'No Sweat' is a personal project for those looking to get back in shape and rejoining a gym, or joining a gym for the first time; however may feel trepidation about doing so. It aims to find a gym that's right for the user, and help motivate them to take those steps to find a gym that's right for them and get into shape. The inspiration for this came from... myself! Drawn from my own situation when I was looking at going back to the gym after many years and found difficulty in doing so.
Initial brainstorming
I started by mapping out a rough plan of everything that could possibly be involved in this project, to form problem statements I could use to focus my research on. These problem statements revolved around two key parties involved with this project - the customers and the gyms themselves:
• Customers: A potential new customer who feels doubt about getting back into shape wants to join the gym, but having to visit the gym makes them feel self conscious.
• Gyms: A gym owner who feels worried about staying in business needs to reach out to new customers, but faces trepidation from potential new customers.
How might we help customers overcome their
doubts and fears about getting back in shape.
doubts and fears about getting back in shape.
Research
My research efforts consisted of two parts:
• Quantitative online surveys
• Qualitative 1-on-1 interviews
• Qualitative 1-on-1 interviews
I started with sending out online surveys, which unfortunately only gave me limited results. They did however give me a few basic insights which I could use to help form a questions script I could use for the 1-on-1 interviews, which is where I felt the main source of insights will come from.
Interview participants were actually quite easy to come by, with many people that were directly around me feeling they suffered from these doubts about joining the gym who were more than willing to share their stories. It was actually quite comforting for me knowing that there actually are so many others who share this feeling that I once felt.
Stakeholder interview
Although the primary focus of this project is the customers, I thought it was also important to get some insights from the gyms themselves. I conducted an extra interview with a gym manager and personal trainer to get their point of view, which actually gave me quite valuable. Some key insights were:
• Getting customers to stay on long term rather than just a fleeting new-years resolution not only helps them business wise, but gives them a sense of satisfaction that the customer has found motivation.
• Frustrations include trying to keep customers motivated, and managing their expectations.
How might we help customers find a gym that's the right fit for them.
Analysis
With the interviews done and a bunch of data to sort I sorted it into an affinity map to form some initial insights, and then again into an empathy map to really confirm these insights.
Persona
Now that I had all of these insights, it was time to make a persona to design to - Steve Rogers.
Marvel fans will probably recognise that name - it was actually just a placeholder name at first, but it ended up sticking as it was actually quite appropriate. The persona is the key entity who you design for, so I think it's important that they 'stick', and aren't easily forgotten, especially when you're working on many other projects at the same time.
This version of Steve Rogers may not be Captain America, but for the purpose of this project he'll definitely 'stick'. Plus I like to think he's a bit of a Marvel fan too.
From here I mapped out Steve's current 'rainy day' scenario as a user journey to identify his pain points that need addressing.
MVP and design objectives
Now with the persona Steve in place to design for, I needed to set the MVP for this first iteration of 'No Sweat' based on the insights I had. Narrowing down these insights via a value vs. effort chart I established some key insights relating to Steve that I wanted to focus on:
Steve's feelings: he needs a gym where he feels comfortable, with staff and other members who suit his support and social needs.
Steve's circumstances: he needs a gym that has a suitable location and pricing plan.
How might we help Steve Rogers find a gym.
So to re-word this into some objectives which I need to design for this first iteration of No Sweat:
Steve needs to find a gym:
• that he feels comfortable in exercising amongst other patrons
• with staff that give him the support he needs
• with an ideal location and pricing structure
• with staff that give him the support he needs
• with an ideal location and pricing structure
Ideation
It was time to put pen to paper and start ideating a design. I started by setting up a user flow to map out how ideally I'd like Steve to navigate through the app to reach his objectives.
With this in place I sketched up some initial wireframes which I can base my first prototype on.
Prototyping
Now I had a pile of sketches on paper to work from, I started to build a prototype in Adobe XD. It all came together quite nicely, and I had something to start testing with.
Prototype testing
Initial testing from version one of the prototype showed that that on-boarding process required a bit more work, with participants being a bit confused about the questions and how to answer. This was actually the key part of this part of the project to help Steve find a gym, so it's important to get this right. I reiterated this part of the prototype and reworded a lot of the questions.
Future opportunities
The next steps I'll need to take to keep 'No Sweat' moving forward will be:
• Further testing and re-iteration
• Exploring the insights that didn't make the initial MVP
• Further testing and refinement of the on-boarding process
• Expand upon what will make this app of value after Steve has joined a gym, particularly ways that Steve can continue to track his progress and reward himself when he reaches goals.
• Exploring the insights that didn't make the initial MVP
• Further testing and refinement of the on-boarding process
• Expand upon what will make this app of value after Steve has joined a gym, particularly ways that Steve can continue to track his progress and reward himself when he reaches goals.
