Inland sea kayakers

Project: Inland Sea Kayakers is a local sea kayaking club that offers skill development, education, kayak trips, social and paddling events to members of all age and skill levels. After two years and several trips with the group I noticed a disconnect between long-time established members and newer novice members.

Challenge: ISK had just onboarded its 980th member but has only 190 active members. I sought to uncover pain points among users and locate disconnects and discover where member fall-off was occuring..

Focus: My high level goals were to
• Observe and document ISK member interactions.
• Assess the ISK webiste and member on-boarding process.
• Gain insights into member relationships and uncover pain points.
• Present my findings and recommendations.

Result: I identified several pain points across all member levels. Most members see or recognize a disconnect between members and fall off or disengagement of mnew members. Most want less pressure and less focus on skills.

Methods Used: Exploratory Recearch, Ethnography “Fly on the Wall” Research, AEIOU Observations, Artifact Analysis, Contextual Analysis, Interviews, Surveys, Affinity Diagraming, Heuristic Evaluation, Competetive Analysis, Cognitive Walkthrough, Persona Development, Mind Mapping, Empathy Mapping, Experience and Journey Mapping

Tools Used: Google Survey, Numbers, White Board, Paper & Pencil, Trello, InDesign, Photoshop 

My role: UX Researcher and Service Designer

Additional notes: I obsevered 22 kayakers, had meaningful conversations with 13 of them during 11 hours (four sessions) of kayaking. I received 11 survey results. I also interviewed five people who currently do not have sea kayaks but would like to someday.

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