COVID-19 has reshaped the way we live our lives, including the way we work out. What is the optimal solution to catering to these changing needs in terms of health and fitness?
This was a side project to challenge myself to design an innovative mobile fitness app with a competitive edge through user research and visual design.
I received consent from participants to record our Zoom session. Patterns began to emerge after digging into people’s underlying fitness challenges and needs, and I categorized the qualitative data through an affinity diagram using Figma.
After developing a script and digging into people’s underlying fitness needs, I reviewed the videos and jotted down memorable quotes:
“When you are younger you do a lot of exercise with your friends, playing sports without even realizing it. For the past couple years, I have been working from home and now I am doing grad school remotely. It’s harder now to motivate myself to get out of my desk routine and get outside.”
“My Fiancé and I always go to the gym together. When I see him changing into his workout clothes, it motivates me to put mine on. I feel much less motivated to make a trip to the gym by myself. If I had to go to the gym by myself, it would need to be located much closer than ours currently is.”
“I don’t want to take notes at the gym in between sets and do extra work to track my progress. I’m not super concerned with being a body builder type of person. My main concerns when it comes to fitness are athleticism, longevity, and being in touch with basketball.”
The next step was to categorize the qualitative data through virtual sticky notes on an affinity diagram in Figma.
I reviewed the interview videos, the affinity diagram, and discovered three distinct trends. It became clear that people wanted a fitness experience that addressed: self care and growth, longevity, and clear instructions.
Fitness should involve a social aspect.
People prefer activities that involve friends.
Fitness improves other areas of life outside of the gym including recreational and team sports.
Improvement in overall health is expected.
People need an exercise program that will not be harmful to their joints.
Less is more when it comes to fitness. Over-exercising seems unnecessary and dangerous.
Fitness should generally involve equipment, but using the equipment seems complicated.
People want to be shown exactly what to do and how to do it by an instructor.
In a virtual world, videos help people learn how to do exercises properly.
What does the competition have to offer?
The interviewees reported using a variety of apps to serve their fitness needs. I performed a competitor analysis of these products and some top-rated fitness apps to understand how Lean Crew compares.
Next, my partner and I derived problem statements and empathy maps to develop a clearer picture of how fitness played a role in people’s lives. This step helped us categorize and understand our potential users before designing solutions for them.
For the ideation phase, we decided on three whiteboarding exercises, and conducted them in the following order:
I created low-fidelity screens in order to quickly test initial concepts.
After putting the low-fidelity prototype in front of users, I gained valuable feedback which helped me catch usability issues I didn’t catch on my own.
In order to work in high-fidelity, I researched other iOS apps using Mobbin, inspected Google's Material Design color generator, and found a typography tool which pairs fonts using machine learning to build a design system with reusable components.
To prepare for the move to high-fidelity, I created a design system to establish the Lean Crew brand voice.
After more user testing, I felt confident enough to move to high-fidelity with less concern for major usability issues arising.
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