Enhance the parkour experience at Parkourhall1

In collaboration with Quality Movement, intuitive and inspiring training experiences for parkour practitioners were developed through both physical and digital solutions.

The project was carried out as part of a final-year project.

My Role

My main role included:

Planning survey and interview questions
Implementation of hall observation
Creation of SWOT analysis and User Journey Map
Mobile app design
Testing of analog solutions

My main focus during the project was to create and design a mobile app that would complement the parkour practitioners' training in Parkourhall1.

Problem

Parkourhall1 offers a unique training environment, but the experience is characterized by ambiguity, lack of guidance and motivation. New visitors often feel unsure about how to get started. This creates a high threshold for entry, especially for beginners and children.

The project was started to improve the overall experience in Parkourhall1 and make the hall more intuitive and inspiring for all practitioners. The goal was to make it easier for new people to get started, while strengthening the community and encouraging more people to return.

The target group is children, beginners without experience and more experienced practitioners.

The challenge with this project is to design a parkour experience that feels natural without instructions, yet supports both new and experienced users. The experience should keep the focus on physical activity while contributing to motivation, development and community.

Design Process

Research

A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used to collect data. The aim was to understand how parkour practitioners experience training and what drives them to continue developing.

Over 60 survey responses were collected from various practitioners. In addition, shorter interviews were conducted with four children during a training session, as well as an in-depth interview with the owner of Katana Parkour. The physical environment of the hall was also observed to identify areas for improvement.

The results showed that community is the biggest motivator for parkour practitioners. Many feel that they learn from each other and push each other forward. At the same time, new visitors feel insecure and do not know where to start, where the environment and equipment are experienced as overwhelming. It also emerged that text-based rules are often ignored.

When it comes to analog and digital solutions, analog options were preferred by the majority, as they reduce the risk of being distracted by the mobile phone during exercise.

The children particularly highlighted play, being able to see their progress and rewards as important driving forces. Being able to see their own development and getting something concrete after completing a challenge was experienced as motivating.

Define

Based on the insights, three main problems were identified:

Lack of clear guidance in the hall
High threshold for beginners
Unclear communication of rules and structure

The following design principles were also developed for the next step:

Visual and intuitive communication
Support for social interaction
Complement and not replace the physical experience

Ideate

Based on the problem areas, ideas were developed for both analog and digital solutions. Since the rules were text-based, they were converted into symbols with shorter explanations.

Suggestions for zoning and markings in the hall were developed to make it easier to navigate. Level-based challenges were developed to adapt the training to different experience levels.

A social recovery area was requested by the client, which also turned out to be important according to the research.

As a complement, an app idea was also developed to plan training and follow progression, without disrupting the training experience itself.

Wireframing

Different types of markings for guidance in the hall were sketched out. In parallel, zoning was developed, which is also visualized in the app as an extra support.

A challenge level system was structured to make it easier to choose the right difficulty level based on experience.

The app's information structure was developed with features such as schedule, opening hours, and progression tracking.

Prototyping

In the prototype phase, different variations of physical markings and symbols in the form of stickers were developed. Challenges were color-coded by difficulty: white for easy, gray for medium, and black for difficult.

The markings show where to place your hands and feet when taking off or landing. QR codes lead to videos showing how to perform the challenges.

A 3D visualization of the hall was used and adapted with the developed solutions, while also being integrated into the app's zoning. It also visualized a recovery area with a canvas showing challenges for inspiration.

A high-fidelity prototype of the app was created in Figma with views to track progression, active challenges, and badges being unlocked.

The badges are AI-generated and used as examples for style and feel.

Test

The solutions were tested together with practitioners in Parkourhall1. The results clearly showed that symbols worked better than text when it came to rules. They were both easier to understand and remember.

The analog solutions were preferred during the actual training, while the app worked better before or after the session for planning and follow-up.

The level system also proved to increase motivation in most people.

Final design

The final solution combines analog and digital parts, where the analog forms the foundation and the digital acts as a complement.

Reflection

A clear strength of the project was the research, where surveys and interviews were combined to create a holistic picture of the users' needs. Testing the solutions directly in the hall provided valuable insights, especially around the fact that analog solutions are more effective during training and that symbols work better than text.

The four-week timeframe was a limitation, however. With more time, the app could have been tested over a longer period to understand actual usage. More iterations of some visual solutions, such as the level system, could have also made them even more intuitive. In addition, testing with completely new users could have provided deeper insights into onboarding.

An important lesson is that clarity often outweighs functionality. The project also provided a greater understanding of the difference between designing for physical and digital environments, and that analog solutions sometimes work better than digital ones. Finally, it became clear how important the social experience is for motivation and return visits.