Vasaloppet Digital Medals

a bachelor thesis together with IBM

Erik Nilsson & Gustav Demmelmaier,

ENGINEERING STUDENTS AT UPPSALA UNIVERSITY
Short recap.
A lot of data.
Vasaloppet has result data stored from almost 100 years.
Today, this is is not utilized and presented as anything more
than simple result tables with the ability to search them.

Insights.
We believe, with Vasaloppet Digital Medals, that through
some simple data science and a bit of creativity lots of
interesting conclusions that add value to the competitor’s
experience can be drawn.

Visualization.
We visualize these personal conclusions in the form of digital
medals so the user gets something they easily can share with their
friends – in just one click.
Intuitive, and easy-to-use
Everything must work seamlessly and in just a few
clicks.

<PLACEHOLDER FÖR MOCKUP>

 Cross-platform web app.
Everyone should be able to access our
application, no matter where you are and what
you have in hand.

<PLACEHOLDER FÖR MOCKUP>

 14 unique algorithms
doing calculations on your data

personal achievement data Raw data

in json-structure

Client front-end powered Back-end powered rEAL Skier data provided

through React JS REST API through NODE jS FROM VASALOPPET 2018
 HTML5

Easy to build upon. REACT

By developing stand-alone layers for both the front-end CSS

and the back-end it’s easy to make changes as the context
of the app changes. Scalability is key. Furthermore you can
use the API we created to develop other applications.
NodeJS
 DEMO
short run-through of the app
Two main concepts.
Gamification.
We want to translate result data into insights and
personal achievements that will gamificate the
Vasaloppet experience. This will (hopefully) encourage
skiers to train harder since they want to achieve more.

Personal.
Small awards make the results more personal. The
medals are designed with the goal that skiers will want
to show them on for example a coffee break at work or
during a dinner with friends.
Personas.
The Vasaloppet strategy team has (in previous studies)
identified four characteristic personas that correspond
to their contestants.

Stina Per Hasse Jasmine

Family and life puzzles Per is a conscious Hasse is always Rather few than many
are a major part of consumer and has a lot searching for the next friends, individual
Stinas everyday life. For of opinions. He likes big experience. A true sports before team
her, it is important to structure and demands enjoyer of life sport. Open for new
feel good and to be a clear information and that often is quick with technics, doesn’t like
good role model for her has a need of seeing the camera to capture ambiguity and is result-
children. She wants to the full picture. He the moment that, of oriented. Jasmine
have an active life with is active in the clubs course, is shared in challenges and pushes
her family and enjoy and associations he is social media and herself and always
nature. a member of. He puts a sometimes in his blog. want to enhance her
lot of his spare time into finish time.
the local sports club.
Medals.
Each medal is based on an underlying algorithm.
We believe all Vasaloppet-competitors has several
race-oriented achievements hidden behind
insights in the result data.

We’ve developed 14 unique medals (so far)

Medals based on macro-statistics MEDALS BASED ON PERSONAL STATISTICS

Well Disposed Race Downhill Specialist Vasaloppet Tripple

Top X% of Y Goal Line Specialist All year

(6 medals with different categories)

Strong Finisher Vasaloppet Finisher The Veteran

 Pace analysis.
We compare you’re (normalized) pace with the elite
skiers (normalized) pace. They’re of course faster, but
do you dispose your race like the pro’s?
Time
between
checkpoints
[minutes]

100

75

Your race
50
Elite skiers race

25

0
Smågan Mångsbodarna Risberg Evertsberg Oxberg Hökberg Eldris Finish
What has been done?
Mock-up and app that goes in line with our & Vasaloppet’s initital idea

Front-end development using React

Back-end development using Node JS

Test-period with simulated data

Developed Restless API using real skier data from Vasaloppet 2018

Tests together with IBM UX-specialists

Bachelor thesis written (get in touch if you want to read more)

More feedback & communication with Vasaloppet. Shareability and marketing.

Project management.
Team of two.
We found that knowing all parts of a project is beneficial when learning how to develop
an application while (also) developing it. In a bigger project or application this is of course
not an option and you need a bigger team.

Responsibilties.
Erik has been communicating with IBM and Vasaloppet and Gustav has
managed internal planning, work distribution and to-do lists.
Code-wise we’re (pretty much) the same person.

Short-term goals.
Short continous goals has really been key when learning
while at the same time developing. Fail & adapt quick, it’s
part of the process.
Planning.
Lessons learned.

The importance of agile scheduling.

A development project consisting of a lot of small parts in a
tight frame requires some serious planning to get stuff done.

Communication.
Always be over explicit in your communication. Don’t be
afraid to call, e-mail and notify multiple times if required.

Code modular and in layers.

When working with a project that is highly prone to changes, it’s
very important that you’re code can adapt to these modifications
seamlessly.
The future?
 18

Tack för oss.