Enabling community for women in the outdoors

The She Ventures Club is an organization that enables a diverse community of women to come together around outdoor activities and learn from each other in a supportive environment. Through the app, the website, and the physical tools the organization provides a space for women to share skills, find mentorship and build confidence.

Interaction Design / App Design / Experience Design

The challenge

How might we leverage the power of digital platforms to encourage all kinds of women to engage in the outdoors together?

The She Ventures Club focuses on solving for design principles 2,3 and 4 derived from Alexia's thesis research: the outdoors as a space where women can cultivate leadership and confidence, the importance of community for women engaging in these activities, and the desire to break barriers for diversity and inclusion.

Why a digital platform?

After joining the facebook group "All Women All Trails: Hiking and Backpacking"—now over 30,000 members strong—created for women to turn to each other to ask questions, to share tips and tricks, and look for hiking partners, Alexia became fascinated with the vibrant community that had been built through it. She knew that a digital platform would enable her to package the features and resources from this vibrant group while effectively serving the greater mission of the She Ventures Club:

Enable a vibrant and diverse community of women to come together around outdoor activities to learn from each other in a supportive and healthy environment.

App features

Gather

This section of the app encourages community building by providing users access to groups, which can be formed based on attitude, locality, and/or preferred activity. Once groups are formed, they can organize outings and engage with members of the larger community.

Share

The Share section facilitates the exchange of knowledge to build collective confidence. By clicking on the FAQ around periods, for example, users are able to access a list of questions others have asked, read answers, offer a response, or even ask their own question.

Log

Here, users can see their stats, browse their history, and set goals for the future.

Website

The Website works in tandem with the app to enable further engagement by promoting the core mission of the organization and complimenting the app’s features.

Logo and custom icons

To create a consistent visual language that alludes to outdoor adventure Alexia created a logo and a set of custom icons for the app, the website and the swag.

Design process: proto-personas

Alexia developed a set of proto-personas based on the needs and desires of the women she interviewed during her thesis research. With this knowledge she was able to build scenarios and gain a better understanding of what needs demanded to be prioritized on the App features and the website content.

Launch Event

To launch the She Ventures Club, Alexia hosted a kick-off event on March 25th, 2018 to bring together a group of Newcomers to learn the basics of hiking by engaging in a day hike at Harriman State Park. The intention was to provide our users with a positive experience outdoors, where they could push themselves and learn new skills to encourage future engagement.

Enabling objects

For the day’s activity Alexia created a kit of branded objects to facilitate the exchange of information and the overall experience. This was a crucial element to the experience, as these objects provided her the structure she needed to enable the participants to reap the benefits of the experience while out on the trail.