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fitkru

Fitkru is an app designed to help new or inexperienced gym goers learn how to train properly and also stay motivated to train consistently to achieve their fitness goals. The design of the app involved the methodology practices of user research all the way through to final visual design.

project duration

10 weeks

my role

  • Personas

  • Wireframing and prototyping

  • Usability testing

  • Visual design

As this was a self-driven project I was responsible for the entire end-to-end design process:

  • User interviews

  • Research synthesis

  • Information architecture

  • User flow and sitemap

THE CHALLENGE

The biggest challenge for me was incorporating into the app, a way to keep users motivated to train consistently to achieve their fitness goal. During user interviews I discovered that people used different methods to keep themselves motivated, which differed from my original solution. This caused me to eventually pivot and find a new solution for motivation that was validated during usability testing with positive feedback from participants.

THE problem
THE solution

A way for users to be educated about how to exercise and motivates the users to continue training

Beginners in the gym don't have the knowledge to exercise correctly and this effects their motivation to train

THE discovery phase

DIGGING DEEP INTO RESEARCH

Firstly I needed to find out people's behaviours and motivations around training in the gym. To do this I delved deep into user interviews with people that fit into the target demo of Fitkru. These were people who had either quit exercising or exercised very inconsistently, without achieving their goals.

USER INTERVIEWS KEY FINDINGS:

1. The same type of motivational techniques couldn’t be used for everybody

2. Feelings of intimidation and cluelessness were common among users who are new to the gym environment 

3. Users don’t really need to be given real world rewards to train consistently. They are rewarded by seeing changes in their body or changes in strength and fitness

4. People don’t like to follow strict eating plans. They want their nutrition to be able to fit into their lifestyle and social habits

5. Life’s distractions usually led people to quit training or train infrequently

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Below are some insights from the user interviews:

DEFINING WHO THE USERS WERE

As I developed a clearer picture of users' behaviours, pain points and needs fitness and exercise I was able to form personas. These personas were used heavily to direct my design decisions throughout the rest of the project.

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The three key personas that I developed were:

1. Bethany, the health-conscious, social butterfly (my main persona)

2. Kevin, the married, father of two, who trains casually

3. Samir, the casual exerciser who wants to start training more seriously

 

These variable persona archetypes allowed me to create an MVP that took into account how each of these personas could use the app and their motivations for using the app.

ORGANIZING THE STRUCTURE

Once I had defined the personas and their motivations for using Fitkru I could begin figuring out the structure of Fitkru. A structure that would be most desirable for what the personas needed to do.

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To do this I created a feature prioritisation based on insights gathered from my user interviews. I then used this feature prioritisation to build out the IA and sitemap.

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The IA revolved around these three themes:

To get an idea of the way to organise my intended features for the Fitkru app, I conducted a card sort to gather insights on how users categorize the features. Once common patterns were solidified through the card sort in a way that made the most sense to users, I created the sitemap.

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Below is the original sitemap and the iterated sitemap for Fitkru:

THE HAPPY PATH

I also wanted to construct the most ideal way for my main persona, Bethany to use the app based on her goals and motivations. I created a screen flow to visualise how Bethany might use Fitkru

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Below is Bethany's ideal screen flow when using Fitkru:

the design phase

SETTING THE DIRECTION

Now that I had a better idea of the users, the IA and the type of MVP that would help alleviate users' pain points and help them achieve their goals I sketched out lots of ideas around the three themes, mentioned earlier:

Below are the initial wireframes based on these features:

home page

search exercises

meal suggestions

meal diary

exercise info page

squats workout page

legs workout

workouts page

THE REFINEMENT

Once the initial prototype was complete I needed to validate whether what I created was usable and desirable, so I conducted usability testing with users who fit similiar profiles to my personas.

 

I tested against three scenarios:

1. You’re at the gym and want to log your day’s workout. How would you do this?

2. You’ve been told by a friend that they also have the app and they want you to add them as a friend.

3. You want to find some healthy meals to eat and add them to your day’s meals and also check how much you’ve eaten today.

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Below are some key insights from the usability testing:

I took into account this usability testing feedback and applied the changes to a second iteration of the prototype, this time creating a more high-fidelity design. I tested this iteration with more users and got positive feedback on the implemented changes.

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Below are the final high-fidelity key screens of the final prototype:

original assumptions

A basic app with exercise tutorials and random motivational quotes would satisfy users

what i learned

Users need a wider range of features to stay motivated to train, like nutritional advice, friendly rivalries and custom workout programs

© 2021 Dustin Myo.

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