reFIT
reTHINK your remote fitness routine
Created by Mia Forbes and Emmy Snipes - Fall 2023
Problem Statement
Our mission is to create a workout app for remote professionals, helping them maintain consistent exercise routines personalized to their fitness goals.
We’ve noticed a common challenge among users - a lack of commitment to remote workouts which lead to reduced app usage.
Our objective is to offer innovative solutions to keep users engaged and motivated. All while ensuring they regularly use the app to achieve their fitness goals.
Personas
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Tasha P.
Age: 35
Occupation: Freelance Writer
About: A driven, self-employed freelance writer who juggles taking care of her family. She often neglects her own needs as she prioritizes work and motherhood.
Pain Points: “I struggle with maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I feel like my overall health has suffered these past few years and I don’t know where to start to turn things around.”
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Paul M.
Age: 56
Occupation: Project Manager
About: A busy professional who is motivated by success. He’s reward-driven but has become complacent in his workout routine due to his demanding work schedule.
Pain Points: “I need a reminder to get up and stretch! I find myself sitting hunched at my desk for hours on end without realizing! By the time I get up I don’t have any motivation to exercise.”
Task Analysis - Tasha
Goals:
Prioritize fitness during her busy schedule
Introduce healthier meals into her family's diet
Lose weight and strengthen her back/reduce back pain
Task Analysis - Paul
Goals:
Develop healthier habits
Regain his energy and focus
Exercise with his dog more regularly with hopes to run with his dog eventually
Research
Risk & Mitigation Strategy
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Risk: Limited availability of team members, tools, or equipment.
Avoidance: Avoid a ‘set it and forget it’ approach. Continuously monitor resource availability and adapt your resource allocation strategies as needed to address constraints promptly.
Mitigation Strategy: Plan resource allocation carefully, have backup resources identified, and consider resource constraints when setting project timelines.
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Risk: Difficulty in collecting user feedback within the project's timeframe.
Avoidance: Practice avoidance of scheduling interviews with individuals of the same gender, age, or race, as we aim to promote inclusivity. Additionally, please refrain from scheduling user interviews at the last minute, as this may impact the interview's quality, and unforeseen circumstances may prevent the interview from taking place.
Mitigation Strategy: Plan user interviews well in advance, use online screening questionnaire or remote user testing to save time, and consider using rapid feedback collection methods.
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Risk: Challenges in collaboration and communication among team members.
Avoidance: Avoid working in isolation. We encourage collaboration and working together to achieve the best results for the project
Mitigation Strategy: Establish communication channel (Slack), hold regular team meetings (Every Thursday at 8:15 pm EST), and use collaboration tools to facilitate information sharing (Figma/FigJam/Trello).
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Risk: Failure to identify and fix critical UX issues during usability testing.
Avoidance: Avoid disregarding established usability principles and guidelines. Ensure that your design and testing align with best practices.
Mitigation Strategy: Develop a robust testing plan, including usability testing, and prioritize critical issues for immediate resolution.
Desk Research Summary
1. The average time spent seated at a desk by people working from home ranges from 4 to 8 hours per day, influenced by individual work habits and breaks.
2. Users of fitness apps span diverse demographics, and the decision to use paid or free versions depends on individual fitness goals and preferences. For work-from-home professionals, the likelihood of using fitness apps is influenced by factors like flexibility, additional time, and diverse fitness interests, while individual motivation plays a crucial role.
3. Challenges in maintaining consistent workout routines for remote professionals include blurred work-life boundaries, sedentary work environments, time management difficulties, and a lack of motivation.
Competitve Analysis
We performed a competitive analysis to get an idea on what direct and indirect competitors were doing with their apps and what trends (both good and bad) were found between the different workout apps. We looked at quite a few leading fitness apps that are offered on the market today. Out of all of the apps, we decided to look at the following:
- Nike Training Club
- Sworkit Health
- Peloton
- Apple Fitness+
- LA Fitness
- EOS Fitness
- Myfitnesspal
- 24 Hour Fitness
A common theme amongst the apps were found that users really enjoyed the customization/personalization options within the apps. This was key for users because of varying schedules and other factors. However, some common drawbacks seemed to be the lack of nutrition/meal knowledge within the apps and ease of workouts caused many users to look elsewhere for their needs.
Research Questions
What are the top performing workout apps currently?
What are those workout apps offering vs. not offering to make them stand out?
What was the general CSAT for these apps?
How many of those users were remote workers?
Are these users paying for the apps or opting for free versions/free apps?
What is the demographic of users?
Interview Questions
Is there a particular time of the week when it’s easier to stick to an exercise routine?
Do you prefer exercising indoors, outdoors, or both? Why?
Do you Prefer exercising in a group setting, by yourself, or both? Why?
Do you like guided workout routines or self-guided routines?
How long do you like to workout?
When you workout what kind of equipment/tools do you like to use?
User Interviews
Research Participants: 11
Interview Time: 15-20 Minutes
DIVERSITY
We wanted to make sure that we had diversity when it came to our research and testing participants. To make sure we were being inclusive, we interviewed both men and women of different backgrounds, ages, and professions. For our testing participants, we wanted to make sure we had as balanced of a group of individuals as possible.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Similar to how we approached the diversity in our participants, we wanted to make sure that we recruited users with the correct demographics that would be beneficial for our research. For this, we looked for users who currently work a remote or hybrid schedule that are at least familiar with workout apps or virtual fitness programs.
KEY QUESTIONS
What do you look for in a workout program?
Do you prefer timed workout routines or untimed routines and why?
What, in your experience, makes it difficult to stick to a consistent workout routine?
Key Findings
5 out of 6
Interviewees tracked their fitness progress with a smart watch.
Cycling and weight-lifting
were frequently named as preferred exercises
50%
of interviewees wanted to track their diet within their fitness app.
Features of Focus
Workout Filter
Diet Tracking
Personalized Goals
Workout Challenges & Rewards
Design System
A quick glance at our design system
First Prototypes
Middle to high fidelity
Usability Tests
Testing Participants: 7
Interview time: 20-30 Minutes
For our usability testing, we asked a variety of questions on app navigation and general flow of the app. We also asked questions to gauge how the users felt when navigating through the app. We wanted to focus on inclusive features that made users feel good and want to use the app on a recurring basis.
“I like the feel of the app and can see myself using this. I just wish there were more back buttons on some of the workout pages.”
Participant 2
“I absolutely love the meal diary feature and the meal summary. It’s straight to the point and has a quick glance of my recent activity all on one page.”
Participant 4
“Wow! At first glance I wondered about how this app would differ from other apps. After clicking around I can definitely say that it’s a breath of fresh air to have my fitness needs combined with my nutritional needs. They go hand in hand and I’d rather not have to download multiple apps to track the two goals!”
Participant 7
There was unanimously positive feedback regarding the overall design and color scheme
All testing users enjoyed the app and felt that aside from the few bugs, it was very easy to navigate
A few buttons were not connected properly, which impaired users’ ability to navigate through the app
The original slider scale on the workout filter did not work correctly
A few users said they would prefer a more distinctive ‘apply filter’ button in the workout filter and/or an additional ‘x’ button to escape the filter if they so choose
A few users had some difficulty finding the ‘change your diet’ in the diary feature, one user mentioned that the link/type was a bit small/difficult to see
Some users had difficulty navigating back and asked for additional back/forward buttons
A couple of users said they would prefer more variety on the goals/preferences options, with one user pointing out that a typical calorie total for males was missing from the list of options
One user found it difficult/confusing to navigate through the challenge and suggested an alternate view (with a list of the challenge components on the same screen)
Key Findings
Constraints
User Availability:
Some users agreed to participate in usability testing early on but due to personal commitments, they could not make it to the testing appointments as planned.
How did we address it? By acting quick. We did a quick impromptu interview for new recruits to include them in the usability testing so that we could have more of a variety of participants for proper insights.
Group Split:
Mid-way through the sprint, we went from a group of four to a group of two with just about 3 weeks left to finish out the sprint.
How did we address it? App rebranding. We gathered all of our resources to the date and worked with the old team members on how to best proceed. Once settled, we quickly rebranded and updated previous research documents so that it was consistent with our app moving forward.
Time to Iterate:
Due to the split, we needed to rebrand our app and revisit work to make sure that our app was ready not only for usability testing, but for final iterations before our deadline.
How did we address it? Flexibility and rescope. We realized with the time we had left and what we needed to get done, that for this iteration we would need to sacrifice some features to our wishlist/next iteration and focus on polishing the work we had to prepare for our deadlines.
Final Prototype
Next Steps
Iterate on our design and add more interactions
Work on the wishlist items (Heart monitor, time for workouts, community feature, expanding on the swag shop, and more)
Add smart watch connectivity
Do more research on inclusivity within a workout app (ex. gender inclusivity)
Look into more ways to include personalization features for users