Goals: The goals for this project is to design an application that will help personal trainers and their clients to get the best workout available, hopefully to get the client to want to come back to the gym and become serious about their routine.
Designing a system to solve users that are unmotivated to attend the gym alone and need more encouragement to achieve their goals.
Research Summaries
Content Analysis / Existing System
Describe the current system
There is so much text with the only hierarchy of organization being the headings of each workout.
The youtube videos open up in a new window where it would make most sense being embedded into the application.
Identify pain points/potential for failure
The client working out could easily lose their place and be confused if they were on section A or B since they all look so similar which could lead to the client closing the application and giving up.
The user has to scroll between the actual workout to the bottom to click on the video they want to see.
Even after this, the user could possibly click on the wrong link and not realize it since some of the exercises are so similar in name. This could lead to the user doing the incorrect exercise.
User can get distracted on youtube with other videos in the sidebar just waiting to be clicked on.
There would be a lot of scrolling around on the page to try and get to the correct day or the videos at the bottom and perhaps an accidental click to something that was not intentional.
Who wants to even use a chart or PDF these days? Sparkling well designed apps are more user friendly.
Cognitive Mapping
Identify a process that you mapped / performed
Mapping the process of using the existing system
Summarize findings / issues
There is a lot of repeated steps for the user - constantly returning to the email to click on the pdf and moving around on the screen to read the workout for the day.
Another pain point is that the user has to watch the videos in another window on youtube, which could easily lose the user.]
With moving from the PDF to a new browser tab, the user could lose their place in the workout - not remembering what set they were on.
Another problem is that if the user is reporting this information back to their trainer and it’s just the user working out - the number within their reps could be easily forgotten while working out.
Fly on the Wall Observation
Summarize the experience of navigating the gym space
Navigating the gyms space is difficult when there are more people in the gym.
At first, some new gym members may seem uncomfortable with how to use the equipment and are looking around to see how others use it since the pictures on the equipment isn’t always represented the best.
Identify any friction or pain points
Having to constantly pause your workout to look at the next exercise you are doing or to look at how to perform the exercise. This impacts the overall performance of your workout as you shouldn’t stop working out suddenly and then continue. By doing so, we could easily lose the user.
Any key findings that may assist in defining a problem
An example is a group of us went to the RIT gym to observe others and while we were working out getting instructions on how to better our form from our friend, a girl saw us working out as a group and came up to ask if she could join us. She worked out with us for the remainder of our workout.
A lot of people at they gym are either with a buddy or a group of friends and wearing headphones while they exercise. Perhaps, users like to know they are not alone in the workout process, a form of community.
Interviews
Interview Questions
How old are you?
When did you start working out?
What were your original intentions/goals when you started working out?
Are you an organized person?
Do you keep track of your exercises?
If so, how?
What kind of exercise do you perform?
How many times a week do you workout?
How long have you been leading an active lifestyle?
Do you use any apps on your phone to help track your workout progress?
If so, what is the name of the app?
What do you like or dislike about the app?
Is there anything that could make the app better?
Marie Fabozzi
Task 1: Identifying Problems/Beginning Research
Research Summaries