How Breadcrumb Receives 10 Million Views with New App Debut

The Challenge

Losing arrows and other hunting equipment can not only be costly, but searching for them out in the woods also wastes time and the rustling around can scare away potential game. So what if there was a way to track your arrow or equipment from your phone?

The Approach

Getting in the shoes of a hunter was the first step. Founder and avid hunter, Bryan Emrich, walked us through the process that bow hunters like himself go through. From trying to re-navigate to a less familiar hunting spot, to spending more time looking for arrows than hunting, the pain in Bryan’s voice was clear. This is why he wanted to launch with two core products: the nock and the location marker.

• Nock: Attached on the rear of an arrow, the accelerometer uses a motion sensor to enable the tracking.
• Location Marker: Used to keep track of things like tree stands, blind, trailcams, and other hunting equipment.

The Solution Mobile App Design

We mapped out the complete user experience from account creation to pairing, finding, and sharing a nock or location marker. After much discussion on how hunters were going to find their device, we designed both a meter to indicate proximity as well as a view map that pinpoints the area their device was last seen. We also designed an interactive walkthrough to pair a device and educate hunters on how to trigger light and sound from the app.

Visually we aimed to create a look that balanced a modern, tech, and outdoorsy feel through our color palette, typography, imagery choices.

The Technology & Results

Breadcrumb’s mobile app was built using the Ionic development framework. Ionic allowed us to develop for iOS and Android with a single codebase. We worked with the hardware team to get the device to connect to our app and built the essential features.

• Find via Bluetooth Strength Indicator: Know when the bluetooth signal is getting stronger, thus getting closer to your nock or location marker.
• Control Light & Sound of Device: Locating an arrow under the brush can be challenging. Trigger light or sound from the app to help find a device.
• Manage Nocks & Location Markers: See all your devices listed on one screen and see their proximity status.
• Share Device with Friends: Your “smart” nock and location marker can be shared so others can help you find your arrows and gear.
• Salesforce Integration: By understanding how the user interacts with the app, Breadcrumb can use that data for re-marketing purposes.
• Last Seen Map View: Using the Phone’s GPS coordinates, and others can update.