Mitarbeiter des Geocaching-Hauptquartiers machen sich auf den Weg, um herauszufinden, was Geocacher wollen.
Es wird immer spannend im Geocaching-Hauptquartier, wenn neue Funktionen wie das Nachrichten-Center oder die Trackable-Unterstützung in der kostenlosen App bereit sind, um mit der Geocaching-Community geteilt zu werden. Der Weg zu einer neuen Funktion ist weit – Designer, Entwickler und viele andere entwickeln und testen sie mehrere Monate, bevor sie einsatzbereit ist.
Aber bevor sie damit anfangen können, müssen wir herausfinden, welche Funktionen am wichtigsten sind. Wie machen wir das? Wir fragen Geocacher, wie sie das Spiel spielen. Ein Team von Mitarbeitern des Geocaching-Hauptquartiers reiste dazu kürzlich zum “Going Caching”-Mega-Event in Rome im US-Bundesstaat Georgia. Lies die komplette Geschichte und erfahre, wie Du Dich beteiligen kannst.
Im April diesen Jahres haben wir eine Pause für die Einreichung neuer Challenge-Geocaches begonnen, um Informationen zu sammeln und auszuwerten, welchen Einfluss sie auf das Spiel haben. Nun wollen wir auch von Euch hören! In dieser Umfrage könnt Ihr uns wissen lassen, was für Erfahrungen Ihr mit Challenge-Geocaches gehabt habt.
Was ist ein Challenge-Geocache? Mit Challenge-Geocaches können Geocache-Owner eine Herausforderung (“Challenge”) stellen, welche erfüllt werden muss, bevor dieser Geocache-Typ geloggt werden kann. Eine Qualifikation für einen Challenge-Geocache kann z.B. sein, Geocaches an allen Tagen eines Jahres zu finden. Challenge-Geocaches machen Spaß. Aber obwohl sie im letzten Jahrzehnt in der Geocaching-Community immer beliebter geworden sind, haben sie auch oft zu Verwirrungen geführt und können extra Hürden für die ehrenamtlichen Reviewer in der Community darstellen.
Indem Du an dieser Umfrage teilnimmst, kannst Du uns helfen, ein besseres Rahmenwerk für Challenge-Geocaches zu bilden – für mehr Geocaching-Spaß. Vielen Dank!
Whether you’re developing an app, building a website or designing Tupperware containers, it’s important that you have people in your organization who are passionate about understanding people — people who are committed to discovering what makes the lives of those in their community better. At Geocaching HQ, there is a whole team of folks responsible for making sure we’re building the right tools at the right time to meet the needs of geocachers around the world.
Meet the Product Team:
These guys!
In January, we introduced you to Jayme, our User Insights Analyst at Geocaching HQ. Jayme collects feedback from geocachers about our apps and features by working with playtesters, coordinating surveys and even organizing special games designed to collect feedback. Recently, Jayme and the rest of her Product teammates — the people who work with departments across the company to determine the “what”, “how”, “when” and “why” for everything we build — took their insights-gathering on the road to the Going Caching Mega Event in Rome, Georgia.
We asked Jayme to share some of the Product Team’s takeaways from the experience with us:
Why did the Product Team decide to take a trip to Going Caching in Rome, Georgia?
The first User Insights Games — games designed to collect feedback from geocachers about our features — were a success at the 2014 Geocaching Block Party, so we were looking for a way to expand the program and bring voices in from other regions and demographics. Geocaching’s Founder, Jeremy Irish, had attended the Going Caching Mega Event the previous year and thought it would be a great place to host the next User Insights Games because the event attracted players with a wide range of experience levels.
What were you trying to achieve by taking the User Insights Games on the road?
Geocachers participate in User Insights Games at the Going Caching Mega Event.
We had a few different goals in mind for these games:
First, we wanted to invite geocachers to help us prioritize various community-suggested features for the Geocaching website and apps — and have fun playing a game too!
We also saw this as an opportunity to share what it’s like to be on the Geocaching Product Team with the community. When Geocaching HQ makes decisions on a new (or old) feature, we have to consider how people play the game differently across the world and across interests. That’s actually one of the coolest things about geocaching — it allows for you to play the game just the way you like it. But not everyone likes the same aspects of the game which can make deciding which features to focus on (and when) very challenging. All the geocachers who participated in these games were made “Honorary Product Team members” for the day, and were presented with some of the challenges we get to think about every day.
Finally, we wanted to spread the word about how we gather feedback about product and ways to stay involved. The games are just one step in the lengthy process of creating new geocaching features.
What are the steps to deciding on a new geocaching feature?
We usually start with a thread in the User Insights forums and follow up by sending out surveys to the global geocaching community. (Editor’s note: Make sure you’re signed up to receive the Geocaching Weekly Newsletter to be notified about these surveys.) We’ve played User Insights Games with folks at the Geocaching Block Party and Going Caching, as well as with geocachers at Mega-Events in Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, and Sweden. We’re hoping to bring these games to more geocachers around the world in 2016.
What happened at the User Insights Games at the Going Caching Mega Event?
Geocachers play “Buy a Feature”.
We played with 75 different geocachers over a three day period in four separate two hour sessions. Whew! This time, groups were given a set amount of Monopoly money and were then asked to “purchase” various features — and making sure to consider geocachers of different skill level living in different places with different likes and dislikes. They purposefully were not given enough money to purchase everything (similar to how we have to consider resource constraints here at Geocaching HQ) so the groups had to collaborate and make some decisions together.
What will you do with your learning from the User Insights Games?
As members of the Product Team, it’s our job to be the voice of the geocaching community, based on the insights we gather at games like these. These learnings are shared with others at Geocaching HQ and are central to the product development process, ensuring that we design new features with many different geocachers’ interests in mind.
What was the highlight of the event for you?
It’s incredibly fun to watch a team of 5-7 geocachers collaborate on a specific topic. They may not agree on everything, but watching them get a bit vulnerable and share their passion for geocaching with each other (and us) is pretty special. Ideas are shared, listened to, and friends are made — all in a two hour whirlwind of fun and games.
One geocacher pulled me aside at one point and said, “I was wondering to myself why you don’t just ask us the questions and save the time, and then I thought that probably wouldn’t be any fun. I see what you guys did here. You tricked us into having fun AND giving you feedback. Well played.”
Anything else you’d like to add?
The whole team would like to give a HUGE thank you to:
The event organizers and their crew for working with us to bring User Insights Games to the Going Caching Mega Event. It was the first time we had taken our more formal, organized games on the road and, thanks to their awesome teamwork and planning, it was wildly successful.
The city of Rome, Georgia for donating the use of their beautiful ECO Center. We needed a large space to hold the sessions and the ECO Center was an amazing place to play for the week.
All the geocachers who shared two hours of their time with us. There were so many things to do and geocaches to find at this event, and we greatly appreciate that they made the choice to spend their valuable time with us!
Are you a geocacher? (If not, then you may be reading the wrong blog.) If yes, we want to hear from you! Take this survey to share your two cents on Challenge Caches and check out this blog post for other ways you can give your feedback.
Since the beginning of the game, geocaching and technology have gone hand-in-hand (quite literally) in the form of GPS units and smartphones. It’s therefore no surprise that Estonia, a global leader in high-tech, loves geocaching. Estonia is the newest country to be added to the growing list of country souvenirs.
The farthest north of the Baltic states, Estonia is bordered by Russia, Latvia, and the Baltic Sea with Finland a short hop via ferry to the north. It’s a small country, about twice the size of New Jersey, with a population of just over one million. Those relatively small numbers have produced a wealth of high-quality, fun, creative geocaches. Here we feature a few of our favorites.
This traditional cache is hidden in St. Catherine’s Passage, a medieval alley with a romantic vibe in old Tallinn (Estonia’s capital). At one end of the passage you’ll find large, ancient tombstones that used to line the inside of St. Catherine’s church. At the other end are a series of workshops where artisans make stained glass, ceramics, jeweler, quilts, and leather goods and hats. The cache is tucked away somewhere in between.
GC3T538 “Invasion of the Geocoin Designers” is hidden in St. Catherine’s Passage, a popular destination in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn.
GC31V9H is a cache inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. When you find it, you’ll understand why. It’s a great example of the type of attention to detail found in a lot of Estonian geocaches. In fact, if you don’t say, “Awwwwww” the minute you see it, we’d be surprised. The multi-cache waypoints take you on a beautiful walk through fields covered alternately with berries and mushrooms, depending on the season.
You might come away with handfuls (if not buckets) of seasonal berries if you follow the path of this multi-cache.
GC151N3 is one of Estonia’s coolest EarthCaches. It’s the site of a series of meteorite craters near the village of Kaali, on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. The 9 craters all result from the impact of a single meteor, which broke apart into fragments upon passing through Earth’s atmosphere, some 7,500 years ago (though the time range of the craters’ formations is debated). The location is utterly unique, replete with geological and social historical oddities.
Arrive at GC151N3 and take one guess as to where the ancient meteorite crash landed.
This cache is one for the adventurous. Just 42 minutes outside of Tallinn lies the Rummu quarry, an old limestone mining site. While the quarry was operational, inmates at the nearby Murru prison made up its workforce. When the prison was closed and its water pumps shut down, the quarry filled with water, drowning several buildings, and making for an excellent (but unsupervised!) swimming and diving spot. The cache takes you to the top of an ash hill above the quarry, where you’ll find an unmatched view at sunset.
“Rummu” (GC3RD66) is located at the top of an ash hill above an old quarry.
This D5/T5 multi-cache is at least a full-day’s adventure. It’s located on one of Estonia’s largest islands, Naissaar, which is covered in protected coniferous forest. But stroll for a while along the nature trails and you’ll eventually come upon artifacts and ruins from a long history of military activity on the island. These include cemeteries for British sailors from the Crimean War, Soviet bunkers, and deep-sea mine anchors. If you’re taking this one on, bring a flashlight, friends to keep you company, and some common sense.
GC2FMR0 is a 20-stage multi-cache across the island of Naissaar.
This cache in south-eastern Estonia requires special equipment. Namely, bog shoes. It’s no surprise that bog walking, a cousin of snowshoeing which has one trudging across pudding-like peat moss rather than snow, is a popular activity for both tourists and locals: about one-fifth of Estonia’s mainland is covered by bogs and mires. And many of those bogs and mires contain geocaches, such as this one hidden at the end of a hike through beautiful, soggy, and boggy landscapes.
Don’t forget your bog shoes if you’re going for this cache!
What geocaches are on your Estonian geocaching trip bucket list? Find a geocache in Estonia, and you’ll earn the brand new Estonia country souvenir!
