I know you don’t go to your gym. Let me help you. UX researchs & conclusions.
Last week, I ran into an incredible fact. Only 30% of the fitness club members use their subscription. Worse, only 10% of the members are considered “active” that is to say using the gym at least once a week.
Understanding the user : how to be happy paying for nothing
As a UX designer I had to understand. How can the user keep loosing money and be okay with it ?
I interviewed, interviewed & interviewed to understand the inactive users. Fortunately, they were easy to find. Ask your friends who have a gym membership how often they go. Now ask them when was the last time they went to the gym. You might have some surprises 😅. Here are some of the mainstream answers you’ll find :
I have felt sick the last few days.
My relatives needed me to … this week.
This was the first lesson of this research : people tend to over-estimate how much they go to the gym and their future motivation. It is the classical “next week, I’ll be serious”.
As a result, gyms have an unique business model : they mainly bill users who aren’t using their services. Inactive members strongly believe they’ll end up active, and that’s what they pay for : believing their membership will enhance them to become active members.
The reality is so different: gyms don’t have any incentives to change this oddity. If all users used the gym, it would be so crowded you’d be sweating without exercising.
Your relatives are you pain, what if they could be your drivers ?
When inactive users explains why they don’t go to the gym, they have many stories to make it sound valid but in fact, it all boils down to the same pattern: you don’t go to the gym because your relatives don’t go either.
Even though you don’t want to admit it, you are prideful and want to earn social credit from going to the gym. 💪
Let me introduce you to my persona : Antoine. He wants to go to his gym but he doesn’t feel challenged here. Besides, his friends keep sending him invites for drinks & cheesy food.
Antoine is you. Don’t fool yourself.
hWe are getting familiar with Antoine but what does he truly really want ?
First of all, calm down you’re in good hands here.
Secondly, what is important here is to create a playful atmosphere, where Antoine can challenge his relatives, fill his pride and have fun.
Here are the main users stories, I got from my ideations:
As a fitness member, I want my friends to be notified when I’m working out to make them feel like losers.
As a fitness member, I want to answer bets from my friends to be challenged on a daily basis.
As a fitness member, I want to get appreciation from my relatives when I work out to get motivation.
What’s getting built here is an app (easy to use when working out), with a familiar tone to make you feel like if you were speaking with your friends and allowing you to challenge them, create bets, humiliate them.
Your social pride is your lever for action
If you still don’t get it 😆, here is the storyboard of your life without versus with the awesome app we’re creating.
FITMESS, no time for losers
The FITMESS app is currently being built.
The core value is to create competitions with your friends.
The competition is about attendance to the gym. Only attendance.
Indeed, the main goal is to bring you back to the gym; if you go, you’ll make progress. As simple as that.
The sitemap is simple : only 2 main pages.
A home and a competition recap.
The home asks you if went to the gym today. That’s all. Easy isn’t it ? 😎
The competition recap allows you to create a league. It’s about scheduling a start and an end date, choosing the number of time you’ll have to go to win the competition, and finally defining the bet.
Betting makes you active ? Bet your gym assiduity
Betting is the key : it involves you in the competition, and above all, losing because painful. Losing involves a greater effort than going to the gym.
Simple, and I bet you it’ll be effective.
I’ll see you a 2 weeks for the final app design, hope you’ll like it .
Any feedback is appreciated !! 🙌 🙌 🙌
Attached below are the French slides I presented to the INPES (French Health Institute).
Cheers ! 😙
