User Research & Prototyping of a Workout Scheduling App
UX Design solution of a Workout scheduling collective app that allows freelance instructors and attendees to connect and stay informed about upcoming workouts.
THE PROBLEM
Client
My workout instructor Ivy, started conducting Zumba lessons online and that was immensely popular. Her colleagues tried to emulate her outreach methods after her success. Her Facebook group is still leveraged by many instructors to reach students.
Note: This project did not launch.
Background
At the beginning of the pandemic, in-person Zumba and other dance fitness group workout classes were canceled in my city. Instructors started reaching out to their students in creative ways.
The goal of this app is to let instructors successfully share their schedules with attendees for adequate participation.
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Gym members attend group Dance Fitness classes to build camaraderie and new friendships with people who have similar goals, passion, and enthusiasm. However, when all gyms closed during coronavirus that feeling of connectedness was gone. When gym facilities began reopening, the group exercise experience was not the same. Attendance declined as a lot of people started working out from home and attended their instructor's online classes. Instructors felt challenged trying to share the accurate and updated class schedule with students. Schedules are currently shared via social media and the entire process is manual and inefficient.
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In order to create a more streamlined user experience, my goal is
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To create a simple intuitive UI for a workout scheduling app that will help freelance instructors communicate with their students and also help students find their favorite workouts. This will also give instructors an option to accept payment.
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To design the user flow/minimize the steps for a user to select and join a workout.
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
This project was created from scratch, the entire timeline spanned over a period of 10 weeks.
MAKE OF THE TEAM
RINKI
•User Researcher
•Product Designer
•Visual Designer
TOOLS
Figma
Illustrator
Miro
Glide
MY ROLE &
PROCESS
I created this project from scratch, from research, through storyboarding, user flow diagram, wireframing, and high fidelity prototyping. I fulfilled the role of a user researcher, product designer, and visual designer for this project.
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I used IDEO's human-centered design and lean UX to ensure that my design process was supported by user research and feedback. It allowed for rapid testing and prototyping which was essential for this project since it was being built for the first time.
BREAKING DOWN THE PROCESS
Iterative process: I used IDEO's human-centered design and lean UX design thinking process. It helped me focus on all the steps in the app creation process since it had a fast iterative model for testing and prototyping. The next iteration of this project is ongoing.
While I wanted to ensure that the project was completed quickly, each step got adequate attention.
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I started with research, by conducting surveys, interviews, joining Facebook groups, and attending several workout sessions as a student.
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This experience helped me identify pain points. After that, I prioritized them so that I could start with a simple solution. I created a few user personas based on the pain points. The combination of the user personas and the pain points, helped me create a basic user flow diagram.
With this foundation, I was able to move into the ideation phase, I built a user flow diagram a wireframe in Miro. Based on this wireframe, I built a mid-fidelity prototype in Figma. This is where the iterative process started. I sent an interactive prototype to a few individuals in a focus group. Based on the feedback I have used the findings to improve my prototype.
BASED ON SOME MAJOR LEARNINGS FROM RESEARCH AND TESTING, THE USER EXPERIENCE IS BEING IMPROVED.
Instructor: Elena
Age: 45 years old
Location: Houston, TX
Occupation: Small Business Owner/Fitness Instructor
Behaviors
Has a flexible work schedule
Teaches Zumba and other dance fitness lessons in multiple facilities
Relies heavily on in-person training in different facilities to reach students
Frustration
Due to the pandemic, it is hard for her to reach her students and connect with them. She needs a reliable way to connect with her students and keep them updated on her schedule and any potential changes. She does not have consistent attendance in her classes due to a broken communication system.
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
I used multiple research methods to understand the user and create a user persona. I interviewed 5 workout peers and 2 of my instructors. I conducted informal surveys, to understand behavior and their pain points.
After the locally mandated lockdown, I started reconnecting with my instructors to see if I could find a way to follow fitness best practices. They created Facebook groups to stay in touch with students and not lose momentum. I joined their FB groups along with my fellow gym members. Attending on-site group exercise sessions has a social element to it. People like to attend lessons to be able to connect with friends and also motivate each other.
Student: Naomi
Age: 40 years old
Location: Houston, TX
Occupation: Registered Nurse
Frustration
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she can no longer attend in-person lessons She no longer has access to the gym but would like to continue her exercise routine since her workload has increased exponentially
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The workout schedules are not easily accessible to her so that she has to spend time scrolling through social media posts to locate workout sessions
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Since schedules are posted last minute, it's hard for her to plan her week.
Frustration
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she can no longer attend in-person lessons She no longer has access to the gym but would like to continue her exercise routine since her workload has increased exponentially. The workout schedules are not easily accessible to her so that she has to spend time scrolling through social media posts to locate workout sessions. Since these ar posted last minute, it's hard for her to plan her week.
USERFLOW DIAGRAM
I used the userflow diagram to understand the steps the user has to go through before successfully scheduling a workout.
I used a traditional flowchart style to create a flow diagram representing the user's experience. I hand-sketched the first version and then improved upon that while building the digitized version. This gave me a solid foundation for my wireframe.
WIREFRAMING
Based on the userflow diagram, I built a wireframe. I added details while representing each step.
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BASED ON THIS WIREFRAME,
I CREATED A MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
PROTOTYPING
I built an interactive prototype using Figma. I shared the interactive prototypes with peers for testing and feedback.
I created mid to high-fidelity prototypes using Figma. The goal was to understand the total number of screens and categorize them based on the level of complexity. The idea was to ensure that there will be a seamless handoff to the front-end coders so that they create code that follows the correct set of steps and is interactive in the right way.
Figma screens showing Naomi scheduling
her workout
BASED ON THE RESULTS FROM USER TESTING, THE USER EXPERIENCE CAN
BE IMPROVED BY ADDING THE
FOLLOWING FEATURES
App can be expanded for users to maintain a workout diary
To make this app a one-stop-shop for students, a goal-setting option can be added where users can track their weekly workout goals and track them.
Need to create an option for sharing workout through the Apple watch
This app could be used as a plug-in for the Apple Watch app. Alternatively, this app could be a plug-in for some of the gym apps as well if the instructors work in a particular gym.
Chat options between Instructors and Students
Students currently ask their specific questions to instructors through social media channels, personal messaging, etc. The only challenge is that they should have the instructor's private contact info to be able to message them. Students would like to see a chat feature to be able to contact their instructor in a safe environment without creating any privacy concerns.
Instructor and Student separate registration process
Students and instructors need a separate registration system UI so that better data and information can be gathered from each group.
Need a place for Workout location and Link + Add payment option
Right now, the workout link (zoom link is emailed to attendees. This is not the ideal user experience. The workout zoom link should be available immediately after signing up and an option for adding to calendar and a payment option should be added.
LESSONS LEARNED & NEXT STEPS
Some valuable lessons were learned during this process. The biggest takeaway was that when working on a new product, we should focus on a few features first to get the project off the ground.
One of the lessons learned was that when building a product from scratch as the sole creator, it is essential to have some realistic goals and to focus on a small feature as opposed to an overall project.
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The second lesson was that to get the product off the ground, it is essential to focus on 2-3 user pain points and address those solutions during the product design process. This will help build an MVP that can be improved during future iterations.
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Next steps for this project would be to create a structured design system, built high-fidelity prototypes for hand-off to front-end developers.