The paper I read focused on the design of a hiking app named HOBBIT. This app is unique in that instead of attempting to bring people together on their hikes, as some hiking apps have attempted, it notifies users when an unknown hiker is nearby and presents possible routes to avoid the person. This design arose from various surveys and focus groups set up by the authors which revealed that around 47% of people went on hikes for the purpose of enjoying nature and to that effect, around 44% of people thought it would be useful to avoid others while on their hikes so they can remain immersed while on their hikes. While 40% of responses gave a negative evaluation of the concept because they liked to meet other hikers in order to get tips and learn about other nearby hiking routes, the authors chose to design for the people who thought the concept might be useful. The designers chose to focus on designing a mobile application as they found that 92% of people surveyed owned a smartphone and 77% were familiar with current tracking applications. The designers came up with three different designs, one being a notification that informed the user when someone else was near, another being a radar view that showed other hikers inside the radar, and the last being a map of the area that notified the user of an approaching hiker and showed their location. They decided on the map because users found that format to be the most informative one as they could see information about their surroundings, route alternatives, and the direction and speed of the approaching hiker whereas the other two designs did not give these useful extra bits of information.

Although HOBBIT is a different sort of hiking app than hikAR, it does share some similarities with the navigational aspect being represented in the form of a map. As I read through the paper, I thought that hikAR might have benefited from more information-gathering whether that be from more contextual inquiries or from conducting surveys or interviews. Given more time, we may have seen more of a divergence in how different users experience hiking which might have sent us in a different direction for hikAR. Reading this paper, however, did give me the impression that we were justified in settling on a mobile app for our routing and identification tasks considering the numbers the authors found concerning how many hikers have and use their phones while on hikes.