Geocaching is the world’s largest treasure hunt. 7M+ players are enjoying this game as one of their favorite outdoor activities, looking for 3M+ caches hidden worldwide.
When I joined Geocaching HQ in March 2021, the company was seeking a way to improve the user engagement with an updated player profile page. After the 4-week onboarding process, I started to work on this very first project at the company as the lead designer.
Geocaching wanted to increase user engagement with a fresh, new look to sustain the current users and their subscriptions. And the team chose the profile page as the starting point.
The company has a 20-year-old website already and has built a lot of functionalities on the user profile page, but very limited information was provided on the mobile app. We already have all the information on the website, meaning that we don’t have to build completely new features. Furthermore, Geocaching players are rather conservative and don’t like changes. Since the changes of the profile page impact minimal compared to other features, we decided to update the profile page.
Geocaching started as a website back in 2000 and has been adding numerous features for players ever since. While the majority of the new signups are coming from the app and most of them become app-only users nowadays, the app is lacking features that are supported on the website.
While the app design trend has been changing, the profile page has not been revisited for the last 4 years except for icon updates and other minor updates.
After defining the problem, the team decided to renew UX/UI as well as adding more functionalities. In terms of new functionalities, I and the PM decided to add editing profile photos and bio, as well as friends feature to help users to connect with other players and build a strong sense of community.
To redesign the page with the elements that we already had, I need a clear answer on the research question; what information or feature matters the most to the players when they check the profile of their own or other players'?
To answer this question, I conducted 10 interviews with players across the U.S., the U.K., and Germany.
As a reault, I was able to identify two different archetypes of players, which I named the “collaborator” and the “collector”. While the collaborators conceived Geocaching as a social activity which is always played with their friends and family, the collectors were focused on setting their own goals and achieving them, and didn’t mind to play alone. Therefore, the two archetypes showed different levels of interest in menu items of the profile page. This insight was very helpful for me to decide the new information architecture later on.
With the information I have, I was able to set the design goals for both business and users.
I explored numerous design options to navigate to the best solutions. While doing so, I conducted 10 moderated user testings via Google Meet with interactive prototypes created with the ProtoPie. The series of testings helped me to discover usability issues and inspired me to keep iterate.
For general UX & UI questions, I used UsabilityHub to recruit audiences and conduct small-scale testings such as preference test, first-click test, and navigation test. Here are a few examples of design decisions I made.
Users can see their progress and status at a glance. The information and illustrations on the new profile will be updated as the user finds more caches and earns souvenirs. All these features and functionalities will motivate users to play Geocaching and help to set the goals.
To provide more information on the page, the user profile section is folded by default.
The new profile page provides an upgraded look in comparison to the old profile, yet blends well with other screens of the Geocaching app.
Geocaching is a game and the mobile app helps the players to set the goal, plan, navigate and find caches. The new design provides a quick overview to minimize the effort to check the progress.
On the old profile page, the “Upgrade to Premium” button is just a big button. On the new profile, I implemented a card design to make it more visually appealing and provide more information.
Geocaching operates multiple campaigns and partner promotions to attract and motivate players as well as increase revenue. On the old profile page, those were displayed as line items. This makes them not only blend in with other items but also could affect the length of the page when new campaigns added.
To solve this issue, I grouped all campaign and introduced them as a carousel. Furthermore, I strategically placed the group on top of the page since while it is enhancing the visibility, it makes player-relevant items more accessible with the thumb.
New empty states are not only more informative, but also fun with Signal the Frog which is the mascot of Geocaching. The illustration was created by collaborating with the Creative Studio at Geocaching. This new style has been implemented for all items on the profile page.
The new profile has been released as an “experimental feature” in December 2021. As soon as it was released, it became the most popular experimental feature of all time with an adoption rate of 70%. In the survey that was conducted in February 2022, 85.2% of the respondents answered that they are either very satisfied or satisfied, while 13.2% answered that they are neutral. Less than 2% of the respondents answered they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
The new profile page was officially launched in 2022 and is available on both the iOS and Android Geocaching apps.
