2020 is a strange year for all of us. Like many others, I was affected by the situation both emotionally and physically. There are multiple supports for emotional health since the situation started; however, there are not as many on physical health, especially working out. Therefore, I want to investigate more in the area.
UNDERSTAND THE USERS
Interviews
In order to understand the users’ situation and their physical health experience going in the COVID situation. I conducted interviews with 5 participants between the age of 21 to 40 to:
- Learn how the COVID-19 situation affects the way people exercise or stay in shape.
- Uncover challenges and opportunities that can be used to go forward with the project.
Interviews’ Finding
From the interviews, I concluded that the COVID-19 situation affects 2 groups of people in different ways:
1. People who had a regular exercise routine.
They are experiencing challenges to keep up with their pre-COVID exercise habits. The reasons are the closing down of physical activity; and the concern of risk of exposing to the virus once they go out. For this group, home exercising wouldn’t satisfy their exercise needs. They want an alternative exercise that gives them the same experience as their pre-COVID habit.
2. People who are trying to establish an exercise routine.
The COVID-19 situation gave them the opportunity to spur them to start a regular exercise routine as they want to have their health ready in case they get the virus. They need an exercise routine that is fun and motivating. They have the same perspective about going out to exercise as the prior group. Home exercise could satisfy their needs; however, the challenges are the size of the exercise space and be disturbing to their neighbors.
The motive that would get both groups to continue exercise is the same. They want some kind of achievement. The achievements could be seeing appearance change, an increase in physical strength and endurance, or breaking their own record.
Journey Map
With the insight I gained from the interviews, I made this journey map to present visually the process the participants went through in terms of physical activity during the COVID-19 situation, their feels and thoughts, and the key findings
SOLUTIONS THAT ARE ALREADY OUT THERE.
Comparative Analysis
Apart from knowing the users, it is important to know what other people are doing. Doing the comparative analysis gives me insight into the existing solutions in the markets and allows me to thinks of ways to differentiate my solutions from others. I choose to review 4 applications.
- Adidas Training by Runtastic
- Workout for Women
- MyFitnessPal
- Planta
Common elements that’s work
- Workouts cards consist of duration, name, level, calories burned, description, detail button, and start button. The elements allow users to decide whether or not the workout matches what they are looking for. I chose to adopt duration, name, level, and calories burn as they are key factors for users to make the decision fast and easy.
2. The workout page consists of a clear workout demonstration, moves name, a workout countdown, routine duration, big play/pause/next/previous button, sound control button, These elements allow users to follow the exercise and have control of the page while moving. I chose to adopt a workout demonstration, moves name, a workout countdown, routine duration, and control buttons as they are key factors for users to control and make sense of the workout.
3. The exercise sounds while following the workout consists of voice guidance, prompt for next move, half-point, count down, and background music. These elements allow users to move freely while following the routine. I chose to adopt voice guidance, prompt for the next move, and background music as they are necessary to follow the routine without looking at the device.
Elements that could improve.
- The tracking page consists of time frame (day, week, or month, year), total workouts, total calories, total duration, workout records, graphs, and photos. Though these elements do track the workout progress; it only tells users ‘what’ they have been doing but not why they are doing it. This is the gap I chose to explore further on my project.
2. The workout browse page is a little overwhelming. I had to look for an exercise that was relevant to my need even though I told the app about my focus when I first visited the app. This is another opportunity gap that I chose to explore to differentiate my solution from others.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Flowchart
I created a flowchart to help me envision how a user would go through the process in my application. My approach here is to let the user create their fitness goals before they start the exercise. The goal will help the user stay on track and tell them ‘why’ they exercise.
Sketch
With this flow, I moved on to sketch to explore how the process would play out visually. I then used these sketches to gather feedback from a design critique group.
Wireframes
With the feedback I gathered, I narrowed down my decision into 2 sets of wireframes. I focused on the core pages to communicate the purpose, goal, and functionalities of my application.
I put these wireframes into another design critique session. Below is what I learned.
- The word “Weekly goal” can be confusing as it is a goal that changes weekly.
- Idea 02 of the workout page makes more sense as the related elements are closer to one another.
- People took longer than I thought to make sense of the workout completed page.
- There is a suggestion that I could have users edit what they want to see on the progress page. However, I want to test it with the prior knowledge that users set the goal and input measurements that they focus on to see if there is still the need.
Prototype, and User Testing
I used the feedback to refine the design to an interactive prototype and conducted 3 user tests on these research questions.
- Can people understand the relationship between the fitness goal-setting page to workout page?
- Can users acknowledge that the app increases your weekly workout time when you achieve goals each week (discoverability)?
- Do the offered choices cover most people’s fitness goals?
- Do the information offered at the “workout browse page” enough for users to make the decisions?
- Does displaying the fitness goals keep them on track when choosing a workout?
- What users want to see when tracking fitness progress according to their fitness goals?
- What are the users’ comprehensions of the app overall?
The findings and future Iterations
I discovered 3 main usability issues. First, all of the participants didn’t notice the word “Weekly” on the “plan recommendation” page. Adding “/week” after the “mins” recommended duration on each row could quickly solve this problem as the unit is the part that all the participants mentioned during the session. Secondly, on the “browse workout” page, some participants need a longer time to understand the fitness rewards they would get. To solve this issue, I would consider adding the title “Reward” above the section and add the “+” sign on the reward icon. Lastly, there is an issue with participants’ comprehension of the timer of the workout move and the timer of the whole workout because of multiple reasons. The app never informs the user if the moves are counted by rep or by duration. The visuals of the two timers are also too similar. To solve this issue, I would change the visual of the timer of the move to a circle around the number. I would also add the number of reps or the duration of time on the workout detail page to prime users ahead of time before they see the workout page.
Metrics
Other than these 3 issues, there aren’t other main problems with participants’ comprehension of the overall application. The average score of the participants rated usability is 4.4 out of 5. Participants said displaying the goal helped keep them on track when choosing a workout with an average score of 4 out of 5. They said the preliminary questions offered by the app cover their fitness goal well with an average of 4.5 out of 5. They said the app would help them create a workout routine with an average of 4.3 out of 5.
To sum it up
People who are trying to establish an exercise routine want to be motivated and see achievements to keep up with working out. Therefore, I created a fitness application that provides goals-based workouts and progress tracking solutions. People can see exactly the workouts that match their goals and how far they are from achieving the goals. Unlike other fitness apps, it tells users not only ‘what’ but also ‘why’ they workout. According to the interviews and user testings, participants said the app would help keep them on track when choosing the exercise and would help them develop a workout routine based on their fitness goals.
My takeaways
No project will ever be perfect. There is always room to improve. Same with this one, If I had more time, I would
- Plan more for the future version instead of MVP, minimum viable product. I would lay out the path from MVP, version 1,2.. to the optimal version. Due to the time limit, I had to cut down many features and focus on the main one that would solve customer problems.
- Research more on the theme of the application. One observation I had for this theme is it might be too calm. People would want to feel energetic and motivated when entering a fitness app. I would take more time to find out the data to confirm or decline this observation.
