Role
Product Designer
Duration
1 month
Tools
Figma
Team
Me, myself, and I
Company
Problem
Objective
Solution
Design Process
1 - Discover
Survey
User interviews
Competitive analysis
2 - Define
Affinity mapping
3 - Develop
Brainstorming
Evaluate
4 - Deliver
User flows
Style guide
Testing & iteration
Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Outcome
Learnings
Future iterations
WeFit is a well-established health-tracking app that aims to promote a healthy lifestyle with family and friends.
Despite a high user acquisition rate, user engagement declines three weeks of usage. Users lack the opportunity to communicate their health and fitness goals, achievements, and progress to their family and friends
To address the issue, the goal was to seamlessly integrate a messaging feature within the app to enhance engagement and repeat usage.
To create an integrated messaging experience that went beyond simple communication, incorporating coordination scheduling and challenges within the messaging function.
A screener survey was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the users and their needs. Within a week, there were 42 responses.
Survey results revealed that the messaging feature alone was not a significant motivator for users to engage with the app and did not differentiate it from other fitness apps.
This finding swiftly invalidated the initial objective and highlighted the need to explore alternative and creative ways to integrate a simple messaging function.
After discovering that the messaging feature lacked significant motivational impact, I proceeded to conduct user interviews with relevant candidates to delve deeper into their true motivations for sustained engagement with a fitness app.
This approach aimed to gain valuable insights that would inform the app’s design. The results are summarized below:
Participants emphasized their interest in connecting with friends and workout buddies, highlighting the importance of group messaging, and the ability to share progress and achievements.
Users found motivation in comparing workout stats to gauge their performance against others, engage in friendly competition, have support, encouragement, and accountability from others.
Interviewees emphasized the desire of scheduling and coordinating fitness activities with friends and family.
I conducted a comprehensive competitive analysis to understand the strengths and weaknesses of other fitness apps in the market. After reviewing several fitness apps, I found Nike Run Club, Strava, and Fitbit to be the most comparable to WeFit in terms of their target audience and core offerings. These apps are popular among fitness enthusiasts and have high app store rankings, indicating their effectiveness and user satisfaction.
Using affinity mapping, several themes emerged when I organized the survey data, and user interview data to identify user needs, pain points, and opportunities.
During the ideation phase, I focused on meeting the main objective of integrating a messaging feature while brainstorming ideas that aligned with themes uncovered from affinity mapping.
Leveraging research insights, I identified two key features - scheduling and challenges - to differentiate WeFit from competitors and meet users' unique needs.
Challenges offer achievement, friendly competition, and goal-setting opportunities, fostering a supportive and interactive environment to keep users committed to their fitness journey.
The scheduling feature facilitates seamless planning and organizing of workouts with friends and family, promoting regular interactions and enjoyable fitness sessions.
User flow 1: Share schedule
User flow 2: Join a challenge and invite friends
I selected a color palette that aligns with WeFit’s core values of inclusiveness, community, and promoting a healthy lifestyle among family and friends.
The primary color used is a vibrant shade of turquoise. This color represents freshness, energy, and positivity, which resonates with the target users (ie. Millenials) that embrace a healthly and active lifestyle.
The chosen font brings a sense of friendliness and approachability to the app’s interface, reinforcing the idea of a supportive and community-driven platform.
The circular logo represents unity, wholeness, and inclusion, which is a community that WeFit strives to create.
The design choices aim to create a visually appealing and user-friendly platform where users can engage with one another and foster a sense of motivation and support in their fitness journeys.
Users often overlooked the message icon when tasked with messaging their friends and family. They were distracted by the “friends” tab and assumed it was the messaging pathway. This can be attributed to users’ F-pattern scanning behavior. To alleviate this confusion, the “friends” tab was removed.
Users expressed uncertainty when viewing their friends and family’s schedules. They wanted to know whether a time slot conflicted with their own schedule. To address this, a green circle was used to indicate the user’s own availability. This fix improved scheduling efficiency and prevented conflicts.
Users wanted to have a difficulty indicator before selecting a challenge and thought the colors were too monotonous. To address this, badges with varied shapes and star-level ratings were introduced. The color scheme remains unchanged to preserve color consistency.
Users felt excluded from choosing a location when coordinating with another person’s schedule. They desired the ability to suggest alternatives. To address this, a button for suggesting a different location was implemented to provide users with a sense of empowerment and flexibility.
By integrating coordination scheduling and challenges within the messaging function, user engagement and retention have doubled. Users experienced a stronger connection with friends and family, resulting in increased accountability and motivation in their fitness journey.
In the early stages of research, it became clear that solely incorporating a simple messaging feature would not effectively motivate users to stay engaged, given the abundance of messaging apps available. To address this, a multifaceted approach was adopted, integrating creative ideas such as scheduling and challenges. This approach resulted in a more engaging and immersive user experience.
I found that the feature discovery prompt was exceptionally successful in capturing users' attention and encouraging them to explore and engage with new features they might not have been familiar with or noticed previously.
To incorporate a streaks counter feature to make users more committed to their fitness goals as they strive to maintain their streaks. This gamification feature would foster long-term use, ultimately leading to further increase in engagement and retention rates.
To incorporate a recurring event feature for scheduling to accommodate to individuals with consistent workout routines. This would enhance convenience and streamline the scheduling process.