Designing social features that inspire climbers to connect and share their passion.
This project explored how climbers socialize within the broader climbing community while translating those insights into design opportunities that support planning, coordination, and shared experiences around climbing sessions and trips.
Graphic by Josh Huang!
Timeline
Sept 2025 - Dec 2025
Skills
User Research
Product Design
Ideation
Prototyping
Role
Product Designer
Team
Vivian Lau (Mentor)
Jin Lee
Josh Huang
Runn Kiriruangchai
Final Prototype
About
KAYA is the ultimate rock climbing app.
With over 100,000+ downloads on the Google Play Store, the app allows climbing enthusiasts to discover new climbs, watch beta videos, log and track your climbs, and much more.
The Problem
How might we foster authentic social connections on KAYA that inspire and expand consistent use?
Climbing is inherently social, built around shared learning, struggle, and progress. Yet KAYA lacks a native way for climbers to invite partners and share these experiences — pushing coordination outside the app.
Key Impact
5+ fragmented apps
->
1 centralized tool
Replaced texting, DMs, and calendar juggling with a single in-app experience for inviting and coordinating climbing sessions.
Planned-only
->
Designed for spontaneity
Introduced lightweight signals and invites that support in-the-moment decisions to climb, not just pre-scheduled sessions.
Limited reach
->
Inclusive coordination
Enabled planning with both users and non-users, allowing sessions to extend beyond existing networks.
The Solution
Inviting, Coordinating, and Climbing—All in One Place
A set of features designed to support inviting, coordinating, and climbing together—natively within the app.
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Design Process
Our 4 sprint-led design process
Moved from research to synthesis, ideation, and iteration to ground every decision in real user behavior.
Research
Synthesis
Ideation
Iteration
