We observed a Williams College student on a hike along Stone Hill. She is a pre-med student and a member of the cycling club. She is engaged in numerous outdoor activities during the week such as cycling, hiking and camping. We thought that she would be the perfect master to teach us what we might need to know to amplify our design and ultimately our product. We performed the hike on Sunday afternoon with temperatures of about 16 degrees celsius. It was cold getting up to the hike but we were able to get most of our questions answered. We were also able to get an insight into the way hikers think when they are hiking and the decisions that they make along the way.

We met up with our “master” briefly before walking to the hiking trail. We told them prior that it would be a short hike but we did not say where exactly and asked them to give us some places that they had been to before. We then picked another short hike that they had not been on. This allowed us to observe our participant using an “unbiased” trail, meaning that they would not be very familiar with the surroundings beforehand. We told our participant that we would be asking questions about their navigation through the trail and also random questions about their surroundings. We learnt about the safety of going on hikes such as these. We should always bring insect repellant and wear clothing that will survive these types of environments. For example, good hiking shoes that can survive muddy conditions, long sleeves and pants for colder weather and a backpack to store essentials such as first-aid kits, water and a snack we might need on the hike. All of these will help us give our customers advice based on the location or hike they choose to partake on. We also got a sense of the routing hikers normally take. We were told that different hikers take different routes based on their final destination. Multiple hikes can lead to the same location but their difficulty could be different. This helps us to understand that when guiding our customers, we should ensure they get a wide range of routes based on their skill level. “Food is also an important aspect of hikes” said our master. Based on the location, we will be able to guide our customers to food they can eat without feeling like they will get sick or poisoned in the result that they do not bring their own food to their hikes. These are three features that we find essential to our product.

We found that there are a number of preparations that have to be made before even embarking on a hike and those preparations can vary depending on the route traveled. It might be helpful for users to know this information ahead of time so that they are well-prepared for the full hike. We might consider this in the form of a checklist. This pairs well with the knowledge our participant gave us about routes being chosen well in advance so we might consider altering the checklist depending on the daily conditions of the routes. Our participant was also mostly focused on hiking during the moving sections of our inquiry, as in that they were not paying much attention to small details in their surroundings but very focused on staying on the trail and guiding us. Only during water breaks or at the end of the hike was our participant focused on looking at the wildlife around them (creeks, views, plants, etc). There were some initial difficulties stemming from a bit of general awkwardness, but the participant quickly adjusted and began offering more insight into her general experience as the hike progressed. Perhaps the quick adjustment was due to the subject being a friend of one of our group members although that member did not participate in the inquiry.

We gained insight about the necessary equipment and supplies as well as navigating the hiking trails. This is great but we also need to focus on the other aspect of our product, wildlife identification. For the remaining inquiries, we plan to at least do the next one with a participant that is either involved in foraging, wildlife identification, or wilderness survival. So, we have targeted a member of the Center for Environmental Studies/local forest manager and plan to go out with him on a hiking/wildlife identification trip, observing his thought process, what he notices in the wild, and his general opinions regarding hiking and outdoor excursions. After performing this inquiry, we will decide whether to do another one with someone leaning towards hiking or another one leaning towards this identification aspect (or one in the middle). We plan on doing introductory questions to get our master more comfortable with the contextual inquiry. We plan on getting in touch with our master earlier because our first CI felt rushed. We didn’t have enough time to get in touch with our master and this resulted in several timing issues. From this experience, we also understand the typical “hiker” a bit more. With this information, we can choose to switch our focus to other things in further inquiries or reinforce what we have already learned. For example, instead of beginning from a question like “how do you get to your destination?,” we can start with “what exactly made you choose this trail out of the many others?”.