Hey! I'm Leander a UX Designer, but most importantly to me, a climber and kayaker. I aim to solve problems with a theroetical, research driven standpoint to enable and empower users.
With my passion being the outdoors and more specifically climbing, I thought what better idea but to combine the two creating Scale as my final project.
With the recent addition of climbing to the Olympics and movies such as “Free Solo” and “The Dawn Wall” bringing climbing into the public eye, climbing has quickly turned into one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. With a limited amount of digitised information regarding outdoor climbing and a large community of new and eager indoor climbers craving the outdoor experience, a large void exists in bridging the gap. This is where Scale sits, a unified solution creating an accessible experience for all climbers driven by the community.
The name scale originated from the idea of measuring performance while also tying itself back to the act of scaling mountains, giving the name a double meaning that accurately represents the purpose of the app.
Figma is the workhorse for this project. From creating wireframes to collecting research and aiding in conducting user interviews, the varied tools that Figma offers were invaluable to completing the project. Throughout the project, I found myself switching between Figma and Figjam, and having the ability to seamlessly move content between the two empowered rapid iterations. In tandem with Figma, the Adobe suite was vital to the completion of the project. Photoshop was used to handle imagery and add character to elements of the app such as logos. The ability to add a layer of grunge or “wonkify” something helped add a sense of movement and nature to the project that wouldn't be possible to recreate in a tool like Figma. Throughout the process, the majority of decision-making, notes and general mess was contained and collected in notion. This allowed me to conduct research on multiple devices while on the move and remain synced and up to date. Other tools such as Webflow, InDesign and countless plugins helped create the websites, printed material, and handle repetitive tasks. Without the use of these tools, executing the project to the level it is would be impossible.
Being a passionate climber and having a love for solving problems, Scale offered a great challenge. To be able to address the issues I have personally experienced, as well as uncovering those of others to create a viable solution, has been a brilliant adventure.
