Surfline: Add A Crowd Feature Case Study
The dilemma
The Surfline app is the go-to app and industry standard for surfers to help them decide when and where to go surfing as it shows the wave height, wind and weather conditions at most every surf break in the world.
However, the second most important factor for surfers in deciding where to surf is the crowd size but the Surfline app does not have a feature for showing the crowd size at specific surf breaks.
The Surfline App
Surfline is the most commonly used surf forecast app used by surfers around the world.
This app is famous for placing cameras at popular surf breaks so that surfers can view live feeds of the surf conditions from wheever they are and use this as infomation to help them decide when and where to surf.
Even for spoits without cameras, the app is reguarly updated with forecasts for wave height, wind, weather, water temperature, swell direction and tide details along with analysis, tips and maps to help surfers locate new spots.
Surf Check: Digging Into User Ressearch
After conducting in depth research interviews with 5 surfers, it was apparent that the crowd is a significant factor in how surfers plan their sessions.
In fact, it was borderline the number one factor many times based on quotes from the interviews.
How Does a Crowd Feature fit Into the Typical User Flow?
Integrated Into Current User Flows
Users will be able to view and underdtand the crowd data within their current user flows withion the app so that their current usage patterns will not have to be relearned or diverted.
Native
This feature would seamlessly integrate with current design systems and patterns used in the Surfline app so that users can intuitively grasp the data and use it to make decisions on the move.
Consistent Color Mapping
Surfline has worked hard to develop a color coded system for evsluating surf conditons at a given surf break. The crowd feature would follow these establoished color conventions for ease of adoption immediately.
Premium
This feature is only available for subscribers of the premium version of the Surfline app, thus enchancing the incetnives for users to upgrade to the paid version.
User Testing Refinements
User testing with a high fidelity prototype revealed some valuable insights:
Displaying the crowd indicator row of dots right above the wind speed on the “Favorites”: screen confused some users as they understood the crowd dots to be indicative of the wind
The crowd trend arrow was not considered useful as most users doubted the accuracy of being able to reliably predict whether the crowd was growing or shrinking. Also, the technical constraints of attempting to collect this data ands update it regularly enough to be significant was another reason to let go of this feature for now
Instead, an icon of the person was added next to the crowd indicator dots to specifically show it corresponds to the how crowded a specific surf break is at a given time
Final Version
Completed revisions based on user testing to include a human shaped icon at the beginning of the crowd indicatpr dots on all the screens. Seamless integration into current user flows for added value without increasing the cognitive load on the users.
