MOTIVATE

Crafting a digital solution for women seeking gym connections, accountability, and meaningful friendships.

Project Overview

Motivate is a responsive website facilitating connections among women seeking a supportive gym community

Challenge:

Staying motivated to get to the gym regularly can be a challenging task. It's a phenomenon many of us are familiar with - we start off strong, only to lose steam and fall back into old habits. For instance, the 'January gym rush' is a well-known trend where gym attendance spikes, but quickly tapers off after just a few weeks. However, at the heart of this challenge lies a valuable opportunity - to build healthy habits and create a supportive community that can help users achieve their fitness goals for the long haul.

UX Techniques Used

  • Competitive Analysis

  • User Interviews

  • MVP Definition

  • User Mindsets

  • User Flow

  • Wireframing & Prototyping

  • Usability Testing and Iteration

My Role

  • UX Researcher

  • UI/UX Designer

  • Design Strategy

Timeline

80 hours solo design project

The Solution

Design a platform to empower women by providing them with a safe, inspiring, and accountable online community that helps them connect with like-minded gym-goers in their area. With the platform, users can easily view profiles of nearby women, chat with them, and schedule meetups, all while feeling supported and motivated on their fitness journey.

The Process

Explore. Implement. Evaluate.

  • Conducted research on existing gym buddy websites and apps to identify best practices and pain points

  • Conducted user interviews and surveys to gather insights into the needs and preferences of potential users

  • Identified key features and functionality required to create a compelling user experience

  • Created low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes to test and iterate on various design options and user flows

  • Conducted user testing and gathered feedback to refine the user experience and improve usability

  • Developed high-fidelity designs and created a style guide to ensure visual consistency across the platform

Research & Problem Definition

Hypothesis

Providing women with a gym buddy would increase their motivation to attend the gym regularly and help them establish and maintain a workout routine by holding them accountable for their fitness goals.

Research

Conducting User Interviews

I conducted user interviews to validate my hypothesis and gain further insights into the needs and preferences of potential users. I interviewed four women with varying levels of gym experience.

Results:

Pain Points:

  • Difficulty remaining consistent

  • Overwhelming gym atmosphere

  • Lack of accountability

  • Unsure how to start

User Mindsets

  • Conducted user research to develop user mindsets based on analysis of interview data

  • Used mindsets to understand emotional and psychological states of target users

  • Referred back to mindsets throughout entire product development process

  • Ensured solution resonated with users' feelings and motivations

Competitive Analysis

  • Researched 3 competitors: Freeletics, Strava, and GymBuddyApp

  • Conducted a heuristic evaluation of each competitor's app to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses

  • Analyzed each competitor's onboarding process, features, and design and identified their key features

Key Findings

Through competitive analysis, I found that existing products are mostly centered around group activities and social sharing. While they offer great features, they are often not executed well and I was able to identify areas for improvement and innovation, including developing features that are both useful and easy to navigate.

IDEATE

HMW’s

Armed with a clear problem statement, I was ready to start generating ideas for my product. To do this, I created a list of "how might we" questions that helped me approach the problem from different angles and uncover potential solutions.

I specifically wanted to address:

  • Connections and maintenance

  • Encouragement and Accountability

  • Communication and Privacy

  • Relevance and Personalization

Task Flow

Sketches

Sketching a few of my screens by hand allowed me to quickly explore various ideas for my onboarding experience.

Mid Fidelity

I took my initial sketches to the next level by creating mid-fidelity designs in Figma, allowing me to catch any potential design issues early on.

PROTOTYPE & TEST

After translating my sketches into high fidelity wireframes in figma, I drafted a usability test script and recruited 5 participants to help me isolate any issues in my initial prototype. After testing, there were 3 main issues I needed to address within the design.

  1. Adding Friends- users wanted the option to add a quick note when sending a friend request to add context

  2. Accessibility- some dark text was hard to read against its background 

  3. Creating a workout request- users wanted to have an easier way to access scheduling a workout than going to someone's profile 

Priority Iterations:

  • Add the option to add a note when sending a friend request

  • Provide a more streamlined process for scheduling a meetup

  • Check all labels and text against background

VISUAL DESIGN

Onboarding

In designing the onboarding process, my aim was to strike a balance between simplicity and engagement, while ensuring that users could intuitively navigate the process. While many users might be familiar with filling out forms or surveys during onboarding, I wanted to make sure that the product explained why certain information was being requested.

Finding and Requesting Friends

The products main feature- finding and connecting with like-minded women in your area, addresses my users need to be held accountable to their goals and stay motivated.

Including hobbies outside the gym on a users’ profile addresses the desire to find someone they have common interests with.

Requesting a Meetup

Requesting a meetup is a key feature of the platform that allows users to take their online connections offline and build real-world relationships. With the ability to request a meetup, users can easily plan and coordinate fitness activities with their new connections. To make the process more seamless, I later added a meetup option from the home screen based on user feedback gathered from usability testing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Key Takeaways:

Throughout the design process of Motivate, I learned several valuable lessons that I will take with me in future projects:

  1. Attention to detail is crucial. Small delights can have a big impact on the user experience and overall perception of the product.

  2. Timelines are subject to change. Each project is unique and comes with its own set of challenges that may shift the timeline.

  3. The user's perspective is paramount. While I made a conscious effort to consider the user throughout the design process, it was only through user testing that I was able to identify and address key issues.

Moving forward, I will continue to prioritize user needs and preferences, while remaining adaptable to changes in the design process.

Whats Next?

During the usability testing phase, users expressed interest in being able to add multiple friends to a workout request, which would increase efficiency and promote group accountability. If given additional time for this project, I would explore the possibility of implementing this feature to enhance the user experience and further support their efforts and goals.