SOCIAL MEDIA
FITNESS TRACKER
April 2024
UX Learning Studio 1
PROJECT BRIEF
Fitness trackers convert daily activity into data for personalized recommendations, aiming to motivate users towards a healthier lifestyle. However, some users try to cheat the system to manipulate data or feel a false sense of accomplishment.
In this project, we were tasked with creating an activity tracker app to focus on behavior change and modify the world of exercise tracking. By reframing users' perception of beneficial activities and rewarding positive choices, we aim to empower users to achieve genuine health improvements.
USER GROUP
In order to adjust people’s perceptions towards exercise, we had to choose a user group to focus on. As college students, we believe we have the most personal insight on the exercise mindsets of people our age, so that’s the user group we selected.
DESIGN SPACE
One common issue in our age group is the social pressure to “conform” to exercise culture and appear fit. Because of this, many people fabricate an online image of themselves instead of actually exercising or taking care of their health. So, we want to create an app that will make exercise more appealing to people and encourage them to be active for the purpose of self fulfillment.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
College students need a more motivating way to track their physical health and fitness with incentives to prevent cheating.
DESIGN QUESTION
How can we motivate students to engage more in their physical health and fitness without cheating while influencing others to focus more on their physical health too?
SECONDARY RESEARCH
A study of 871 undergraduates unveiled significant gender differences in activity levels and motivations, with 18% reporting no moderate or vigorous exercise. Men were driven by competition and strength-building, while women prioritized weight management and stress reduction.
The research emphasizes the need to promote physical activity on college campuses and tailor programs to gender-specific motivations. Additionally, we noticed increased use of fitness tracker apps among college students with the goals of improving health, tracking progress, and receiving guidance. However, motivation to continue using the app was a common challenge.
PRIMARY RESEARCH
We conducted interviews to identify motivations, patterns, and barriers among college students as they do physical activity. Each team member interviewed one college student to get a better idea of their physical fitness routine.
INTERVIEW FINDINGS
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Students primarily use fitness as a stress reliever, particularly during exam seasons and busy schedules, which induces relaxation.
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Students prefer to work out with friends but frequently have to do it alone due to busy schedules.
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Motivation to exercise depends on factors such as peer influence, schedule flexibility, and availability of workout classes often taking precedence over personal responsibilities.
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Wearable technology, especially for tracking steps and calories, plays a significant role in college students' fitness routines, given their daily walking to classes.
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Besides stress relief, students also exercise to maintain a healthy and strong body, with weightlifting being the preferred form of exercise among them.
Affinity diagrams of our interview findings
IDEATION
We brainstormed a couple of ideas of different exercise platforms that would be enticing to people our age.
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Campus Scavenger Hunt
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Recommend trails to friends; “social media”
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Summit Seekers/Tracker Trails – “Social media page” of sorts
From here, we decided to combine the last two bullet points to create a social-media-like platform to share different hikes with friends.
SOLUTION: SUMMITSEEKERS
Our solution is to create a fitness app within which students will be encouraged to get outdoors and explore their surroundings through various hikes and trails. They can follow their friends and college institution’s group, where they will be able to find unique spots by scrolling through the recorded paths people have posted.
Continually, similar to geocaching, people can leave small “prizes” with names or a target audience on them at the turn-around point, or middle, of the hike. This will be a fun way to motivate people. At this point, they will be able to take and “post” a selfie of them at the spot, which will allow the hike to count in their profile.
Finally, for each mile hiked, they will receive a certain number of stars. At specific “mile”-stones, they will level up, earning prizes such as Summit Seeker merch, along with new titles in their profiles.
Our final mockup of SummitSeekers uses an earth-toned color palette to fit the theme of hiking and nature. Going from the login page, you are welcomed with the dashboard, which shows you a summary of your overall activity.
From there, the navigation bar at the bottom will take you to the explore page, your activity summary, your main feed, personal messages with friends, and your account profile.
PERSONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
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Ideation
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Research
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Interviews
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Data Analysis
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Affinity Diagrams
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Final Mockup
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Interactive Figma Prototype
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Documentation
TAKEAWAY
This project was a lot of fun--I enjoyed working with a user group that I relate to so much. It also gave me a lot of experience with Figma, which thus replaced Canva as my favorite design platform. I learned how to use the Prototype feature, which I thought was really cool. Overall, if this were a real app, I could see myself using it; it's the perfect combination of competition, connection with friends, and self care.