Redesign of a mobile application for equestrians Exploring the field of equestrians to redesign the horse training application Equilab

Abstract

This report describes the redesign of the horse training application Equilab. The application serves as a tool for equestrians to track, and follow up their horse training. The purpose of the report is to elicit needs for the wide target group of equestrians, which includes multiple disciplines, and a wide age span. The knowledge about the target group will serve as the ground for a redesign, and implementation of Equilab’s current iOS version. The project’s methodology is based on the Goal-Directed design Process. This process builds on five phases including an extensive background study, and user research with qualitative data gathering. This is followed up by modelling of the user needs, prototyping, evaluation, and implementation of the redesign. A major phase of the project included eliciting user needs for the wide user group. This by conducting interviews with twelve equestrians in different disciplines, complemented with a field study at a horse stable. The differences and similarities between the disciplines, and the knowledge about the equestrians view on horse training laid the ground for the design work. The user research results implied that the design to implement must meet different needs depending on the users’ discipline and ambition level. With the user needs in mind the result of the thesis is a redesign of the Equilab application with a more dynamic and customizable interface. The purpose of the result is to lower the users cognitive load by presenting data in a clearer way, but mainly to give the users freedom to decide what information they want presented. This to meet the needs of the wide user group of equestrians with different needs.