The Adventure Loop Site

Summary & Stats

Project Background

Adventure Loop was built to make outdoor activities more affordable and environmentally conscious. The platform addresses key shortcomings of existing competitors — poor navigation, cluttered interfaces, and limited product variety — by offering an intuitive, modern shopping experience spanning a wide range of outdoor gear and apparel across all major brands.

Project Goals

The primary goal of the Adventure Loop site was to raise awareness of the brand and build a loyal customer base by delivering an ecommerce experience comparable to major outdoor retailers. Key objectives included increasing conversion rates through simplified navigation, building user trust in the secondhand gear vetting process, encouraging repeat purchases, and enhancing brand visibility through SEO and sustainability-focused marketing. The site was also designed to be fully responsive across desktop, tablet, and mobile — prioritising accessibility in line with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

Target Users

Demographics

Adventure Loop's target audience is primarily adults aged 25–35 based in the United States, with interest in outdoor activities such as skiing, hiking, biking, snowboarding, climbing, and water sports. Users tend to be budget-conscious shoppers comfortable navigating ecommerce sites, with experience purchasing secondhand gear online or in person.

Psychographics

Psychographically, users value environmental sustainability and are interested in secondhand shopping for both affordability and positive social impact. They may be starting a new outdoor hobby or be seasoned recreationalists prioritising waste reduction — all share a motivation to make outdoor recreation more accessible and eco-conscious.

Competitive Analysis

Adventure Loop's primary direct competitors are outdoor gear resale platforms, both general and brand specific. The table below outlines key differentiators across product overview, features, mobile experience, competitive advantages, and weaknesses.

Brand Identity

Tone & Values

Adventure Loop's brand tone is sustainable, adventurous, accessible, and trustworthy. The brand reflects values of environmental sustainability, spreading awareness of secondhand shopping's positive impact, making outdoor recreation accessible, maintaining natural environments for future generations, and pursuing adventure in the outdoors. The visual identity draws directly from natural environments.

Logo

The Adventure Loop logo was designed to reflect the outdoor lifestyle and sustainability through its iconography. The arrow infinity loop implies recycling while mimicking the shape of a ski path — connecting the brand's environmental ethos to the action sports world. The color palette conveys trust and connection to nature through earth tones.

Color Palette

The primary palette consists of sage green, slate blue, dark teal, and light sand — muted earth tones evoking natural environments, trust, and calm. These are used in the logo and main site elements including the navigation header, menus, and background cards. The secondary palette uses chartreuse and cobalt blue as accent colors to reflect the energy of action sports, applied to icons, CTA buttons, and text highlights.

Typography

Headings use Prompt, a geometric sans-serif typeface with condensed, rounded letters. Body text uses Open Sans, a humanist sans-serif known for high legibility and neutral appearance. Together they create a modern, accessible pairing. The type scale follows a 1.200 Minor Third ratio, with a minimum body text size of 18px to support readability and WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.

Research & Testing

Testing Overview

A moderated remote usability study was conducted with 6 participants (2 women, 4 men, aged 25–35) via Zoom. All participants had experience with ecommerce, outdoor recreation, and buying secondhand gear. Six tasks focused on site navigation were administered using a think-aloud protocol, followed by moderator debrief questions.

Metrics

Primary metrics included Task Success Rate, Error Rate, Single Ease Question (SEQ) scores assessed after each task, and post-test System Usability Scale (SUS) scores. Secondary metrics included self-reported satisfaction ratings and time on task. SUS score results are depicted below.

Key Findings

All 6 participants successfully completed all tasks, though some took indirect paths. High priority issues included difficulty locating secondary product categories, uncertainty when returning to the homepage, and extra steps added by navigating to checkout instead of the shopping bag. Low priority issues included the expectation to filter by product type and a desire for more detail on product cards.

Design Improvements

Based on usability testing findings, several design changes were made in iteration v1.2. Product type was added as a new filter category to improve product discoverability and reduce reliance on navigation alone. A ‘Back to Homepage’ button was added at key points in the task flow (checkout and order confirmation pages), styled as a secondary button to maintain clear action hierarchy. Body text was increased from 16pt to 18pt and subheading size from 20pt to 24pt to improve readability. CTA button font size was increased from 20pt to 22pt with extra-bold styling for greater prominence. Additional product information (colour, size, condition) was added to product cards to help users evaluate items without navigating to individual product pages. The navigation menu interaction was updated to expand subcategories on hover rather than automatically on open, aligning with user expectations.

Expected Impact

These improvements are expected to result in a higher task completion rate, fewer navigation errors, and improved overall user satisfaction and perceived usability. With the primary issues addressed, task completion time is also anticipated to trend toward the standard ecommerce session average of 2–5 minutes.