Client: Gaarde One

Methods: Deep Dive, Stakeholder Interview, Touchpoint Strategy Map

Tools: Sketch, Axure, Adobe Illustrator

Gaard One is a Minnesota based manufacturer of outdoor gear. They are a recent startup who operates on a 1:1 business model. With this business model, Gaard One is able to donate one dollar for each dollar they earn, towards the conservation of Minnesota’s wilderness lands. The stakeholder’s from Gaard One felt that they needed help in communicating their message of advocacy to consumers. They asked my team to design a long-term strategy for how they could use technology to communicate this message to their customers.

To start our research, my team did a deep dive exploration into how different companies in the outdoor gear space touch their customers. We each took a different customer touch-point to research and design a prototype for. My specific assignment within the team was to design ideas for how Gaard One could present themselves to potential customers at the trade shows.

In my research, I looked at many different Minnesota based trade shows aimed at outdoor enthusiasts. These included boating, biking, skiing, gun, hunting, fishing or outdoors living trade shows. I also did research into the largest outdoor trade show in the country, called Outdoor Retailer. This show was previously held in Utah, however, it recently moved to Colorado. The Outdoor Retailer show chose to make this move because the Utah legislature repealed certain land protections in a previously protected Utah National Park. This angered people in the outdoors community and, as a result the Outdoor Retailer Show chose to move. This information seemed to indicate that Gaard One’s 1:1 mission could indeed resonate with trade show customers looking to buy outdoor gear. After discovering this information and looking at quite a few different trade show displays, I had a few ideas for my prototype.

I sketched several potential designs and discussed my ideas with the rest of the team. We discussed how my trade show prototype needed to fit together with the other prototypes that my teammates were working on. Once we had determined a cohesive design system for Gaard One, I worked on a video presentation to communicate our findings and recommendations. This presentation details the design system that our team built and how each various customer touch-points would be affected by the design. To further guide Gaard One in the execution of our plan; I created an execution timeline map and a touch point strategy map. These items were sent to Gaard One along with our group presentation and prototypes.

It was so much fun working with Gaard One on this project! The people behind Gaard One really do care about the outdoors. They also make some really great products. Hopefully, some of the work my team did with Gaard One helps them communicate their messaging to the customer.