What does fitness mean to you?
Creating a mobile concept
Overview
This project took a deep dive into my subject’s attitudes and behaviors surrounding fitness. In exploratory interviews with a fitness enthusiast named Jack, I uncovered an opportunity to help him search for new classes to try. Using this app, people of all kinds can find and book a variety of classes.
A one-week solo concept project designing a native mobile app called Fit Finder. Part one of the case study details the steps taken through to development of a paper prototype.
Unearthing insights
Interviews helps us gain an understanding of people’s attitudes, motivations and behaviors. They ensure we are designing for others, not for ourselves. They allow us to challenge assumptions. Combined with experience maps, they help us focus and solve the right problems.
Each of us has a unique relationship with fitness, and we each define it differently. For this project, my main goal was understanding Jack’s relationship with fitness and what I could do to enhance it.
During our first interview, I asked Jack, “What does fitness mean to you?” The answer to that question unlocked a wealth of insights.
- Jack loves fitness because it makes him feel great, but his relationship has changed with it over time.
- Participating in team sports and intensive weight training at a younger age, Jack has since shifted to lower impact activities in an instructor-led setting.
- Jack enjoys trying new classes because he likes variety and needs that external motivation to really push his limits.
“During boxing class I feel awful, but then afterwards I feel great. It’s the opposite of a night out.” — Jack
How could I add joy to something that already seemed so enjoyable for him?
To help answer this question, I took a closer look at his most recent fitness class experience. We discussed the last time he searched for a new type of fitness class to try. After mapping his journey, I learned his frustration peaked during the discovery process. He would call friends for advice and search the internet — spending a lot of time and effort to achieve his goal.
Thus, my challenge became clear:
Jack needs a way to book instructor-led fitness classes because he gets frustrated by how difficult and time consuming it is to find new ones to try.
Creating the concept
To get the creative juices flowing, I sketched out a handful of concepts and drew up a storyboard. I challenged myself to think of how I might help Jack find new classes, ask others about classes, or explore new exercise class types.
Taking all these ideas into consideration, what would be a simple, intuitive way to help Jack? What if Jack could explore and book from a selection of all available classes nearby? Taking insights from Jack’s experience map, I went with the “Exercise Explorer” concept. It best addressed his frustrations with searching for a new class to try.
Jack loves exercise and finding new workout classes to try. Whenever he wants to find a new class, he gets frustrated because there’s no easy way to do it. He opens up this new app he heard about that helps him find classes. He plugs in what he wants to do with a few simple and stress free clicks. Boom! Now, he immediately sees a whole list of classes available in his area. He selects one that looks good and books it. Jack is pumped to try out this new class that meets his fitness goals.
Mocking it up
Many designers skip making a paper prototype. But, I am continually surprised by the different behaviors observed in testing paper and digital prototypes.
Once a design hits the screen, a switch flips, and people interact with it under a different mental model. A designer may miss uncovering invaluable insights about a user flow or product concept if they go straight to digital. If testing exposes a major flow issue or design assumption, it can save a lot of time later in a project.
With the concept finalized, I mocked up a user flow and sketched the wireframes below:
A user begins by selecting a series of options to tailor that perfect fitness experience. Then, the app generates a curated list of class options, with a map view reference. Finally, a user can select a class, read more about the class and the gym, and go on to book it, achieving success.
My goal was to make it as easy for the user as possible to select options and book a class. I tried to keep the steps as minimal as possible and give visual signposts of where the user was in the process.
Testing it out
I conducted three user tests and I uncovered some rich insights to carry into the next prototype.
The following areas caused the most confusion for users and needed refinement:
- Progress bar was confused for navigation.
- “Type of training” was unclear to users.
- Location and time selection screen was confusing.
“I’m not sure what this “1” and “2” means. Is this a tab?” -Alex
I updated the progress bar to look less like navigation and added in stages to better represent the actual number of steps in the flow. To address uncertainty around the meaning of icons, I added text in the next iteration.
“The type of training is too broad. Can I narrow down more to filter results?” — Jack
To help users further filter results, I added a screen allowing them to select specific cardio or strength training exercises.
“There’s no time of the day selector. I’m not sure how to fill this in. — Ian
The location inputs was confusing users, so I added field labels and revised the visuals. Users commented the calendar would be too small to use and the “for how long” was unclear. I created a calendar modal for users to add in the date and times, addressing these issues.
Takeaways
Although simplicity should always be top of mind, I learned that being too simple could detract from usability. A designer must balance complexity and usability.
In trying to keep the flow simple, I overwhelmed users with information overload. Users needed information fed in smaller chunks and the flow broken into smaller steps.
In future iterations, I will focus on refining the progress bar and navigational elements. I will also take a deeper dive into the information architecture and how it supports the user flow. Finally, I will breath life into the concept, going into high fidelity. You can read about that and more in part two of this case study found here.
