Researching skitourenguru.ch

2026-01-19

Michele Cazzaro

2 min read

A small user research in order to understand the cognitive load of planning a ski tour using skitourenguru.ch, a planning tool specifically designed to assist alpine roamers in safely planning their tours or trips. I decided to investigate specifically the cognitive load, as I viewed this as an important factor for critical desicions making. To investigate it I chose to use a standardized questionnaire designed by NASA, the NASA-TLX, to assess the subjective workload of a human-machine interaction task.

The Challenge

Problem: Ski-tour planning is safety-critical. How effectively does skitourenguru.ch, a tool aggregating avalanche bulletins, maps, and trail data, support users in finding and comparing low-risk routes?

What interface barriers create unnecessary cognitive load during route comparison?

The Study

The study was conducted through moderated usability testing sessions, involving 5 experienced ski-tourers. The think-aloud protocol and NASA-TLX questionnaire were the strongest methodological pillars that allowed me to gather both qualitative and quantitative data on user experience and cognitive load.

The sessions required participants to complete 3 ecological tasks:

Find low-risk tour (800-1000m ascent, <150km from Trento)
Compare 2 routes' risk profiles and choose the safer one
Export the GPX file of the chosen route

Key Findings

Route comparison = major pain point
No "compare tours" feature → users toggled between routes, relying on memory for slope/risk data. Task 2 took longest (290s avg).
Menu confusion
Right-side menu lacked hierarchy. Donation banner distracted from critical info.
Map friction
Overlapping routes hard to select.

Strength: Color coding for avalanche risk/slope instantly intuitive.

NASA-TLX scores showed a low to medium workload, with an average of 4.7 out of 10. This metric, considered informative due to the small sample size, highlighted that mental demand and effort were the highest contributors to cognitive load.

Design Recommendations

Issue	Recommendation
No route comparison	Add side-by-side view with overlaid risk metrics
Menu distraction	Restructure hierarchy, minimize donation banner
Draw mode stuck	Clearer exit icon + status indicator
Map selection	Improve overlapping route handling

Impact: These changes reduce extraneous cognitive load during safety-critical decisions.

See the Full research report (PDF)