CHAINGANG
Project overview
Build a cycling app that seeks to address the need for a simple way of setting group rides together, keeping everyone updated and creates mini virtual HQs for groups of bike riders to enjoy and share their passion when off the bike.
Role: Lead UX Designer / Product owner
UX design tasks
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Team management
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Workshop facilitation
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Ideation and sketching
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Wireframing (Axure/Sketch/Figma)
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Prototyping (Invision)
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Detailed UX specifications
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UI collaboration
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Business requirements management
UX research tasks
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Competitor analysis
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Target market interviews
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Feedback channel creation
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Guerrilla testing
Cycling apps are predominantly sterile performance based trackers which lack personailty. Their aim is to motivate and encourage people to take part in sport but can veer towards the less positive connotations of relentless persuit for self improvement.
The aim of CHAINGANG was to step away from the performance aspects of cycling and focus on the pure enjoyment of the sport and the shared experience of it all. The goal was to create a tool which could help get your friends organised, go on rides, then relive the experience through chats, messaging and social media.
Our users
With the huge rise in cycling within global capitals and push towards greener more environmentally friendly and sustainable transportation our users would cover a huge demographic. I chose to initially focus on three main user groups, the travelling executives, the new cycling enthusiast, the experienced cyclist.
Interviews

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There is no better way to garner trust than to get involved. I was luckily heavily involved in bike racing, this meant I could get very frank and honest feedback from a wide selection of my target audience.
The brand
Creating and understanding what the brand wanted to convey was a battle within itself. Based on the broader concepts we had settled on ie the concept of 'gangs' I wanted to push a narrative of individualism through community. You are unique but you have friends. Its a tough nut to crack but I felt we achieved this.
Ideation
Knowing the subject matter very well can be a blessing and a curse. I needed to detached myself to some degree from what I thought I knew so that I could gain real insights from my target audience. I found myself constantly asking questions of those around me practically everywhere. It help to build a clear picture of the route I wanted to follow and I set about creating and sketching the early concepts to share with my team.
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Forcing ourselves into thinking bubbles where we could work together and spit out ideas as and when they would occur proved hugely productive, these were restricted in their regularity to give each team member time to work through concepts and before voicing them to the team. So rather than relentlessly forcing a solution, we let ideas take shape and evolve more organically.
Information architecture
Creating a native iOS app requires a strong sense of where user journeys were likely to begin and end. Navigation and structure are so vitally important in the MVP phase that we really took our time to understand the implications of creating various 'states' for users and seeing how any variation in a state would impact other facets of the application
I needed to set out an IA that I felt was going to be fit for purpose and work closely with the developers to convey the exact sense of what needed to happen in each area. There was no exact precedent for the IA so we had to approach this task with an open but realistic mindset.
Conclusion
With multiple rounds of user testing and reviewing we took the tentative steps into full blown development.
Having had such a small team it meant there were no real surprises thrown up during development bar those which were out of our control due to third party or iOS changes.
We successfully launched our MVP to the app store in the March of 2018 much to the relief of all involved!
Development continues, but having reached such a significant milestone with a product that is solely owned by its development team is truly rewarding.
As the market shifts we are now able to move at a slightly quicker pace and continually get excited at the potential of this labour of love!