Two days on a trail crew
Before we drew a single screen for Ridgeline, we spent two days with a trail crew in Georgia, carrying tools and taking notes. The first part of a series on building an offline map for the people who keep trails open.
The brief for Ridgeline was one line long: a trail report tool that works without a signal. We had a dozen ideas for it, and the crew we joined in Georgia threw out most of them by lunch on the first day.
What we learned
Crews write reports at the end of the day, sitting on a log, not on the trail. They want a list of what is left to do, not a feed of what was done. And nobody looks at a phone while holding a saw.
What changed
The report form moved from the map to its own screen, with big fields and no time pressure. The map became the place you look, and the list became the place you write.