A wellness experience focused on motivation and developed for everyone. Its purpose is to motivate every fitness enthusiast in and out of the gym.
Role: Product Designer
Project: Personal Project
Industry: Fitness, Wellness
Think Tinder but for Fitness
Emphasizing Context
Fitness technologies are one of the most rapidly growing industries worldwide. Exercising has many benefits for physical and mental well-being, including reducing your risk of depression and anxiety and helping with better sleep. Unlike every other application, Fit-Buddy aims to connect, motivate, and ease workout routines by offering personalized workout plans to users and groups of friends helping them meet fitness goals.
According to a study by Tyler Schmall for “NYPOST”, a survey conducted by OnePoll aimed to discover the most significant barriers people face regarding exercise. 35% of the participants stated that motivation was their most significant barrier, while 11% reported their workout partner bailing as their top barrier to exercise. Since then, the rise of activity trackers has been off the roof, with devices like the Apple Watch and Fitbit dominating the market in a quest to address some of these barriers.
On Motivation
A theory on motivation suggests that people can become self-determined when their needs for relatedness are fulfilled. The likelihood of people embracing a new behavior for exercise could be validated by how much these psychological essentials are satisfied. This theory defines the foundations of Fit-Buddy.
Design Process
A crucial part of my process involved observing my circle of friends, understanding their why, and gaining more helpful insights into their pain points.
Validation
Interviewed and observed both gym heads and several fitness enthusiasts at this stage to gain some insight into their pain points.
Competitive Analysis
Compared several rival products like Peleton, 30 Days Fitness at Home, Gym Life, etc. against a set of benchmarks to drive product thinking.
UX Design
After understanding the problem and how to solve it, I developed personas, information architecture, and user flows to better understand my users.
UI & Interaction
Interviewed and observed both gym heads and several fitness enthusiasts at this stage to gain some insight into their pain points.
On Autonomy
Fit-Buddy allows users to connect, schedule, and join workout groups conveniently. However, a feeling of control and agency is essential to ensure that motivations are more inherent and not solely driven by movements or invasive prompts.
User research
The research includes interviews with 15 fitness professionals and seven fitness fanatics. As a result, I learned a few things. First, it is usually challenging to maintain a workout routine for an extended period, so the study was geared at understanding the particular strategies that work for each person. This data generated the three user personas, guiding the project's finding to address their concerns with the solution intended.
Hypothesis
Feedback from the research uncovered critical areas of opportunity. However, these findings need to solve the user's problem logically.
Product Goal
A product experience that drives users to prevail consistently to a routine long enough to reap its perks.
Connect
Ditch the tough skin! Users can connect with a workout partner within a shared fitness center. It was also crucial that users see the activities of a member before sharing a connection with that user. Embedding accountability partners into your workout routine will help users stay motivated and inspired.
Plan
A scheduled workout allows users to be consistent and develop a healthy work-life balance, including developing flexibility and strength each week. In addition, research suggests a planned exercise helps users keep track of their goals.
Join
At any point in the Fit-Buddy experience, users can join existing shared goals or set up specific goals to hit with a group of friends. Then, compete with anyone at any time and share results on a leaderboard to help keep your fitness plan competitive.
Smart Watch Support
Users can access Fit-Buddy's unique functions easily from their wrists. In addition, users can monitor their workouts daily. The smartwatch functionality is also a usability hack and would provide feedback provided to users.
Knowledge
A further iteration of this concept will focus on finding more opportunities to continue to modify the experience in a way that maintains a high level of engagement. Introducing new features through the community routinely pushes users to fitness excellence. When designing and using fitness competitions and activity trackers with friends. This is a great way to make working out more fun and motivating.
Copyright © 2024 Marc Henry Ibeneme