{"id":2454646,"date":"2020-02-17T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T14:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/adapting-aspen-skiing-co-s-app-to-guests-requests-part-of-staying-up-with-the-times\/"},"modified":"2020-02-17T07:20:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T14:20:00","slug":"adapting-aspen-skiing-co-s-app-to-guests-requests-part-of-staying-up-with-the-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/adapting-aspen-skiing-co-s-app-to-guests-requests-part-of-staying-up-with-the-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Adapting Aspen Skiing Co.\u2019s app to guests\u2019 requests part of staying up with the times"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Skiers on the Silver Queen Gondola use the Skico app to check out the Aspen Mountain map.<\/strong>
David Krause \/ The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Just about anyone can build and launch an app these days, but trying to stay ahead of the curve and responding to users\u2019 wants can take patience and perseverance.<\/p>\n

Earlier this winter season, Aspen Skiing Co. pushed out a new look to its app, and by all accounts it has been well received by the nearly 100,000 people who use it.<\/p>\n

Until about five years ago, Skico had a vendor running its app. But when the four-mountain resort decided to take control of its functions and build it in-house, Jess Jacobi and Leah Swan took the wheel \u201cto have more control of the road map and the features down the road,\u201d Jacobi said recently.<\/p>\n

In the seasons since, the two have been the driving force to changes and twice-yearly updates to the app. And while the change for this season was more about the look than function, they have put in their time listening to users and adapting to requests. For example, the new background was created in response to those trying to view the app with their goggles on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like a bigger update because it\u2019s such a more visual release,\u201d said Swan, Skico\u2019s senior digital product manager for the past three years. \u201cFrom the backend standpoint, it was all in there, we just made it easier to see with a better background.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the more challenging additions was when Swan and Jacobi started to test the vertical feet function, which rolled out for the 2017-18 season.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2016, the pair did initial testing for the vertical by putting in miles on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeah and I kind of tested it that summer and we would hike up and run down to simulate skiing,\u201d said Jacobi, who ran track in college and won a couple of state titles in high school in Fort Collins. \u201cIt got a little tricky and a little dangerous. We took the 2016-17 season to test the stats tracking features and launched it in \u201917-18.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is by far the app\u2019s most used and challenged function. Every season the software for tracking vert is updated.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are definitely very diligent about watching it. Some people will have Strava on in the background to make comparisons,\u201d Swan said. \u201cWhat it comes down to for accuracy is every single device is different. I could have an iPhone10 and Jess could have an iPhone10 but our settings are different. We\u2019re operating in different ways. There\u2019s a lot that depends on the device itself and that\u2019s really where the variance comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobi, the company\u2019s director of digital marketing, added that to get the best results, users should use the \u201calways allow tracking\u201d option when the notification comes up. And not to worry, with the geofencing set at the resorts boundaries, \u201cit\u2019s not tracking you when you\u2019re walking around your house.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said the biggest upgrade came last season when the resort\u2019s loyality program was added and skiers could connect their accounts to the app.<\/p>\n

The mapping function, which allows skiers and snowboarders to pull up a mountain map and see exactly where they are, also has been well-received and helpful in a few situations. There have been times when the app was used when someone needed help and the person was able to use the map and the emergency function on the app to alert ski patrol and relay to them a more exact location.<\/p>\n

As the cellphone coverage on the mountains improves, the mapping function eventually will allow skiers to find their friends through the map, Jacobi and Swan said.<\/p>\n

Another recent update was getting the weather conditions from on-mountain locations at each of the resorts instead of drawing data from the airport. Now, the weather is updated every hour so people have a better idea of how to dress and what to expect.<\/p>\n

The next round of upgrades is expected in March, and although they wouldn\u2019t yet reveal what those will be, Swan and Jacobi did hint that it has to do more with the off-the-mountain options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done to date is lay the foundation to make it easier to do business with us through the app,\u201d Jacobi said. \u201cA big part of that is linking your account and all of your information is synched up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a pretty long list of enhancements you\u2019ll see over the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

dkrause@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skiers on the Silver Queen Gondola use the Skico app to check out the Aspen Mountain map.David Krause \/ The Aspen Times Just about anyone can build and launch an app these days, but trying to stay ahead of the curve and responding to users\u2019 wants can take patience and perseverance. Earlier this winter season, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 15:10:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}