Access does not equal success

My team approached this project by exploring and researching different fitness domains and creating a competitive analysis to see what products are currently helping users address their fitness needs. We found plenty of digital applications and wearables that could help with anyone’s fitness journey, no matter the skill level. Many of these applications were available for free download on a smartphone with the option to pay for premium features.

But even with all the options and ease of accessibility, our research showed that only one in three adults engage in the recommended amount of physical activity each week. A 2014 study from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control stated that only 20 percent of adults in the US meet the overall physical activity recommendation. When looking at these statistics, we wanted to know why so many people weren’t meeting the recommended level of activity.

We created a research plan to find out what fitness means to people and what their motivations and barriers were. We set out to interview candidates spanning across several age groups, income levels, and fitness levels to try and uncover commonalities and insights.

Assumptions proved wrong

Assuming that fitness and health go hand in hand, we made diet a priority. We interviewed people from ages 22 to 54 that were either physically active or inactive. We wanted to know what they did for their health and fitness as well as what frustrations, desires, and personal values revolved around these two topics.

Through these interviews, we saw trends in the motivations and barriers that people had when trying to maintain a fitness routine. We synthesized our observations by creating an affinity map, which allowed us to see user pain points and patterns around fitness. In contrast to our initial assumption, we learned that there were rarely any associations made between the users’ personal diets and their standard of fitness. Interviewees were aware of health standards based on societal expectations, but hardly placed it as a priority. However, we noticed that both our active and inactive candidates placed heavy value on social connections. Another pattern we noticed for all the inactive interviewees was the shared desire for a workout partner to help motivate them.

“…if I had a workout partner, it would motivate me. But self motivation is hard…”

Two patterns stood out most amongst all our interviewees. The first type were those that were self-motivated and the second type were those waiting to be motivated by outside influences. Digging deeper, we learned these key insights:

1. People were most likely to work out when they already felt great
2. Motivation was found through others
3. People focused on the easy things and didn’t continue what they didn’t like
4. Acknowledged fitness was important but rarely treated it as a priority

Emphasizing People, Not Features

We knew those who were self-motivated were already working towards fulfilling fitness goals. They were able to find motivation internally and didn’t need external motivators. However, the ones that needed external motivation had the most difficulty prioritizing fitness. Our team wanted to help this group find a solution. So, we created a persona named Heather. Her biggest frustrations are lack of motivation, difficulty of developing a routine, and not knowing where to start.

Heather’s frustrations helped us identify our problem statement: “Our target users desire a greater level of health but lacks self-motivation to create consistent habits to promote their health because they do not prioritize it.”

Redesigning the fitness experience

My team individually explored concepts to help solve for self-motivation. I decided to explore social motivation through an accountability partner since 80% of the non-active interviewees self-identified as needing external motivation.

“Being a part of a team or working out with friends keeps me motivated to keep up the work.”

I conducted further domain research and found a study from the Department of Kinesiology at Indiana University that stated those who went to the gym together, regardless of whether they focused on the same type of exercise, only had a 6.3% dropout rate. This helped validate the importance of accountability through a partner.

Working out without the work

I looked back to Heather and knew the biggest things I needed to solve for were her frustrations and motivations that revolved around fitness.

Frustrations

1. Job restrictions that make scheduling difficult
2. Needs influence from others
3. Mental blockers concerning intimidation and safety

Motivations

1. Experiences with a friend are more fun
2. Sense of achievement
3. Smaller goals that are attainable

I needed to provide a platform that would give Heather flexibility with her schedule. This platform also needed to be fun and supportive to keep her engaged and positive.

I started to develop my concept and worked towards a solution that encourages users through social motivation by creating a system that encourages users externally, while also allowing users to development encouragement internally.

Thus, Fit Buddy was born. A social network of people you can connect with to create friendships, share experiences, and start fitness habits.

Comfort in familiarity

Moving forward with this concept, I wanted to create a product that anyone with a social media account could pick up and use both immediately and easily. By drawing inspiration from familiar platforms such as Meetup, Instagram, Strava, and Facebook, I knew I could leverage pre-existing conceptual models to help with familiarity.

Divide and conquer

Our team completed paper prototypes for each of our concepts and created a concept test plan to test for desirability amongst the three of us. The test plan presented each concept and asked the user to complete a task flow with a specific scenario. Once completed, they were asked qualitative questions to gauge desirability, frustrations, and plausibility about the app. Afterwards they were asked to complete a survey so our team would also have quantitative data to help gauge each concept.

Note: To avoid any bias, all concept tests were conducted by a separate team.

Socializing is key

Once concept testing was done, my prototype tested with the highest success rate of desirability and task completion. The approach of self-motivation through social motivation was validated and my concept was chosen to move forward for further development.

These were some of the great insights learned:

Insights

1. Users found the possibility of enlarging their current network appealing and social accountability as a potential motivator for working out.
2. New workout friends are more appealing than leveraging existing friends for workouts
3. Messaging first would be more intuitive than friending a person right away
4. Users liked seeing other people’s areas of expertise and interests and were drawn to that immediately
5. User liked the fact that they could see the activity level of other people

Concerns

1. Friending new people seemed a little intimidating for some, but had obvious rewards and people were generally excited to engage.
2. Wearable metrics hardly seemed relevant
3. After people become friends or have a familiar group of workout buddies, they said they might not want or need the app anymore.

Filling in the gaps

Although the majority of feedback was positive for my concept, this didn’t mean the battle for Heather was won. Our team needed to take these insights into consideration as we iterated and worked to further develop my concept.

[Insert design iterations here, how people thought this was a dating app and how we got around that. As well as the reason for choosing a dark theme and changing the app name]

I led the design direction and chose a dark theme to focus users into a fitness mindset.

I wanted to adhere to our original design principle of giving people an energetic, happy, and comfortable experience when using the app. So I accented this dark theme by incorporating bright accent colors to add warmth and personality. The use of bright colors would enhance the user’s experience as they navigate throughout the app. It would also help add to functionality by highlighting important navigation and statistics that are pertinent and encourage call to actions.

Feedback is a great thing

Throughout this process, we continued to test and refine the product

Feedback

1. Bottom navigation was desired to accommodate a wide range of features
2. User tracking via zones produced confusion and privacy concerns

A final product, but not without exploration

Although our team completed Fit Pursuit as an app, that isn’t to say that there isn’t more to explore and consider for the future. We still had further thoughts and potential explorations if this app moved forward and wanted to consider both the business and user side.

Considering the Business Side

1. Meetup Groups and Gym Classes that could populate within the Discover Page.
2. Promotions and ads that serve business needs but also provide more opportunities to meet other like-minded fitness folks.

Enhancing the User’s experience through the Discover page

1. Recommendations of things in the area
2. Popular activities people have done near you
3. Picking up on your location and suggesting something unique/different if you haven’t already selected it in your activities
4. Suggesting friends based on your past activities