Boulderthon
Overview
Boulderthon is one of the fastest-growing, top-rated marathons in the country! Boulderthon 2023 is back, after nearly tripling its registration last year, with a 5,000 runner cap and is a Boston Marathon Qualifying (BQ) certified marathon.
Goals
"How might we evaluate Boulderthon website's navigation, usability, and design to identify strengths, improvement areas, and suggest design enhancements?"
Process
Research & Analysis: We conducted user interviews, surveys, and analyzed in-app analytics to understand the pain points and user needs. We also studied competitor apps and industry trends to gather insights
Information Architecture: Based on the research findings, we restructured the app's navigation and content, prioritizing features and information according to user needs.
Usability Testing: We conducted usability tests with a diverse group of users to validate the design and identify areas for improvement. Based on the feedback, we made necessary adjustments to the design.
Goal 1: Registration
Selection Consistency
Insight: Some of the participants thought that after they selected their race in the registration flow, it would default to the race they selected rather than automatically defaulting to the kids run, because they expected the website to remember their previous selection.
Race Menu Branding
Insight: Some participants expressed disliking for creating a new account on Racemenus website because they felt it took them out of the flow from Boulderthon and were unsure if it was for the same website [Boulderthon].
Recommendations
Recommendation 1: To improve scannability and organization and allow runners to easily discover the information they need, Boulderthon can use cards, drop-downs, or other visual design techniques that organize information and only display it when the user needs it.
Recommendation 2: Registration flow can be improved by remembering the race package [bundled races into packages] that is picked and keeping all of the registration flow consistent with the same branding.
Competitive Analysis
Boston Marathon
Difficult to Use
Not currently available to Register.
Can get more information
Requires multiple clicks to get to registration, and nothing in leads directly to registration
Easy to scan which race to register for
Chicago Marathon
Difficult to Use
Easy to find in the navigation
Provides further information
Has no registration process to continue further
Goal 2: Local feel
Insight: Boulderthon’s website stands out in terms of local feel because of the photography and videos that display Boulder. Community impacts, callouts to the local community and businesses give the Boulderthon website a distinctly local feel in comparison to other major marathon websites. ✅
Competitive Analysis
Boston Marathon
Difficult to Use
No indication of local businesses or communities
No additional activities during race week outside the marathon itself
All mentions of partners/sponsors are national/international
Chicago Marathon
Difficult to Use
No indication of local businesses or communities
No additional activities during race week outside the marathon itself
All mentions of partners/sponsors is national/international
Goal 3: Navigation
Selection Consistency
Insight: The navigation menu has many options making it overwhelming for the user. Additionally, most of the users found certain menu titles confusing. Like challenges & streakers.
Recommendation: Align the navigation of the Boulderthon website with the navigation of other marathon websites:
Race
Race Information
About
Get Involved
Running Programs
Competitive Analysis
Boston Marathon
Difficult to Use
Multiple navigation bars cause confusion on where to look for information and overwhelms users.
An increased number of interactions and drop-downs makes it difficult for users to use the site and find the information they are looking for
Chicago Marathon
Easy to Use
Easy for users to classify which group they are in and navigate to the drop-down they need to get more information
Boulderthon Navigation issues
Users are not able to relate to categories (ex. “Challenges” & “Streakers” mentioned in navigation insights).
There is an opportunity to improve accessibility with the text and background colors to make it easier for people with visibility constraints.
Assign the logo to redirect to the home page to align with the convention
User Interviews
Task 1: "Discover race details, parking instructions, and starting line info on the official website."
Prompt: "You want to run the half marathon but need to find out all of the information you need to find the race, park at the location, and get to the starting line. Please find the information you need on their website."
Insight 1: Almost all participants did not succeed in find some/all of the information needed to learn about the race, park and shuttle to the start line because the information on the race pages was not easily scannable and too wordy.
Insight 2: Some of the participants thought the information was on the FAQ page but they had trouble finding it because they couldn't sort through all the questions efficiently.
Insight 3: Most of the participants were looking in the respective race page but failed to find the information because they stopped scrolling early or missed it when they scrolled down.
Competitive Analysis
Boston Marathon
Easy to use
Easy for runners to see which races are available and can click on learn more for further information depending on their interest
Chicago Marathon
Needs improvement
Easy for runners to navigate to the information they are looking for from the side navigation column.
Lots of text makes it difficult to scan through, making runners have to read through paragraphs of information to find what they are looking for.
Task 2: "Check race fit, plan joint run, and learn the course (Boulderthon kids' 0.75 miles)."
Prompt: “You are the parent of a child and have heard that Boulderthon has a race for kids. Your child is only able to run for 0.75 miles (3/4th mile), so you want to make sure the course is short enough for them. You also want to run with your kid and don’t want them running alone. Please find the relevant information that you would need to complete this task as you normally would.”
Insight 1: Almost all participants were not able to find that the parents could run alongside their kids [and for no extra charge] because the race page was too wordy and some of the most relevant information was not apparent on that page.
Insight 2: Almost all the participants thought that the description alongside the race they selected on the registration page would give them all the information needed because that is where they thought they could verify the information about the respective races.
“ Yeah, I guess registration, I assume, like if I wanted to do. A registration would just tell me everything or that I would hopefully get a confirmation email after. ”
Conclusion
1. Collaborative Presentation: Coordinated cross-team efforts to craft a client-ready presentation that distilled complex research into easily understandable insights.
2. Client Validation: Engaged in a thorough client presentation, effectively conveying our research process, findings, and recommendations, resulting in client agreement and initiation of recommended changes.
3. Actionable Insights: Translated research outcomes into practical recommendations that the client swiftly adopted, forwarding them to their internal development team.
4. Adaptable Methodology: Strategically selected research methods aligned with project constraints, demonstrating the ability to tailor approaches for maximum impact.
5. Versatile UX Research: Applied UX research techniques across development stages, uncovering interface challenges and contributing to an improved user experience and project success.