Case study: Designing a wellness app
YouFit is an online exercise aggregator
Despite the vast availability of personal metrics and health apps, people continue to struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle. To address this problem we were briefed to develop a wellness app that could encourage individuals to commit to personal wellness goals. The app should drive people to action, track their progress and thereby encourage them to commit to healthier life habits.
The wellness category is quite diverse, so my team chose to focus on exercise and fitness, designing an app that was inspired by the online exercise trend that has been amplified by the restraints of lock down.
When it comes to online exercise, Youtube offers extensive variety, but other exercise apps provide a personalised and curated experience. We wanted to design and experience that improved on what is already available. Some initial market research lead us to the idea of an online exercise aggregator.
People’s lives are busy and time for exercise is often limited so we set out to design an app that could offer the user choice with access to variety, but simultaneously minimise the frustration of search time. We named our app idea YouFit.
Research
To validate this idea we did a competitor analysis, looking at other online exercise channels available. We compared Strava, Deliciously Ella, Nike Training Club and YouTube. All of the apps that we looked at offer the user a personalised experience while YouTube does not. However YouTube wins on variety but doesn’t offer the same beautifully designed and curated experience.
In addition, a feature analysis highlighted that YouTube has no personal filters, goal setting or tracking options, but it has user ratings and recommendations which not all other apps include. This confirmed that we had indeed identified a gap in the market.
With this in mind we conducted an online survey to learn more about user exercise habits and preferences. Over 60% of users exercise 2–4 times a week. Over 70% of these users are using online exercise routines if they don’t go to the gym, with and astounding 60% using YouTube for online exercise.
To get qualitative information we conducted a series of user interviews. We wanted to know more about what motivates people to use an exercise app, what kind of exercise do they use an app for and how do reviews influence their behaviour. We were also curious about their views on social media integration and how a rewards program could motivate user engagement. Our interviews revealed that ratings definitely matter, users like the idea of rewards, and users are not that excited about social media integration due to privacy concerns.
A brand positioning map reconfirmed the gap in the market and clearly showed us where we want to position our product. We wanted our exercise app to deliver a personalised experience while offering exercise content that is as diverse as YouTube.
To ensure that this app idea is successful and not only attracts new users but also retains them, we did a “jobs to be done” exercise by identifying what jobs customers would be trying to get done while using our app. The primary job would be to access workouts when unable to go to the gym. But this is a basic fitness app job and we wanted our app to be unique in its offering.
In addition to doing this job, the reason why our app would be hired and other fitness apps fired is because our app would also
- Provide variety, keeping users motivated and not bored
- Save them search time by serving relevant content quickly with personalised filters as well as integrated user feedback
- Allow them to set goals and track their personal progress
Furthermore, we realised that the success of creating a personalised app experience would rely on serving perfectly appropriate content to the user. The secret to getting the filters and algorithm to work would be user reviews, and lots of them. The reviews would also be our key to hosting the content on our app. Exercise video content creators would be getting views and reviews through our app, making it a win-win relationship.
And so the idea for our rewards system was born … our app will reward users for submitting reviews. With user reviews being the key to our app being accurate and thereby successful, the rewards could ultimately be more than just a cute badge icon that can be shared with fellow app users. We would be able offer real rewards like discounts from associated partners and potentially even a free subscription to the app.
Empathising
With our ideas formulated we needed to focus on the details of the user experience. We worked on a user persona called Fitness Fiona. She is a young professional who likes to stay fit and healthy but struggles to make time to go to the gym. She usually trains at home which gives her freedom and flexibility and she likes to track her progress as a way to stay motivated. But she finds the content on YouTube a bit overwhelming and she wastes time searching. Other fitness apps work for a while but then start becoming limited and boring in terms of content.
In a user journey we considered a typical scenario: Fiona browses YouTube but gets annoyed by the time consuming search and advertising. The user journey helped us to highlight specific the opportunities for our app offering.
The value proposition canvas helped us understand how our product could fulfil the jobs to be done and meet the needs and satisfy the goals of our user through its distinctive features and services such as personalised filters, user reviews, goal setting and progress tracking.
Defining the problem
With all this information we could define a problem statement for our idea:
Active professionals choosing to exercise online need to find a way to filter extensive online content and personalise search results because they want to enjoy variety without getting overwhelmed by options.
Using a Moscow map we defined an MVP that would include all the basic features to address this problem statement:
An exercise-content aggregator that will enable users to access the variety of YouTube in a personalised app environment.
With smart filters, user reviews and recommended content, the app provides the user with a personalised fitness routine. Staying motivated is made easy with progress tracking and a rewards programme. A pre-emptive chat function adds gamification while offering the user fitness information and advice.
Ideation
This site map shows our preliminary content architecture and hierarchy. The app is divided into four main areas: The Home Page where filtered content is aggregated, Saved Workouts, Progress Tracking and the Rewards.
To fine tune our idea before beginning concept sketching we thought about the user’s navigation behaviour while engaging with our fitness app. We ideated a happy path which incorporated all the features of our MVP.
When drawing out the user flow based on this happy path we identified 6 decision moments which showed us where we would need to consider the user’s engagement with the app. They included searching for a workout, choosing a workout and then saving it, reviewing it and then checking their rewards and progress.
As a team, we created concept sketches independently and then combined our best ideas in the low fidelity. We then did testing to identify any initial UX issues. The low fidelity also provided us with vital reference for the digitisation and design process in Figma.
With our mid fidelity ready, we conducted more user testing. The main insights related to user expectations of a native iOS app. We needed to review navigation between screens which we resolved by adding a back arrow. We also addressed the micro interactions of our intensity rating, allowing for direct and progressive selection.
Design
A visual competitor analysis gave us insight into design, functionality and gamification. To kick-off the visual design process we brainstormed brand attributes and created a mood board. Product reaction tests confirmed that we were accurately communicating our brand personality.
This style tile summarises and consolidates our brand identity. The logo was designed to feel modern and sporty. It is easy to read when displayed really small but also striking when displayed full screen. Inter is the typeface chosen. It is an accessible typeface. It works well when set large and in uppercase, and legible when set small. The simple colour palette is energetic but also understated so as not to compete with the visual content. It is androgynous for an app that feels accessible to anyone who wants to get fit.
Functional components are designed using the atomic design system. They are created for multi states in a way that feels seamless and aligns with the visual identity.
The dashboard includes charts that make it easy to track progress compare the current performance of the user against previous time periods, while the ring chart helps to monitor their performance in real time. Colour is used sparingly but in a way that clearly gives emphasis to important information.
We got really positive feedback from the desirability testing with most users describing it as sporty, customisable and easy to use. But the most common feedback was, “When can I subscribe?”
We used Maze to test our prototype and had a good success rate but noticed that users dropped off when instructed to adjust their personal filters. The heat map showed us how users clicked on the tags rather than the icon as it wasn’t clearly recognisable.
Other mis-clicks in the testing were largely a result of people wanting to actually use the app rather than follow the path we specified.. An unexpected but encouraging result.
Learnings and next steps
I really enjoyed working on this project with my team partner and we are excited about the final product. We found Maze quite frustrating and are looking for an alternative tool to use for testing if you have any suggestions?
As next steps we want to review the text in the app for accessibility as older testers commented that it was quite small. We are also going to rethink the filter icon.
