Design Example: The Crowded Outdoors

I quite like this redesign, and had a fun challenge of putting into words an idea I’ve had in my brain for a while. Looking over it, I might’ve put more emphasis on the benefits and disadvantages of the surge of hiking popularity across the country, and perhaps take a look at some of the forums I mentioned below for additional ideas to inspire the redesign.

The Crowded Outdoors

by Rotem Landesman

It’s hard to find a singular source that explains the surge in the popularity of hiking in recent years, or even an agreement in online forums and Facebook groups on the possible reason for this uptick in outdoor enthusiasts. The pandemic, some say, made thousands of us, especially in the beautiful PNW, go outside and learn to enjoy the crisp air at the end of a long climb. Others blame social media, pointing at the “Instagram” culture of hikes that has overtaken popular trails to get a coveted picture to add to our feeds. Or, perhaps, it is the efforts by organizations like the Washington Trail Association and varying tourism offices to make the outdoors more accessible and reachable to all - an incredibly welcome effort - that finally paid off after years of funding and hard volunteer based work.

Whatever the cause, the results are clear: hikers be hiking. Studies have cited a steady increase of hikers hitting the trails since 2016 [1], and 2020 saw an increase of 171.4% in the number of hikes logged on AllTrails, one of the more popular hiking apps in the country [2]. Anyone who’s tried to go hiking in locations relatively close to Seattle knows that to catch a parking spot (and not park semi-illegally on the road), starting a hike at 6am is no longer a crazy notion. In peak seasons, like Fall which offers hikers the sight of the beautiful yellow larch trees, trails are full to the brim, to the point where campers sleep at the trailhead, often in their cars to avoid the crowds and start walking at sunrise.

With its surge of popularity, hiking has changed its face, and many of the older, more experienced hikers (who pride themselves on not “hiking for the pic”) are starting to grumble. Among the voices are the boomers, citing that “hiking isn’t what it used to be” - but others raise more far reaching concerns, such as the increase of hiking on the environment [3], especially in popular trails, and concerns regarding safety in narrow trails when there’s a large number of hikers (nicknamed: conga-hiking).

So what’s a hiker to do? That’s a dilemma many of us faced last weekend, for example, when the larches were at their peak. For many who hike in Washington State, one of the best resources to find, rate, and keep track of hikes is the Washington Trail Association, or the WTA, their website and app, as well the numerous trip reports and outreach programs. An information system in the classic sense, the WTA works to organize and move relevant data about trails and outdoor spaces in a specific way to make it accessible to all who seek it. Say I was looking for a weekend adventure. I would probably go into the app, which organizes hikes by regions (Cascades, Peninsula, etc.). Then, I have a choice of organizing my results by:

Trail features (Want to see a lake? A viewpoint? Wildflowers? Washington’s got it all)
Trail Accessibility
Trail Companions (kid or dog friendly)
Parking Pass/Entry Fee Required
Mileage/Elevation
Difficulty (as rated by trip reports)
Rating (as rated by trip reports)

All in all - an incredibly useful information distribution system, used by thousands all over the state. The last two data points, provided by hikers who log onto the service after the fact and write about their experience, are the most valuable by far. This crowdsourced stream of information provides prospecting hikers with up to date, often brutally honest reviews of trails and their upkeep, popularity and difficulty levels (WTA is known for thinking rough inclines are a “fun uphill”).

However, this wonderful resource has not yet caught up to the hiking craze that is overtaking the world, and is often lagging behind, even with the incredibly recent trip reports. As a recent experience to see the larches on a popular hike in the North Cascades taught me, after hours of scouring not just the WTA app but also Facebook groups, Reddit forums, and asking friends, no one is quite sure what time we need to get to the trail to ensure safe parking, to not be stuck behind a line of hikers on the uphill, and fully enjoy nature as we intended. The trails being crowded impact novice and experienced hikers alike, and create an unsafe and frustrating environment for anyone trying to enjoy the outdoors. It’s time for a redesign of the information system to fit the times.

First, I propose that the WTA app and website work to include a section showcasing real time hikers per trail. This sounds complex, but it really doesn’t have to be, and can dramatically reduce hiker traffic jams on trails. Live hiker data would be fed to the site through a physical tracker each hiker will be required to scan when they start the hike, a sort of ‘tap in’ mechanism - much like paying for coffee with a card in our digital wallet. No personal details would need to be entered or recorded unless a hiker consents to it (and some may want to provide these, for longer hikes and safety tracking purposes). All we would need is the group size and the time when they start hiking. That way we could easily see how many people are already on the trail and calculate roughly when they will finish and more people would be able to join without creating a crowd.

In addition, I purpose the site to add an “alternative hike” feature which would pop up when a trail is noted to be crowded at any given time. This means that if I am checking the trail, reading up on its information and location, perhaps navigating to the trailhead from my phone and the app recognizes a “congestion on trail” - it would immediately provide me with alternative, nearby hikes with similar filters such as difficulty, trail features, accessibility, etc. That way, we would be able to both avoid the crowds and discover new trails nearby, lessening the overall intense effect a multitude of hikers has on the environment around one trail.

This proposed solution isn’t perfect, of course; it is easy to imagine calls to data privacy, even though personal details would not need to be provided from opposers, as well as easy ways to manipulate the system by simply not ‘tapping in’ when entering a trail, or going despite the crowds to a trail. There’s a big dependence on hiking etiquette and goodwill, which are always tricky concepts to design around. This design might also potentially harm people who live further away from trails as they are more likely to arrive later to popular destinations, and assumes accessible alternatives at a reasonable distance from the crowded hikes. Nevertheless,I believe it is at least a way forward to think about this activity as it continues to climb in popularity in the years to come. Which, all things considered, is a wonderful problem to have;l the outdoors, in my opinion, is a safe haven and a gorgeous tool to calm the mind, something sorely needed in our world.