Climbalytics is a start up company that provides an athletic tracker for rock climbers. This tracker collects data using RFID tape and transmits the data to a mobile app that allows users to view their climbing progress.
Overview
For this project, I was tasked with designing a brand and mobile app for Climbalytics and creating marketing material for the sales team. I also consulted on their marketing page (climbalytics.com).
The Problem: The Climbalytics tracker collects a lot of data that needed to be presented in a digestible way that highlighted the progress that climbers were making and inspired them to continue climbing.
Branding
Because Climbalytics is first and foremost a data company, they really wanted their brand to represent the robust data that they provide to their customers. For this reason, they wanted to stay away from any climbing-related imagery (mountains, ropes, etc.). This imagery is also overused in the climbing industry and use of such imagery can negatively impact brand recognition. For this reason, most of my initial designs focused more on graph representations rather than climbing imagery.
I ended up using the "C" as a monogram for the company name and added a maze effect that reflected the indirect routes that climbers take during a climbing session.
Climbalytics Logo Concepts
Final Climbalytics Logo
I also created a loading animation using CSS for use in the app.
App Research & Design
After branding, I moved onto the app design. The design had to be functional on both Android and iOS devices, so much of the design is custom rather than using built in phone UI.
I began by speaking to several customers to try to understand what data points were most important to them as they were attempting climbs and completing workouts. The main ones that arose were: v-score, sends, and flashes. We added v-points, which gave users points based on the level of climbs that they attempted and completed. I displayed these points prominently on the main dashboard to allow climbers to quickly scan their progress.
I also included a calendar that tracked days climbed and number of climbs. This was represented by a circle around the day that got progressively darker with more climbs. This pattern was one that I saw had been successfully motivating on Github, particularly for new coders.
Finally, I focused on making the app as simple as possible to understand and use. I did this by limiting the key actions per screen.
App Design
The app was originally called "Flash Band" before it was renamed "Climbalytics" which is why this initial screen includes that name.
Infographic Brochure
The infographic brochure was marketing material the Climbalytics team needed to explain the products to interested gyms in the hopes of signing more gyms up to use their system.
For this project I focused on a clean layout with digestible tidbits of information so it was easily scannable for gym owners who don't have a ton of time to read through large amounts of documentation.
