Fit your Brain, the app
The alternative way to combine exercise with cultural experience
In the context of a university project, we have created a team consisted of 5 members with the purpose of creating and promoting a new idea. We came up with the project “fit your brain” which is an app that combines body healthiness with the mind development. It is based on the greek quote “νους υγιής εν σώματι υγιεί”, which means a healthy mind in a healthy body. Our main goal is to encourage people to take control of their lives. We intend to achieve that by creating an application that combines two fundamental values, athleticism and culture.
Part 1. Challenges and Vision
Challenges
Exercise
We have observed that many people nowadays lack not of the desire to exercise but of the willingness. We all know that we need to be healthy and fit. “The problem, though, is that we […] just don’t do it” according to fitness expert Martin Rooney.
So what are the reasons that keep people from actually exercising? The first problem, is that people are bored of the conventional methods of exercising. According to the Atlantic, although we are usually willing to invest in a gym’s subscription, we are not investing in motivation as well. Gyms offer up to date equipment as well as facilities (i.e. showers, televisions etc.) but what they truly lack is motivation.
It is also remarkable that many people are willing to pay for a gym membership but they don’t have enough money to spend on this. Especially in countries and periods of economic recession people tend to spend money in more vital needs.
Another problem is the leisure time we have available today and the way we tend to spend it. According to the Economist, people nowadays have more free time than they used to have a few years ago. “The problem, then, is less how much time people have than how they see it”. Most people prefer to do other things in their spare time than to exercise.
Culture
Apart from the reasons that keep people from exercising, we have observed that nowadays people also lack of a cultural interest. A European Comission survey of 2013 showed a fall in cultural participation in Europe. One of the survey’s main points was that people are usually bored of tradional ways of learning, such as reading a book, and prefered a more interactive way (for example watching television, or nowadays surfing on the Internet). This is probably caused because of the limited spare time (as we saw with the exercise as well), where people tend to combine things in order to save time.
In addition, there are people who are willing to participate in a cultural event but are not aware of the events taking place.
Vision
We believe that exercise and culture are fundamental and should be included in everyvody’s lifestyle. Our aim is to create an app that combines these two issues in an innovative and interactive way. Our app will provide the type of exercising (i.e. running, bicycling) users want to do and will direct them through a route with cultural interest (i.e. museums, historical places).
Discover more in the following posts,
Contents:
Part 1: Challenges and Vision
Part 2: Research Results
Part 3: Prototype Worksheet
Part 4: User Experience Map
Part 5: Storytelling
Team Members:
Agis Lamprakis (fb: https://www.facebook.com/agis.ls)
Eirini Zaveli (fb: https://www.facebook.com/eirini.zaveli)
Georgina Georgakopoulou (fb: https://www.facebook.com/gin.george)
Filitsa Makri-Moutousi (fb: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011461192852&fref=ts)
Hlianna Theodwrakopoulou (https://www.facebook.com/hlianna.theodwrakopoulou)
AD Discovery Workshop: an experimental peer-to-peer learning hands-on workshop conducted by Betty Tsakarestou, Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Media and Culture of Panteion Univeristy, Athens, Greece.
