Secondary research

Source:
Mintel market report on Home Fitness (2021) based on 2000 responses

I did literature reviews from Mintel market reports. The research suggests 2 challenges:
1. Lack of enjoyment and motivation hinder the exercise routine to be persisted.
2. Users desire customizable health data analytics.

User interviews

Created based on 5 interviews

I then interviewed 5 friends and classmates to understand their challenges with home fitness, and I found that:
1. Users are driven by accomplishment, mental health improvement, and physical changes.
2. Heart rate and immediate fat burn report can effectively prevent injuries, and boost user involvement.

Personas

Created based on 5 interviews

I distill the insights from the user interviews into the personas below:
Beginners crave for exercise variety and then specificity;
Pros desire a tailorable system for their unique needs like injuries.

Competitor Analysis

Disconnection from peers and coaches leads to decreased motivation.

Tonal

- No posture feedback.
- No community or way to connect workout friends.

Tempo

- No posture feedback.
- No community or way to connect workout friends.

Mirror

- No posture feedback.
- Work out with a pool of strangers represented by names.

The Challenges

Exercisers cannot effectively work out at home during lockdown due to the following reasons.

Low performance

The fitness screen is not too different from a TV playing YouTube videos.

Lack feedback

The posture feedback is on human illustration, which isn't intuitive.

Low variety

Most fitness gear is for a single workout like dumbbells or string.

Design goals

Ideation revision

I drafted few frames of low-fidelity prototype and test it with 5 friends I had previously interviewed. They identified the following issues:

1. Users want a quick search function on home page.
2. Difficult to locate the fitness schedule under the PLAN page.
3. Would appreciate the customizable health data.

So I iteratively revised the design and built a physical model to test the accessibility of visual components from 6 feet away. Eventually I settled on the 3rd version:

Information Architecture

Then I drafted an information architecture mapping out the organization of all screens and components within the low-fidelity prototype. This gives me an overview of the overall flow and experience across screens before progressing further.

Mid-fidelity prototype

The fitness screen remains horizontal during group workout to be viewed by multiple people, and turns vertical for single workout to allow for full-body checks via reflection. Users select the desired mode with their voice command to trigger the appropriate screen orientation.
From there, they can select the exercise, check exercise detail and start training all by voice assistance.

Upon starting a workout, users are guided to:

1. Set up equipment.
2. Intuitive feedback is provided via gestures pointed out on the user's reflected image. Correctional short video also play to demonstrate proper gesture.
3. Users can invite up to 3 friends to join the session for a sense of community and motivation.

This section displays users' performance metrics and exercise schedule. Statistical insights into past workouts act as incentives for users to add more exercise sessions in schedule.

User can set fitness goals, view progress reports, and share achievements with others in this section.

Style guide

After studying Material Design, I extract the color scheme, and font style, as well as designed the Nest Fit logo to fit within the Google property.

to High-fi Prototype

I developed over 30 mid-fidelity prototype screens to depict the interface layout, screen flow, and functionality. For the high-fidelity prototype, I used a light, active visual language to engage users and immerse them in fitness, while maintaining a neutral tone for beginners. I also incorporated Google GUI elements to strengthen visual brand identity.

Animation

My role: scripted and created the UI animation in Adobe AfterEffect.
Teammate Son Hoang: created the context animation in Blender.