Hiker Pal

A mobile app that gamifies the hiking experience and hosts a community space for all hiking enthusiasts.

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Inspiration

We were inspired by Pikmin, a walking app that offers virtual rewards to users for going outside and walking with friends, and we wanted to introduce the gamification aspect of Pikmin into our own app to encourage user engagement with an established outerwear and equipment company like Arc'teryx on multiple levels as part of a business strategy. This app also allows companies to connect to hikers and appeal their products to them in an interesting, fun, and gratifying way.

What it does

Hikers can check in with the app before and after hiking to gain in-game currency (Coins) and Level EXP and fuel Achievements on their Profile page as they continue hiking. When they've gained enough Coins, they can head over to the Shop page to view items they could purchase for their Avatar, and they are given the option to purchase the same exact piece of hiking gear in real life as well.

There is also a Tips page managed by moderators from the company full of advice and information to promote physical wellness and hiking safety, and a Community page where hikers can share their own stories and any gears/equipment they have used in previous trips.

Together, these pages deliver a mixture of online and real-world experience to customers of the product, and work together to foster a omnichannel connection between the users and the company through encouraging customer engagement with the company's products and build the company's brand image from the customer's point of view through further engagement.

How we built it

We built this app mainly using React Native using the Native Stack Navigator and Native Environment UI libraries. We also decided to use the Expo framework so that the app can run on iOS, Android, and web.

Challenges we ran into

  • GitHub merging issues due to merge conflicts
  • Server refusing to execute our .js file because it thought it was a .json because we imported 2 libraries with element sharing the same name
  • The application potentially looking different across different platforms

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Resolved the Github merge conflicts without affecting project functionality
  • Combined the different pages we each worked on into one working app
  • Met most of our target features despite it being our first time making a mobile app and using React Native

What we learned

This is our first time creating a phone app and using React Native. We also discovered a lot about the proper use of GitHub and how to merge and pull between branches. Going forward, we now know a little more about how to use version control to help us keep track of and merge our work.

What's next for Hiker Pal

  • Build a backend to store data of posts on Community and Tips pages, either with local storage using JSON or building an Express server and connecting it to a database using MongoDB
  • Allow users to add persistent data on Community and Tips pages
  • Add location filter option that shows nearest Arc'teryx locations around them
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