UCD: Research and Project Report By James Hadley and Joel Sargent
Contents Introduction 1 Secondary Research 2 Primary Research 8 Project Report 10 Initial Ideas 10 Idea Development 14 Final Idea 28 Evaluation 35 Glossary 36 List of References 39
Introduction This report contains the primary and secondary research for the User Centre Design (UCD) project by James Hadley and Joel Sargent. This report starts by documenting the secondary research we conducted. It contains a small amount of primary research that cannot be easily categorised into the main project report. The majority of the primary research we conducted is throughout the main project report as “User Feedback”. The project report contains a chronological account of how the project developed, with the “User Feedback” throughout. The project report then finishes with the final idea and an evaluation.
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Secondary Research Climbing Origins
Rock climbing was only really identified as a sport in 1886 when W.P. Haskett Smith soloed Napes Needle. Before then climbers had just taken the easiest route to the top of a mountain. This new climb that didn’t take one to the top of the mountain marked a beginning of exploring rocks for a more challenging purpose. The true pursuit of difficult rock climbing came after World War 1 when climbs of greater difficulty and danger where added to the repertoire of the pioneers (Wilson 2007).
Photograph of Napes Needle
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Climbing History Climbing Today
Today a lot of the classic routes have been categorised in Ken Wilson book “Classic Rock”. In it he talks about how today most people now get into rock climbing through the safe environment of the indoor climbing centre. To then go climb outside represents a significant danger: “on real cliffs with real dangers, one has to rapidly master the skill and judgement required to avoid accidents”. The transition to go outside can be difficult and usually has to be facilitated by a guide or an instructor (Wilson 2007).
Photographs of front cover of Classic Rock and Climber in Wales
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Wall Construction Unique Climbing Walls We started by investigating climbing walls that are currently available and the different environments they are used in.
Water Wall AquaClimb is currently producing two types of climbing wall (the Classic and the Sport), that is aimed at swimming pool users. These are primarily ‘fun walls’ that aren’t aimed at dedicated climbers. The climbing walls are design so that you can climb a relatively easy route that would be made harder by being wet and then allows the users to jump off into the water (AquaClimb 2011).
Photographs of Classic and Sport AquaClimb
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Wall Construction
Modular Walls These walls use sections of panel that are 1.2meters square that simulate real rock. These panels, as well as simulating real rock allow other climbing holds to be bolted on. The panels can be easily swapped to make new routes. The main disadvantage to this design is that it is aimed only at children (Innovative Leisure 2011).
Photographs of Modular Climbing Wall
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Wall Construction Climbing Holds
Climbing holds are urethane grips that are bolted into the walls of a climbing wall for the climbers to ascend on. The first climbing holds where made of rock that has been drilled out to be bolted to the wall. However they proved to be less popular than resin, due to the fact that they got polished from lots of use, were difficult to make and weighed so much that it became hard to set routes. On the positive side climber did enjoy the texture of them.
like them because they are easy to create routes with. Fibre glass has also proven to be successful as a climbinghold material; the holds are light, hollow and extremely durable. These qualities make for really interesting climbing. The patent to make them is held by Nicros (Extreme Hold Technology (EHT)). Route setters also like them because they can make really big volumes really light, so are easy to carry to the top of routes (Wikipedia 2012). There are a number of manufactures who now supply climbing walls and individuals:
The new urethane hold have proven to be more popular due to that they are more flexible and light making them less likely to chip or break, route setters also
www.holdz.co.uk www.customholds.com www.climbholdfast.co.uk www.coreclimbing.co.uk www.planetholds.co.uk www.nicros.com
Photograph of Urethane climbing holds
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3D Scanning Technology Point Clouds
It is now possible to scan large areas of a landscape or objects and create a “Point Cloud”. These Point Clouds are digital representations of the scanned objects. Laser scanning is the process of shinning a “Reflectorless” laser beam over a surface to collect 3D data of that object. The surface data is recorded by a camera sensor that is positioned on the laser scanner. Once this data has been collected it is then easy to recreate using a number of CAM devices (Severn Partnership 2012).
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Primary Research Standard Indoor Climbing Walls To ascertain how a standard climbing wall (one that is aimed at long term climbers), is built, we went to talk to the owner and builder of the Granite Planet. From a discussion and being showed around the wall we learnt that there is no standardised way to build a climbing wall, and that construction has always been at the discretion of the owner of the wall. However there are safety regulations on the construction
of the walls safety features that are regulated by the British Mountaineering Council (BMC). The BMC regulate the spacing of the quick-draws and the anchors at the top. Tony’s wall is built with a wooden back frame that support the marine ply that the urethane holds are bolted into. Behind the ply is a steel bar that runs up behind the wall all the quick-draws and top anchors are attached to.
Photograph of Tony Windo and Joel in Granite Planet
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Extracts from User Interviews User Thoughts on Climbing Tony “New designs on the walls, products for use inside and outside. Large outdoor climbing walls which would save damaging the real rock.”
Tom “[When asked: Are there dangers with new climbers?] Quite often just making some people think things through is enough. For example if it’s their first time, just making sure they are with experienced members. Like don’t stand next to the edge when it’s windy…” George “the big issues in climbing, routes become polished and eroded. People have to remember it’s a finite resource; something can be climbed so many times before the route becomes changed.”
Photographs of Tony Windo, Tom Mather and George King
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Project Report Project Report Introduction This section of the “UCD: Research and Project Report” will catalogue the development of the design solution for the User Centred Design brief.
The Brief Create a product or system that helps improve climbers experience of indoor climbing with the added benefit of reducing the environmental impact on coastal cliff and footpath erosion. This solution should also improve safety compared to outdoor climbing. Context Currently in Cornwall a large number of people climb outside because the quality of indoor climbing is substandard in comparison (“Outdoor is where the best moments lie”). Cornwall sea cliff climbing areas have been designated traditional climbing zones, which is a form of climbing with a high risk of death
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(an average of 12 a year) or injury compared to indoor climbing (“Indoor rock climbing walls are so safety conscious that the most common injuries are caused by too much training and climbing, rather than falls or accidents.”). The large amount of use the Cornish sea cliffs receive from people climbing outside also leads to coastal erosion. Currently climbers use indoor climbing walls as training venues to perform better outdoors and see it as less enjoyable.
Initial Ideas Modular Wall
The first idea that was generated was based around the concept that a wall could be created that would accept modular panels that looked and felt like real rock. User Feedback When we went to our Users to talk to them about this idea they were not enthusiastic about it, and pointed out that this had been tried before without much affect. Action Taken We decided to develop other ideas.
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Initial Ideas Classic Routes The next idea that we generated was the idea of recreating “classic routes” from outside climbing – inside. This idea already corresponded with a lot of discussions and interviews we had conducted with climbers in our first research project. Before we went to speak to the climbers we quickly generated this design sheet to show them. User Feedback What was interesting from speaking to the users was that all of them correctly identified the route we had used in the photo as Flying Buttress, confirming that the idea of classic routes are important to the climbing community. When asked further about the idea a lot of the climbers we spoke to got really excited about the idea and started talking to us about what routes we should create Evaluations From this meeting it was apparent that this was the concept that we should develop.
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Idea Development Talking to Climber about Classic Routes: When we started talking to the climbers about classic routes, it became apparent that to all the climbers we spoke, they all had their own mental list of classic routes that they want to climb. Here are a few accounts from the people we spoke to: When we spoke to Sam Chessell he told about how he really wanted to climb Quarryman. A route that could never traditionally be recreated indoors due to the two blank facing walls.
Photographs of Sam Chessell and Steve McClure on Quarryman
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When we spoke to ‘Borg’ (whose regarded as a very good climber), he spoke about how he wants to climb a very hard route called Parthian Shot. However he can’t any longer due to the only piece of protection on it, a flake has been ripped out by a falling climber.
Photographs of Borg and a Climber Falling off Parthian Shot
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Key Gear
After hearing ‘Borg’ talk about Parthian Shot and how some routes have only one or two pieces of vital protection. A concept was drafted that all the routes would have the significant gear on the routes as highlighted. User Feedback When we showed the users this we got a really positive feedback to this idea. All of them said that it is something that they would want to know about the route as ‘Trad Climbers’.
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Construction: Initial sketches
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Interview with Sam Chessell
We caught up with Sam to run the concept by him since it had last developed. When we spoke to him he told us how he liked that it “makes it more accessible to people who can’t climb outdoors”. He went on to talk about how these structures would bring a lot of history with them and that it was important that we recognise this in there construction. He had further praise for the idea Photograph of Sam Chessell
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that this would prevent a lot of unnecessary “wear and tear on the outdoor routes”. He did however express that this would make some people over confident on very dangerous routes and cause them to take unnecessary risks. Our encounter finished with him talking about how great it would be to finally see “cracks”, “off widths” and “chimneys” indoors.
Histories
From our meeting with Sam we decided to add another feature to the design. This would be a route description of the route and a sample of rock that would come with it so every climber could have a genuine feel for the rock. This plaque could detail all the history of the first ascent and the geology of the area it is from.
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Demo Route
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For our model we decided to recreate a scale model of the classic Demo route, at Sennen. To do this we abseiled down Demo Route taking photos of it.
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Making Demo Route
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From our photographs we managed to recreate Demo Route in Mudbox and 3DS MAX. User Feedback When we showed these CAD renders to the climbers and 78% of the correctly identified it as Demo Route.
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Product System One of the criticisms the design had faced was that climbers will get bored of having just one route to climb. A systems solution was found that would solve the problem for climber who would get bored of just one route and climbing walls that need to change routes regularly and who can’t afford the big installation cost. The solution is to create a new climbing company that could own a large number of these walls that have a modular construction, which could then be rented out to other existing climbing walls. The modular construction of the walls means that it is very easy for the structures to be transported from wall to wall. When a climbing wall is done with one route they could then return it and rent another, giving another climbing centre the opportunity to hire that particular route.
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Final Idea
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The next three pages that follow are our final design sheets show-casing the solution. This one expresses the distribution system for the routes, the modular assembly off the route and information on history and geology that comes with it.
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Final Idea
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This design sheet demonstrates how we managed to recreate a scale model of Demo Route.
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Final Idea
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Finally a hand render of the final product and a demonstration of the key gear concept.
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Evaluation This design of bringing Classic outdoor rock climbing to indoor climbers successfully meets the brief. The design has received constant praise from the user (climbers) we have been speaking to, they have admired many of the features that have been proposed, from including the history and geology of the route and the highlighting of key gear on the route to give a sense of “run-out�. Climbing wall operators have also been enthusiastic about the design, appreciating the hiring facility offered to prevent them from having to invest in such a large amount of space and money into just one route. In conclusion it is possible to say from the user interviews and research we have conducted, that this design is fully viable and could be reasonable consider to put into production.
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Glossary Abseiling Controlled descent down a rock face using a rope Belay Plate Belay devices are mechanical pieces of climbing equipment used to control a rope during belaying. They are designed to improve belay safety for the climber by allowing the belayer to manage their duties with minimal physical effort. With the right belay device, a small, weak climber can easily arrest the fall of a much heavier partner. Bolting permanent anchors fixed to the rock,, for protection, Bouldering Climbing low down to the ground to practice difficult movements Classic A route that is recognised as iconic in climbing history or special
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CUC Climbing Club Combined Universities in Cornwall Climbing Club (the local student climbing club) Leading Lead climbing is a climbing technique used to ascend a route. This technique is predominantly used in rock climbing and involves a lead climber attaching themselves to a length of dynamic (elastic) climbing rope and ascending a route while periodically attaching protection (quickdraws or traditional protection) to the face of the route and “clipping in� to it Quick Draws Quickdraws (also known as Extenders) are used by rock and ice climbers to allow the climbing rope to run freely through bolt anchors or other protection while leading. Polished When the rock becomes smooth and glassy from lots of people
climbing on it. Route setters Usually the employee of a climbing-wall, who is responsible of creating different routes inside by, bolting urethane-holds to the climbing wall. Run-out A lengthy distance between two points of protection which in some, but not all, cases might be perceived as frightening or dangerous.
protection, usually making a fall fatal. Trad Traditional climbing Volumes Volumes (sometimes called piggy back holds) are an extremely large type of hold that any variety of holds can be attached to.
Sport Sport climbing is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors fixed to the rock, and possibly bolts, for protection, (in contrast with traditional climbing, where the rock is typically devoid of fixed anchors and bolts, and where climbers must place removable protection as they climb) Soloed The act of climbing without any
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List of Refereces AquaClimb, 2011. AquaClimb Poolside Adventures. [online] Available at: <http://www.aquaclimb.com> [Accessed 23 January 2012]. Innovative Leisure, 2011. Modular Panels. [online] Available at: < http:// www.innovativeleisure.co.uk/products/modular_panels/> [Accessed 23 January 2012]. Severn Partnership, 2012. 3D Laser Scanning Survey Services. [online] Available at: < http://www.severnpartnership.co.uk/surveying_ services_3d_laser_scanning.htm> [Accessed 25 January 2012]. Wikipedia, 2012. Climbing Hold. [online]. Available at: < http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climbing_hold> [Accessed 23 January 2012] WILSON, K. 2007. Great British Rock Climbs: Classic Rock. London: B창ton Wicks.
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