"You walked 8,000 steps today." Cool. What does that even mean? Am I healthy? Is that good? Should I feel accomplished about a number that resets to zero tomorrow?
Step counts are the most abstract metric in fitness. They tell you nothing about where you've been, where you're going, or why any of it matters. I wanted something better.
The Idea
What if every step you took, every mile on the elliptical, every rowing machine session moved a pin along a real trail? Not a hypothetical circle chart. An actual map of the Camino de Santiago, the Appalachian Trail, or the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade.
"You're at mile 47 of the Camino" is orders of magnitude more motivating than "8,000 steps." It gives you a destination, a sense of progress, and something to tell people at dinner that isn't "my watch says I walked enough."
That's RoamAbout. Pick a route. Move however you want. Watch your pin advance on a real map with location photography at every milestone.
Why Nobody's Done This Well
I looked at existing virtual challenge apps. They exist, but they all share the same problems:
- Ugly UI. Most look like they were designed in 2014 and haven't been touched since.
- Running only. Forget about the elliptical, rowing machine, or just walking around your office because you're avoiding a meeting.
- No real trails. Generic routes with no photography, no milestones, no sense of place.
- No reward loop. You finish a challenge and... nothing. No badges, no share cards, no reason to start another one.
The gap: nobody combines real trail maps + multi-activity support + milestone photography + achievement rewards in a polished package.
Multi-Activity Conversion
This was the first design problem that needed solving. If someone rows for 30 minutes and someone else walks for 30 minutes, how much trail progress does each earn?
The answer: HealthKit gives me distance for walking/running natively. For stationary activities (elliptical, rowing, stair climbing), I convert duration to equivalent distance using research-based pace factors. A 30-minute rowing session converts to roughly the same distance as a brisk walk. It's approximate, but RoamAbout is about fun and motivation, not competitive accuracy.
The principle I keep coming back to: fun over accuracy. If the conversion feels rewarding, it's correct. Nobody's submitting their elliptical miles to a scientific journal.
The Business Model
Freemium. Free tier gets 3-5 curated routes. Premium (~$35/year) unlocks unlimited routes, fictional adventures, and advanced achievements. No ads. The product is the product, not a billboard with fitness features.
The Conditional Go
Phase 0 ended with two open questions:
- Can I curate complete routes (geometry, milestones, photos) in less than a day per route? If route creation is expensive, the content library will be thin at launch.
- Can I do real-time step tracking with an animated pin on a map during an active walk? This is the "wow" feature. If it doesn't work, the app still functions with passive HealthKit sync, but loses its best moment.
Both became technical spikes in Pre-Production.
// The pitch in code
struct UserRoute {
let trail: Trail // Camino de Santiago, AT, Brooklyn Bridge
var distanceTraveled: Double // Your progress in meters
var milestones: [Milestone] // Photos and rewards along the way
var progressPercent: Double {
distanceTraveled / trail.totalDistance
}
}
// "You're 47% through the Camino" > "8,000 steps"