of emergencies and because this will help you stay on the trail.
4. This app should include a health tracking feature where you can see how many calories you burned on the hike, heart rate, how long it took, how many miles you hiked, etc., because users like to track their progress and accomplishments.
5. This app should include a review/ comments section, as well as a suggestions section where people can attach pictures of the hikes they have been on, and checklists of things to bring with you on the hikes. This is important because the app will be able to make suggestions based on hikes the user took prior, and allows users to inform others of the pros and cons of the hike, as well as preparing others with what to bring.
6. This app should include information about parking and trail blazing colors, because users likely do not know where optional parking for the trail would be, and sometimes trails cross to where you need to know the blaze color in order to stay on track.