Trybe -
Reimagine Fitness
Role
Co-Designer (Group of 3)
Duration
4 months
Design Objective
To create a fitness app that increases motivation to stay active by making fitness more social and fun!
What is the problem?
Lack of self-motivation continues to be one of the biggest reasons why people quit or aren't able to start exercising.
Who is facing it?
Young adults between the ages of 18-25 years with recommended exercise of atleast 150 mins/week.
How can we solve it?
Our research shows that people work out longer and progress faster when they wither workout with someone or engage in a physical activity that they enjoy. We want to build an app that addresses both these factors, an app that makes fitness fun and social.
Why do we want to solve it?
As young adults ourselves, we want to find a way to meet our health goals. With Trybe, users are morelikely to stick with their exercise plans and achieve their health goals in a more consistent manner.
01 Empathize with Users
Observe behaviors of gym goers
What were we looking for?
Group Behaviors
Causes of discomfort
Incentives by the gym
Weekly schedules of members
Where did we look?
Campus Recreation Center
@ Georgia Tech Campus
Huge - 3 floors
Mostly Students
Various sports and activities
Loud
Alexan on 8th Gym
@ Midtown Atlanta
Small apartment gym
Standard gym equipment
Mostly Young Professionals
Quiet
What did we find?
Partners observe and give feedback on form
Groups and pairs workout for longer than singles
More women doing cardio
More men doing weights
Incentives @CRC based on accessibility to equipment
Incentives @Alexan based on ads from fitness companies
At CRC, busiest time is 6pm - 8pm, after classes
At Alexan, busiest time is 8am - 10am, before work
Inconsistency is caused by changing schedules
Talk to Users
Survey
62 respondents
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Who do you usually workout with?
Where do you workout?
What equipment do you use?
What factors impact your consistency of working out?
What motivates you to exercise?
What are some aspects of the gym you like/dislike?
Interview
6 participants
Describe how you plan out work out routines.
How do you feel when you miss a routine?
What is your end goal of working out?
Do you engage in any other physical activities?
How does your exercise routine (or lack thereof) contribute to your overall health and well being?
Affinity Mapping
4 key areas of insights
Teams and groups are great motivators
Working out is about looking good for many
Working out is also about feeling good and enjoying
Changing schedules make working out consistently very difficult
See why users don't meet their goals
Based on our survey and interviews
2. Rapidly changing schedules
72%
70%
64%
1. Pure lack of motivation
3. Want to prioritize social life and academics
4. Conscious of how I look
42%
29%
5. Lack of access to gym/trainers
27%
25%
7. Do not see results/benefits
6. Do not enjoy traditional gym workouts
Initial Implications for Design
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How might we incentivize exercise for young adults so that they can stay motivated to exercise consistently?
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How might we customize exercise routines for young adults so that they feel in control?
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How might we tailor health plans for young adults so that they can achieve both their physical and mental well-being?
02 Define users and their tasks
Building health personas helped us to think of real users and what tasks they would want to achieve.
Body Structure
Genetically high cholestrol levels in blood
Body Function
May lead to heart disease or strokes
Participation Restriction
Need to exercise regularly and drink lots of water
Mariam, 21
Mariam's Task Analysis
She has found that her rigorous academic coursework and extracurricular activities take up most of her daily schedule, so she hasn’t been able to find the time to develop a consistent workout routine and go to the gym often. She doesn’t have a set exercise routine and usually just looks up videos from YouTube and TikTok.
Mariam hasn’t exercised that much in the past, but wants to start exercising more often. However, she feels too busy and unmotivated by the overwhelming gym atmosphere. Sometimes Mariam will do exercises in her room at night when she gets the chance.
A Design Direction for Mariam
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Establishing flexible routines & tracking progress
Recommending short exercises a person can do to get active throughout their day, by showing videos, gifs, etc. Tracking parameters such as heart rate to notify when person is achieving exercise goals
Body Structure
Tear of the ACL that connects the femur to the tibia at the knee joint
Body Function
May cause swelling, instability, and pain in the area
Jacob, 22
Activity Limitations
Exercising (leg muscles) at the gym, running, physical therapy
Participation Restriction
Occupational: Struggles with gaining eligibility into the National Combine to get drafted into NFL
Social: Often cannot participate in games with his teammates
Jacob's Task Analysis
Jacob used t play for the college football team before suffering an accident. He underwent surgery two weeks ago, and currently attends physical therapy once-twice a week. Before his injury, his main goals were to gain weight, strengthen his core, and increase his stamina.
Now after his injury, Jacob has spent some time outside the gym but is slowly trying to get back into a consistent workout routine. He wants to engage in activities outside of the gym, and utilize it as an opportunity to meet new people.
A Design Direction for Jacob
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Get to know people around you and try new things
An app that gets to know you, suggests activities to partake in your proximity, and connects you with people who also enjoy the same things as you do!
Body Structure
Chronic condition in which the airways in the lungs narrow and swell and produce extra mucus
Body Function
May cause coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness
Activity Limitations
Always needs to have an inhaler on them
Difficulty with activities that increase heart rate too much
Participation Restriction
Cannot travel to places with extremely cold weather
Difficulty participating in activities like hikes, social gym workouts or dancing
Jeremy, 23
Jeremy's Task Analysis
Jeremy has just started his first job. Now that he has started working he doesn’t find his time at the gym as rewarding. He finds his body getting used to the exercises and therefore, plateauing. Also, since he is out of college he doesn’t have access to the university gym and local gym memberships are too expensive for him.
Jeremy desires to find another physical activity, outside of the gym that is as vigorous as his workouts at the gym but is also fun and adaptable. He finds that he is most motivated when he is working towards a set goal.
A Design Direction for Jeremy
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Concentrate on physical activities that people already enjoy
Taking away from the toxic culture of extreme exercises, what if we could help young adults cultivate a love for staying active? People would be more likely to find intrinsic motivation for something that doesn’t feel like work!
Refined Implications for Design
Be Social!
Try New Stuff!
Track Effortlessly!
Assisting users to meet with other users that match their skill level and interests.
Assist users in curating their routines by discovering how other people stay active.
Allowing people to discover new ways to stay active.
Aid users in scheduling their routines.
Build a tracking system that doesn’t feel overwhelming and tedious.
03 Ideate with Users
After we had our implications for design, we decided to go talk to real users to share our ideas.
The Participatory Design workshop gave us a chance to not only test our ideas but also get ideas from the users themselves
Participatory Design Workshop
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Number of Participants: 5, two female and 3 male
Location: East Architecture Building @Georgia Tech
Length: ~80 mins
Activities: 5 (Introduction, Immersion, Activation, Dreaming, Bisociation)
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Draw/Write pain points of working out and group them after discussion
Participants talked about:
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Progress
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Scheduling
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Accessibility
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Group Dynamics
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Sharing Equipment
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Proper Form
Would having someone present aggravate or solve each of these pain points?
Aggravate:
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Sharing Equipment
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Scheduling
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Group Dynamics
Solve:
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Progress and form
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Motivation
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Breaks
Sketch out answers to prompts and after discussing make a storyboard of an ideal workout
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Similarities in pre and post workout routines.
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As people answered prompts, they also interacted by asking each other questions about how long they work out, what equipment they used, etc.
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Everyone unanimously did not use any tracking systems and kept mental checks.
Create a mobile wireframe of the features you would implement in a social fitness app.
Features that participants included in their wireframes:
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Leaderboards
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Accessibility to Workout Classes
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Indication of friends’ workout and location
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Recommendations of new activities to try
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Social Media Aspect
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Tracking Progress