Personal Project:
Alleviating the difficulty for beginners to stay motivated in their fitness journey.
Personal Project:
Alleviating the difficulty for beginners to stay motivated in their fitness journey.
How do Beginners Approach Fitness?
I wanted to understand how people’s intrinsic motivations influence how they approach fitness, so that I can design an experience that better supports long-term engagement, learning, and personal progress.
I Interviewed 4 Beginners and 4 Avid Gym Goers
Beginners are consistent when working towards a short-term goal, not long-term goals.
Beginners are motivated by workout streaks, but find it difficult to regain momentum after breaks.
Accessibility issues and lack of equipment limit exercise options, leaving beginners unconfident to substitute exercises found online.
Their Motivation is Fragile Without Clear Goals and Confidence
How Might We…
Push Goal Setting
How might we encourage beginners to set meaningful short-term goals that keep them engaged.
Increase Confidence
How might we help those with accessibility or comfort concerns find substitutable exercises and equipment.
Increase Motivation
How might we help beginners feel motivated after a period of time off to regain momentum and resume their workouts.
What can the Unique Selling Point be?
Goal setting front and center. Competing platforms are missing this entirely.
Few offer detailed, personalized workout plans.
Cut beginners some slack and encourage breaks.
Unique Selling Point Features
Freeze your Streak with Tokens
Beginners are going to fall out of routine no matter what. The ability to freeze their streak could help them feel like they’re still being successful.
Goal Setting Front and Center
Short-term goal setting will help beginners feel a sense of personal accountability and have something specific to work towards.
Short Exercises After Breaks
Working out is not a habit for beginners yet, so it’s not something they think about after time off. Short exercises could allow them to regain their momentum.
Business Goals
Cater to beginners by offering unique features that encourage long term fitness consistency.
User Goals
Create a flexible exercise routine that keeps them consistent and helps them understand the value in their workouts.
What kind of Beginner is this Product For?
Tech & Tools
Uses Strava to keep track of runs and personal metrics. When he lifts weight, he’ll use the We Glow app to guide him through his routines. He used to use the Strong app, but he felt the UI was outdated.
Goals
Build a sustainable fitness routine.
Gain strength and confidence lifting weights.
Feel less intimidated and more knowledgeable about exercises and fitness routines.
He wants a simple, clear routine that helps him progress toward his goals without much planning and overthinking
Paint Points
He doesn’t know how to choose the right exercises or structure workouts due to limited experience with strength training.
He finds online fitness content untrustworthy, overwhelming and confusing.
He struggles to restart after breaks, making long-term consistency difficult.
Sometimes feels pain from day-to-day life, and occasionally gets injured, which makes finding substitute exercises more difficult.
About
Views fitness as a personal journey to feel stronger and fit in his day-to-day. He enjoys keeping track of his progress, but has trouble staying consistent. He knows the basic exercises, but often feels overwhelmed choosing which ones to do and why.
I need an easier way to find or create my fitness routine and to stay consistent. One that I feel comfortable with, and that I trust is going to help me achieve my fitness goals.
User Flows Highlighted Key Screens
How can we Present Detailed Information in an Organized, Intuitive UI?
Exercise Catalogs & Filtering
Onboarding Questionnaires
Aesthetic Direction
Approachable
The platform will be tailored to beginners, so the design should feel friendly and encouraging.
Directive
Goal setting will be front-and-foremost, so stats, progress bars, and other UI that encourages progress is essential.
Analog Utility
Giving an analog feel to a digital product, especially one that tracks progress, can translate into a modern and functional design.
Mapping out Rough concepts for Key Flows
Early User Testing Revealed Confusion on Key Pages
5 of 6 testers didn’t know what they were looking at when they arrived at the upcoming exercise page, and were unsure of how to swap one of the exercises in this routine.
4 of 6 testers could not find the goal setting page.
4 of 6 testers could not figure out how to redeem freeze tokens to pause their streak.
High Fidelity Testing Presented Home Page Issues
5 of 5 testers had difficulty finding where to redeem their tokens from the home page to freeze their streak.
4 of 5 testers did not acknowledge the goals section on the home page to be related to the streaks system.
3 of 5 testers had difficulty finding where to create a short-term goal from the home page.
Testers Intuitively Completed Flows on Updated Design
User Goals
Create a flexible exercise routine that keeps them consistent and helps them understand the value in their workouts.
Business Goals
Cater to beginners by offering unique features that encourage long term fitness consistency.
The Users' Problems
4 of 4 beginner interviewees mentioned they have trouble staying consistent, especially after breaks.
3 of 4 beginner interviewees mentioned they have trouble finding substitute exercises for those that they don’t have equipment for or that they’re not comfortable with.
1 of 4 beginner interviewees mentioned they lack exercise knowledge, so they don’t see as much value in their routines.
The Business Solution
Focusing on short-term goal setting creates a stronger sense of accountability for beginners in fitness. Combined with features like freeze tokens, short post-break exercises, and swappable workouts, the platform is more likely to keep our persona engaged than competing products.
A B2B Relationship with Healthy Restaurants
An integrated feature to the streak system. The user earns coupons to healthy restaurants the more they stay on track.
A Platform for Beginners to Become Pros
Is there a way to intuitively educate beginners about reps and sets tracking for progressive overload?
