Product design2024
Northbound Trails
A trail planner that works offline, in the rain and with gloves on.
- Client
- Northbound
- Role
- Product design lead
- Year
- 2024
- Services
- Discovery workshops
- Interaction design
- Map interfaces
- Prototyping
Overview
Northbound helps hikers plan multi-day routes through the Scandinavian mountains. The existing planner was powerful but built for desks, while most people opened it halfway up a mountain. I led the redesign of the planning and navigation experience for the app's second season.
Results
- routes planned in the first season
- 300k
- of hikers use offline maps every week
- 64%
- rating on Google Play
- 4.7
Case study
The challenge
Hikers told us the app was great at home and stressful on the trail. Tiny map controls, a constant need for signal and battery-hungry screens meant many people still carried a paper map as a backup.
The approach
We spent a week on the Kungsleden trail with hikers and park rangers, then designed an outdoor mode with oversized controls, high-contrast maps and automatic offline downloads for every planned route.
- Ran field tests in rain, snow and bright sunlight
- Designed glove-friendly gestures and a one-handed layout
- Cut battery use on the map screen by simplifying live updates
The outcome
Hikers planned more than 300,000 routes in the first season, two thirds of active users now rely on offline maps every week, and the app reached a 4.7 rating on Google Play.
