Jug
The social beacon for your climbing gym.
Climbing gyms lose people who never feel they belong.
I've been a member of indoor climbing gyms since 2022 and I have seen people struggle with belonging in the sport and community. As someone who takes part in it, I want new members to treat their local climbing gym as their second home and a workout area to thrive. Many factors take part in their decision to not come back. This can stem from:
- Social intimidation & feeling anxious to approach others or climb in front of a large group
- Lack of general knowledge and etiquette in the sport
- Having little to none belay partners; left feeling alone
- Quick plateau in beginner levels and nowhere to seek help or guidance
I wanted to improve their experience using a digital platform with technology becoming a prevalent aspect, and this is what I built & designed!
I looked at everything, and multiple problems came up.
I made sure I wasn't building for just the consumer, but also the gym facilities. It is the home, and they needed to be improved in aspects we could help as well.
Business alignment & market value
To leverage the usage of our application by gyms, I researched their weak points and found gaps that we could fill in and further help their business.
This was a great way to encourage user outreach as organic acquisition.
User Research
I interviewed 53 potential users and conducted three profiles from our findings, all containing pain points that we could help relieve.
Competitive Market
There was no platform that directly targets the pain points I focused on.
This was a great sign for Jug, as our niche targeted the improvement of the social community.
Key Insights
Four holds kept coming up. Get it? Haha.
Our challenge
From a system map to a brand that fits the wall.
Mapping the user journey
Fleshed out the system before any wireframes were built, and this was the result.
Each page full of key interactions to make the user want to come back.
Nav Bar
A floating pill to create depth and motion, with the compose button outside for a quick gesture to encourage creation.
Branding
Bold colors, a sans serif typeface, & a system that is entirely our own. Our identity makes us different and noticeable compared to our competition.
Seen on grade tags & bold enough to read at a glance.
flip ↻- AaSection headers & stat call-outs
- AaGrade tags & nav labels
- AaTimestamps & captions
Differentiation through hierarchy.
Associated with the same colors seen at the gym, creating familiarity.
flip ↻- Primary actions & active states
- Badges & success accents
Intentional, not just for visuals.
Pills to identify the user's climbing level, which are reused for walls, styles, and grades.
flip ↻- LeadClimbing style
- Top RopeWall type
- 🔥 12Streak badge
Badges for contexts.
A pink that matches the holds on the wall.
Our final decision set upon a branded pink to correlate with the bold climbing holds associated with the gym.
Lo-fi to hi-fi was harder than I expected.
Iteration doesn't stop after early concepts are complete, it keeps moving and improving. The transition between the lo-fi and hi-fi phases was the hardest part of the project. What I expected to be one round of iteration became continuous, rather than shipping first.
What gyms and new climbers get next.
- Gym partner dashboardTired of white boards at the gym? Partner up on Jug.
- HeatmappingTurns Sends and Beta uploads into real-time usage maps.
- New climber featuresWaiver signing and cert appointments for brand-new members.