Case Study: A fitness tracking app
As a personal project I decided to design a fitness app FitTrack. This case study showcases my process in creating and designing this project.
The Problem
Among budding fitness enthusiasts many find it difficult to figure out what routines to follow and require guidance to get started. This leads to many getting overwhelmed and dropping their fitness activities. FitTrack enables users to track their fitness and eating habits and view their progress in all relevant aspects.
The Objective:
To guide users through a fitness routine and help them stay motivated.
Research
For my initial research, I went through a few existing research papers on exercise and motivation. According to the Self-Determination Theory proposed by Duncan, L.R., Hall, C.R., Wilson, P.M. et al. in their paper on Exercise motivation — exercise routines are initially motivated by extrinsic or external factors such as wanting to lose weight or wanting to ease body aches, but to sticking with a routine for a long time is motivated by intrinsic or internal factors such as the perceived sense of progress and the ensuing satisfaction.
User Interviews
I then interviewed 5 users who exercised irregularly about their reason for following a fitness routines and how they kept track of their progress. To learn what keeps them motivated — I used the 5 Whys technique to get to the root of their reasons as shown in the flowchart. 4 out of 5 of the interviewees were determined to exercise to improve their self-confidence and the 1 other exercised to improve his long-term health.
I also asked the interviewers if and how they kept track of their fitness activities and whether they used any apps. The ones that kept track of their progress in a disciplined manner said that they used separate apps to keep track of their exercise, and for their nutritional intake. They also said that many apps do not contain information on performing the exercises properly to maximize their gains.
Designing the App
I decided that the app would provide for tracking progress both in terms of the exercises and in terms of nutritional intake such as calories and macros. Tracking progress is important to meet the intrinsic requirements for staying motivated
User Flow
Sketches and Lo-Fi prototypes
I used my tablet to make some sketches that I would have some ideas of what the layout of the app looks like. I made many sketches and used the worst idea method to arrive at sketches I was satisfied with.
Once I determined which sketches were the best — I used them as a reference to make Lo-Fi prototypes. I realized a few flaws which I did not notice in the sketches and was able to fix them before I moved on to my High fidelity prototypes.
Hi-Fi Prototypes
Sign-up and Onboarding
These screens allow users to sign-up to the app and to provide some preliminary information about them such as previous experience, their height and weight so that the app can provide tailor-made food and workout recommendations to them.
Home and Profile
The Home page provides frequently checked information about caloric intake, and gives quick recommendations for food and workouts.
The profile page contains statistics of past workouts and also provides for the user to upload progress pictures. This allows users to view their progress over the months in order to stay motivated.
Food & Calories
These pages provide food recommendations, allows users to track their nutrition for the day, and to add meals to their daily nutrition.
Workouts
These pages recommend workout routines, which contain various workouts which users can perform and add. The routines also contain a difficulty level and number of days it takes up per week so that the user has some preliminary information about them. The individual workouts also contain videos showing how to perform them correctly and tracks the number of repetitions/time for each of them that is added.
Scope for Improvement
Another feature that would help keep users motivated would be a system where one can add friends and compare their progress with them via leaderboards or achievement badges. Additionally a feature that allows users to create their own custom workout routines would also add some flexibility.
Conclusions
Through this project I learnt the importance of user research and how it narrows down the root of the problems, providing a sense of direction during the design process. This project could be improved further if I conducted user tests and modified the design based on the findings. I am however happy at the end result which will help fitness enthusiasts keep track of their routine in a disciplined manner.