Social Fitness,
Bridging Health and Community for a Stronger You.
How might we integrate social connection and physical fitness in our busy lives?
INTRODUCTION
The Breif
Create a MVP which could be utilized during the process of planning an event. Without client research, I identified a user problem, brainstormed solutions, and designed an end-to-end mobile application.
The Challenge
A 100 hour deadline to create a platform that encourages long lasting, meaningful connection.
My Role
Sole UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
Timeline
8 Weeks
The Problem
In today's post-pandemic world, maintaining consistent social connections and physical fitness has become increasingly challenging due to limited common spaces, busy schedules, and the difficulty of transitioning from friendly interactions to meaningful friendships.
The Solution
A mobile platform that encourages social fitness, and fosters connections through shared interests, and a sense of community.
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DISCOVERY
Competitive Analysis: Exploring the Social Fitness Landscape
To better understand the complexities of social fitness platforms, I began with secondary research, analyzing successful existing platforms that tackle this issue.
Key Learnings
18-25yrs
There is a large untapped market of people 35 and older
66%
of the platforms have a fitness focus, social is secondary
66%
competitive instead of collaborative relationships
Understanding User Behavior for Social Fitness
Building on my secondary research, I sought to understand why it was difficult for adults to form long lasting social connections. I conducted User Interviews with the intent of understanding more about this ever-pressing issue.
APPROACH
Methodology​
In-Person & Online.
Number
6 partisipants
GOALS
01. Make Friends and Exersize
02. Detect needs, pain points & opportunities.
Duration​
35 minutes.
Age
44 - 53 years old.
03. Social Media preferences.
QUESTION STRATEGY
01. Free Time Activities, Scheduling, Fitness
02. Maintaining friendships, Meeting New People
03. Social Media, Other Apps and Platforms
Affinity Mapping
With the findings from my user interviews, I produced an affinity map to look for any patterns or themes which started to emerge. Based on the information gathered, I began grouping it into four categories:
Key Findings
01. Motivations:
People thriving off of group motivations
02. Frustrations:
Difficulty scheduling time, forgetting to reach out
03. Fitness Tendencies:
Feel they get an inadequate amount of physical fitness
04. Social Trends:
Would respond positively to social media posts
Core Pain Points
Core Solutions
Define
The Faces of Cofit
Synthesizing the research findings, I curated a user persona representing the wants, needs, and demographics of our ideal user and target audience.
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Ideate
Brainstorming Solutions
With user needs and pain points clearly outline, I now can outline and plan solutions. After brainstorming and looking at potential market research, I decided on the following key needed features.
Oppurtiny Areas
Candidate Profiles
User Posts
Compatible Calendar
Relatable user profiles, highlighting their interests and Personality
Posting an Activity, making it available to join for those in network.
Calendar that shows work events and other potential scheduling conflicts.
Community Network
Goal Tracking
Fitness Program Partnership
Able to add friends who are mutuals, or in your neighborhood,
Track progress in both fitness and social activies.
See which user's in your network are going to workout classes at a specific time.
MVP Feature Set
Visualizing their current journey allowed me to pinpoint how and when pain points arise, which revealed the importance of a candidate comparison feature and guided the design direction:
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User Flow
Once the MVP feature set was approved, I created a user flow to clarify how users would discover and interact with the comparison feature.
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Lo Fi-Wire Frames
Structure First Approach
Since this is a text heavy application I adopted a structure-first approach, developing mid-fidelity wireframes that used blocks to focus on maintaining a content hierarchy. This strategy allowed me to refine the structure and flow around real content.
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My goal with this approach was to conduct a more effective usability test with context-rich feedback on the apps’ core functions.
Mid Fi Wire Frames
Validate
Usablility Testing
Now that we had a good idea of how the information would be organized on the screen, I began conducting usability tests. The primary goal of this usability test was to identify areas where users experienced uncertainty, encountered design issues, or felt overall confusion.
APPROACH
Methodology​
In-Person & Moderated.
Number
6 partisipants
Duration​
20 minutes.
Age
18 - 53 years old.
GOALS
01. Validate concept & design decisions.
02. Measure task completion.
03. Discover potential usability issues.
04. Evaluate effectiveness of comparison feature.
OBJECTIVES
Objectives:
Pass/Fail:
Measurable Results:
Evaluate if joining an event via For You Page is evident to users
6/6
Participants click "Join Event" with no confusion on where the action will take them
Evaluate if submitting a form to add event to calendar is clear and intuitive.
5/6
Participants fill out the form without any miss-clicks, and feel that the entries are sufficient.
Evaluate if creating a new event and navigating the calendar is easy to locate.
3/6
Participants can easily make a new event on the calendar and edit the calendar with any miss-clicks.
Iterations
01. Calendar Screen: Unclear Date Setup
02. Calendar Screen: Unclear Date Setup
Design and Branding
CoFit's branding captures the fun and playful energy of exercise, fitness, and the outdoors while maintaining a refined aesthetic. The design features a mature color palette, with a vibrant orange as the primary accent color, standing out against a muted sky blue for a balanced and dynamic visual identity.Building on the foundational elements of the brand, including the color palette, typography, and overall visual identity, we developed a comprehensive UX design system to ensure consistency and scalability across all high-fidelity prototypes.
User Testing
Conducting The Tests
After developing a Hi fidelity prototype in sigma, I conducted usability testing on two key flows. 1) Joining an Existing Event, 2)Creating A New Event. I tested three variables 1)Task Completion, 2) Time to Complete Task, 3)Emotions and Thoughts.
5
Partisipants
3
Variables
2
Flows
Test Results
Flow 1: Joining an Existing Event
Completion Rate: 100%
Average time: 98.4 seconds
General Emotions/Frustrations: Relatively easy, some hesitation
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Flow 2: Creating an Event
Completion Rate: 100%
Average time: 96.2 seconds.
General Emotions/Frustrations: Some Confusion on Task, Hesitation on Calendar
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Next Steps: Revision
After conducting the usability tests, it is necessary to review all our insights and determine which solutions are imperative for the MVP version of the mobile website. This graph helped organize the findings based on their importance and the difficulty of implementation.
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Next Steps:
To address the most critical issues first, the following changes are prioritized:
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Differentiate Designs:
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Clearly distinguish the workflows for creating a new event and joining an existing event.
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Minor Design Fixes:
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Update the join button design for clarity.
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Remove unnecessary fields to streamline the process.
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Add Notification Cards:
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Integrate notification cards into the Design System to enhance user feedback during the event creation process.
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Reflection and Key Insights
Through usability testing, I refined Cofit’s navigation and improved the clarity of workout recommendations. One key learning was the importance of predictability in the user flow, which led me to simplify certain interactions. If given more time, I would further refine the onboarding experience and explore integrations with wearable fitness devices to enhance personalization. Moving forward, I aim to continue improving Cofit based on real-world feedback and exploring potential development opportunities.
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.
123-456-7890