Does anyone like Kaya app?

More 1st world problems for you all -

My gym recently decided to try something new - not post any grades on routes. Idea is to go to kaya, look at the proposed grade. As a result, it forced me to start using Kaya app.

Damn, this is exactly what UX/UI should not be. It is as if developers decided to proudly embrace the challenge of making everything as horrible as possible. Primary purpose seems to push some weird social content "for me"  without an obvious/any way of switching it off - crushers crushing their projects; this sh__ is autoplaying as well. App chooses "recent locations" while I have no interest to use this app for anything but looking up info for my gym. Keep in mind - my problem is that I am not able to configure anything - default locations, default screens, etc.

After 2-3  screens I do manage to get to my gym, where I am faced with MOAR clips of crushers crushing.

Anyways, I figure I'll vent with the hope that developers will make usability changes.

If you worry about gym grades you are already lost.

Jim Tittwrote:

If you worry about gym grades you are already lost.

This burns more than rope burn!   

The kaya team is definitely listening to feedback, it's worth shooting them an email.

I find it's okay for logging climbing sessions. The "following" page (click on "for you" at the top and it'll switch to only the gyms and crags you're following) is useful for getting beta on specific climbs. the "for you" page was more useful before my tiktok FYP became 97% bouldering videos, now I use neither of them.

the UI/UX is definitely more geared towards comp climbing now, i think they've gotten a decent amount of money that way.

Mx Amiewrote:

The kaya team is definitely listening to feedback, it's worth shooting them an email.

I find it's okay for logging climbing sessions. The "following" page (click on "for you" at the top and it'll switch to only the gyms and crags you're following) is useful for getting beta on specific climbs. the "for you" page was more useful before my tiktok FYP became 97% bouldering videos, now I use neither of them.

the UI/UX is definitely more geared towards comp climbing now, i think they've gotten a decent amount of money that way.

I did figure out how to get where I want to get, but, boy, navigating this app is comparable to early adventure games on personal pc.

For kicks and giggles went to google play store to look at the feedback - the only comments that are getting thumbed up are the ones expressing dissatisfaction with UI/UX

Edit - all the video spray, is, apparently, by design -

KAYA facilitates community connection within your gym, local crag, or an individual climb that you’ve marked as a project. The app serves up climbing videos in personalized reels based on your grade range, locations, climbers, and projects you follow, making it easy to find an organic connection based on interest.

Better yet, there is going to be "premium, paid" content come fall. Perhaps removing all the video sh__ FYP content will be for pay?
https://gearjunkie.com/climbing/kaya-climb-climbing-app 

Go to a different gym!

I've thought about an app where gyms can create a simple layout of their gym with boulder problem / route location that allows user feedback of problems like spinners or whatever as well as difficulty or like/dislike. Also could allow ticks. 

I was hoping that's why Kaya would be more like, I do not like beta videos for the gym. Outdoors I can just YouTube if I care that much. 

Doesn't really matter. Main function of the gym is to keep you indoors. Sounds like it's working just right. It's getting warm out, stay inside!!

a lot of the gyms I have been to recently are using this app.

it seems to me that the grades reflect the ability of the local climbers who use the app.  new climbers rate lots of things harder than they are. 

Concur with OP.   Not really sure why anyone would think that social media is a plus for creating community; look at what happened to supertopo.  

The gym could have used the old-fashioned pen-and-paper approach, to get people’s opinions on the grade consensus.

As it is right now, they will maybe get a few votes from people who bother to download the app, and the votes for those people would be skewed by seeing the route-setter’s suggested grade, before putting in their own vote.

Good idea to get the input from patrons, in principle. But working about as well as the air conditioner in this “state of the art” facility. 

I've tried to use the app simply to track gym climbs and grades to build a pyramid, eventually....

But. 

It's awkward enough to use as a logbook, and with all the social crap in your face, to wade through to get to the log, that I'll probably drop it again. It's a shame, because it could be a nice training/progress tool, and good feedback for the gym, too.

Re grades, my gym has a wipe off sheet with grades on it, then you just blob the grade you give it. They set as a team, and fore run each other's stuff, both to tweak routes and grades. They also try to keep their grades real, which I appreciate a lot. Outside is outside, but this helps, a bit, anyway.

A nice addition lately, are onsight routes. No grade listed, so you can just decide, and go. They also left up some comp routes with no beta, no name, just numbered consecutively. Those are super fun!

Best, Helen

@lena, yeah, it isn't looking much used here, so I can't see it being worth the effort to keep it up to date, for the setters. It's useless if they aren't on top of it, and I don't see much of anything useful to the gym, unless the app gives them a kickback, lol?!?

The app is terrible. It has potential, but I can't bring myself round to spending the time and stress navigating it's UI. I'm so annoyed with my gym for using it instead of putting info on the wall.

Aidan Douglaswrote:

The app is terrible. It has potential, but I can't bring myself round to spending the time and stress navigating it's UI. I'm so annoyed with my gym for using it instead of putting info on the wall.

I can’t speak for the app since I have not used it, but I like getting on new routes not knowing the intended grade range. I have gotten better at guessing the grade before climbing, and I have gotten on harder routes than I would have if I had known the target grade. 

The gym I climb at uses Kaya, but leaves grades posted as well. The UX/UI is whack, I like the idea of consensus grading but the app is so poor, people probably don’t use the app to provide their opinion on the grade.

Think about how you would record a climb in a guidebook. Step 1: Tick. Step 2: Note. Done. Kaya should function similarly. Open it, your default gym opens, you tick, you grade. Thats it. Everything else is fluff that slows down app performance and their climbing audience does not care for it.

I’ve dealt with this in my professional life. We hire random UX/UI people to design user functions, worksflows, you know UX UI stuff for our products. But never once has any UX UI person KNOWN ANYTHING ABOUT OUR LINE OF WORK EVER. And we spend DAYS trying to explain the basics of our field to them. And our app features come out like crap. I get this feeling from many apps, like Kaya. Do you know your customer needs? Do you know how your app actually works live?

Keep it simple. Think of the apps, products, whatevers in your life that work well. Chances are they are the simplest ones

Would it be feasible to print out QR codes for each route that directs them to the route on Kaya? I imagine this would bypass the headache of trying to find my gym (again) then searching through the randomly named section of wall to hopefully find a climb with a matching color and grade. 

The app is absolutely horrible. It is buggy, crashes all the time, and I don't get the point. It's like they decided to merge an app that is a logbook for gym climbs with a sorta social media share your climbing platform....

Doug Simpsonwrote:

I’ve dealt with this in my professional life. We hire random UX/UI people to design user functions, worksflows, you know UX UI stuff for our products. But never once has any UX UI person KNOWN ANYTHING ABOUT OUR LINE OF WORK EVER. And we spend DAYS trying to explain the basics of our field to them. And our app features come out like crap. I get this feeling from many apps, like Kaya. Do you know your customer needs? Do you know how your app actually works live?

Keep it simple. Think of the apps, products, whatevers in your life that work well. Chances are they are the simplest ones

That was exactly my feeling using kaya app.
That said, I have to admit that someone might be excited by all the social/tik-tok/video content - there is nothing wrong with that, probably. I would just love to have a degree of customization, particularly ability to  turn that crap off.

What I find somewhat baffling - according to the gearjunkie article, all CEOs/COOs/CIOs/WTFs are climbers. Perhaps they consider this design intuitive, quick and effective?

amariuswrote:

My gym recently decided to try something new - not post any grades on routes. Idea is to go to kaya, look at the proposed grade. As a result, it forced me to start using Kaya app.

Sure, add the app as an extra if you want but I have no interest in creating an account or installing an app to find out the grade of a gym climb.

I've been at gyms where they have a sheet to add grade/star ratings which is fine. People couldn't resist writing what they felt the crux was, thoughts on clipping, or pretty much any useless thing that popped in to their head. Including arguing with others about their thoughts. If that all gets confined to some app I'll never use I guess that is a plus. As long as they still write the intended grade on the route.

I enjoy scrolling through it when I'm not paying attention at work to see what folks are climbing in other areas- but also my feed doesn't show me anything near me, in my style (I like climbing ropes, all I see are really hard boulder problems), or indoors. I was logging my climbs for a while and that was sort of fun, but I got bored quickly. The other feature that's kind of useful is to see when new routes have been put up and to think about what I might want to try out. My gym is still putting grades on the wall, so it's easy to ignore the app if I feel like it.

Kirstin Kelleywrote:

The other feature that's kind of useful is to see when new routes have been put up and to think about what I might want to try out. 

I killed notifications from kaya app - don' really need to be informed of new sets since I can just saunter around the gym and see what is new. I think it also tried to notify me of some of friends' sends - I am quite sure I was not following anyone.
 But, I do climb there regularly, perhaps this feature is useful for occasional patrons, or, perhaps, humongous climbing gyms.

My gym is still putting grades on the wall, so it's easy to ignore the app if I feel like it.

I tried this app probably over a year ago, found it totally unusable - back then I was interested in seeing who set a particular route, and what other climbers were thinking about the grades. I noticed that feedback grades were tracking suggested grades, which demonstrated that feedback grades were a load of bs - for example everybody confirming a 5.12b which was 5.11b/c if even that indicated that users were just clicking what was suggested.

And, I can live dangerously and not know what gym routes are graded - as Jim Titt pointed out that is not something anyone should be worried about.