UI/UX Project: Wellness App — Survey Time!
In our second module in the UI/UX class I’m taking at Ironhack, we’re working on a website or app solution for the National Wellness Institute. The prompt stated we could explore any aspect of wellness from fitness to sleep patterns to stress management. I chose to work on a fitness solution.
It’s human nature to think of solutions before understanding the problem. In fact, that’s exactly what I did for this project — I brainstormed with some friends — we decided it’d be fun to make an AR solution that would basically act as if a scary monster were chasing you to inspire you to run — and if I’d gone ahead with the solution from that brainstorming session, I would have been wrong. It’s ok to let your imagination run wild, and I assure you there’s no shortage of weird ideas in my brain, but I really needed to understand the users and what they want and need in order to be successful.
Enter the Lean Survey Canvas
There’s a process to creating user surveys called the Lean Survey Canvas, and it helps in your research process by forcing you to understand your users, their needs, and what questions to ask them in order to understand their problems. It also helps you come up with questions very quickly — this exercise only took me about an hour to complete.
I drew this out on large paper and used post-it notes to work through the steps. What I ended up with looked like this:
My Survey:
You can preview my survey here (and feel free to take the survey, more results are always good!): https://s.surveyplanet.com/rkwGsVasZ. I sent this link out to my friends on Facebook, followers on LinkedIn (connect with me!), and in my Discord server where a bunch of us gamers hang out and play PC games together.
User Survey — The Quantitative Data
- What is your current level of fitness?
Most of my friends are sedentary; luckily this is just the type of user I want to reach. Over 50% of them are sedentary — but why?
2. What level of fitness knowledge applies best to you?
Many of the people that took my survey know what they’re doing, but there’s a big group of people that kind of know or could use help in some way. I’m sure that’s creating some self doubt and reservations about working out, especially in a public space. I will need to ask about this self doubt in my followup in-person interviews.
3. Which of the following would prevent you from working out?
This confirmed what I suspected; people just don’t have enough TIME. Plus there’s a little bit of fear and anxiety about fitness that keeps people away. Now I can start to see my possible solution become clearer.
4. Check the activities you do for fitness:
This didn’t really change anything, but it was interesting to see that people will do a variety of activities to get fit — and that variety will be necessary to include in my app if I want it to work for a lot of people.
5. Which of the following do you use to track your fitness goals?
Nothing surprising here; most folks use mobile or they just don’t track their workouts (especially if they don’t work out!). I will likely build my solution as an app for a mobile devices, but I’ll be delivering screens for a website as part of my project deliverables.
6. Do you prefer to work out alone or with other people or a coach?
Most people like to work out alone, but many love to work out with other people as well; I don’t think my solution should focus on this as it’s a personal preference; I should make sure that my solution works in both cases — someone could use my solution in a group or solo if they prefer.
7. Which of these would you prefer to use to assist with your fitness goals?
This is wear I laid my assumptions on the table to see what people would prefer. This question helped me narrow my focus to something people would use vs. not even care about.
User Interviews — The Qualitative Data
My user interviews focused on exploring the reasons why people are fearful and anxious, and what motivates people to succeed. I learned that the uncertainty of what to do at the gym is preventing true success, and that people are motivated by competition to succeed. I also explored more about the time management aspect of fitness; people really don’t like having to go out of their way to get to a gym or other place for fitness activities.
Summary
I came into this project with all kinds of grandiose ideas, some of which aren’t really possible, and walked out with a clear vision: I need to make something that solves the time issue and helps people feel more sure of themselves when performing fitness activites.
Next Time
Stay tuned for the next part of this series where I incorporate more tools — a Lean UX Canvas, UX Strategy Blueprint, Empathy Map and User Personas. Then we’ll get to storyboarding and sketching low fidelity solutions.
