Activate your fit mode with Activelyy
ACTIVELYY is a mobile fitness app that allows users to participate in various video group activities, creating competition and motivation among friends and family to facilitate healthy behavior changes.
Summary
Hours and hours of creativity and brainstorming. A good amount of healthy stress over the first project created on my own. Hundreds of communicative and constructive emails sent between mentor and myself…and overall an inspiring way to begin the new imaginative journey.
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My Role
User Research, User Interviews, Wireframing, User Flows, Visual Design, Interaction Design, Testing
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Deliverables
Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Affinity Diagram, Personas, Empathy Map, User Stories, User Flow, Wireframes, High Fidelity Prototypes, User Testing.
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Tools
Pen and Paper, Sketch, Figma, InVision, Adobe illustrator, Miro
Overview
You are sitting home alone with only your cat by your side. It is the middle of the pandemic. The reality of the distressing effects of the lockdown started to negatively impact your life on so many levels. When you turn on the news the increasing numbers of coronavirus cases drastically change your mood. You are being overwhelmed by the fact that you cannot even recall the last time you physically interacted with your family and friends.
All the fun moments, laughs and giggles, positive energy are now long gone. You entered the stage of physical, emotional and social stagnation. One day a friend of yours hears about ACTIVELYY app, where you can virtually help yourself feel better by participating in fitness group activities with your family and friends with just a smartphone. ACTIVELYYY gives you the ability to see each other, communicate and even make jokes. All that while performing exercise. Why not to bring these laughs and giggles back to life?
Inspiration
Looking at the current reality that we live in, observing so many disconnected individuals, who suffer alone self-isolating and social distancing, sometimes losing hope and willingness to perform everyday tasks, the idea of creating something fun and playful came to my immediate attention.
We all know that physical activity can boost your mood and help to reduce stress; combining this fact with the idea of working out together and motivating each other gave birth to ACTIVELYY.
I started my brainstorming slowly with multiple ideas that were flowing the rivers of my mind:
Eventually focused my attention on what was born:
Problem
People are social beings and when they work together towards a common goal, they perform better; they strengthen their commitment and motivation to a positive outcome. So:
exercise + group belonging => happiness and health.
Solution
Do not worry! ACTIVELYY got your back, you do not need to feel lost, we put all the missing pieces together. Thanks to Video Group Activities feature you can now connect with whoever you are missing and start this journey of well-being together. Whether you are a fitness fanatic, simple amateur looking for some guidance, the main idea of this feature is to inspire and support each other.
Who is Activelyy for?
Why Video Group Activities?
Just about anyone, who wishes to stay connected, compete and take care of themselves in a healthy way.
Because it is… fun… and we all need that little extra laugh these days.
Because it gives you… structure… and we all perform better in an organized way.
Because it brings… variety… and we all like having choices.
But most importantly because it creates a sense of belonging, which we all need so desperately these days… So, no matter where you are on your journey, healthy competition with family and friends provides a wonderful way to inspire, motivate and push harder.
Design Process
I carefully walked through all the stages of the design process, paying close attention to each of them individually.
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Define
Brainstorming, Defining the Problem, Project Timeline
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Research
User Interviews, Affinity Diagram, Competitive Analysis, Personas, Empathy Map
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Design, Prototype
User Story and Flow, Wireframes, Mid-Fidelity Prototypes, Visual Design, High-Fidelity Prototypes
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Evaluate
Expert Evaluation, Usability Testing, Feedback Review
Research Methods
Below are the research methods that I found the most essential and helpful throughout my journey.
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Competitive Analysis
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User Interviews
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Empathy Map
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Personas
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User Stories and Flows
Competitive Analysis
I began my journey by doing some research to see what is currently out there on the market. I selected three very compatible and alternative sources that my project would compete with and compiled them into the Competitive Analysis:
As a result of this research all three of the listed applications performed very well:
· Fitbit allows users to connect with family and friends mainly considering the number of steps, but it has plenty of challenges that will motivate those participating to get fit.
· Strava is mainly targeting running fanatics; users connect with friends and share activities, compete in challenges against each other making everyone accountable.
· Nike Run Club similar to Strava is designed to focus on users, whose passion is running. It allows to share the completion of runs; in-app camera lets users share photos
There is a very high user satisfaction level in perception and use of all of them; however, none of the apps have video group activities feature.
After many approaches to the problem and even more sleepless nights and dark chocolate bars, I was ready to interview people and jump into creating my personas.
Provisional Personas
With the information gathered from market research, I started to generate provisional personas using the knowledge I gained to represent a certain type of user that is a potential audience of Activelyy.
User Interview Process
To see if the problem is significant enough for me to take action, I decided to interview a small group of 6 participants. The demographic ranged from ages 38-72 and respondents were of various gender identifications.
Key Takeaways:
Questions Asked:
Affinity Diagram
To better organize and make sense of gathered information I tried to group them into some categories, later though the ideas got modified.
Empathy Map
Thanks to users’ insightful responses I was able to create a visual Empathy Map to even better picture their feelings and thoughts:
Persona
After gathering enough knowledge about the audience, their behaviors, needs and motivations, I then created a persona to represent key audience segments and better address the needs.
This is Jonathan, a divorce male residing in Denver, who is both lonely and ready for the changes:
Participants in action…
To get a better feel of how participants perform their exercises while at home in their own, natural, setting, some of them willingly shared photos:
Something is missing up there, isn’t it? Would not it be cheerier and more fun for them to actually look at each other instead of let’s say: TV screens while exercising?
User Stories
Keeping in mind all gathered information and focusing on the personas, I was able to prioritize the user stories and emphasize the main feature I was planning to concentrate on.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
I am curious how can I engage my kids in this app?
I want to learn more about the application
I want to set up my daily and weekly goals
I want to participate in Video Group Activities
I want to track my progress and compare with others
I want to join like-minded community
I want to receive tips and advices
I want to hear motivational words from friends and family
I want to see others photos of their progress
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Loretta, 69
“As a retiree, who lives alone, I would love to see a feature that connects me to family members and/-or friends, who check on my daily activity and fitness status, so I can feel more secure knowing that they monitor my behaviors and check if I am OK!”
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Albert, 44
“As a Father of 3 boys, I want to find fun, engaging ways of developing healthy fitness habits, so I can involve all our family members, especially growing children.”
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Eliza, 34
“As a team player both professionally and personally, I like group activities and healthy comparisons to others. I would like to be able to participate and compete with my friends and family in achieving goals together, so that we can motivate each other more”
User Flow:
Participation in Video Group Activities
First Ideas, Sketches and Wireframes
This gave me a well-defined insight to begin my sketching and wireframing journey. I also created some storyboards to have a better feel of the project.
Wireframes allowed me to gain a rough understanding of key screens as well as map out necessary features.
Challenges Conquered:
Challenge 1: Activities Icons
Response (left):
25% of the users thought it would be more fun to incorporate some enjoyable elements in the video group activities menu.
Solution (right):
Add fun icons to the activities/ circles to have a different and more interesting appearance.
Challenge 2: Visual Character
Response (left):
50% of the users thought it needs some “fresh” look and a more unique style.
Solution (right):
Change the visual character of the app, to make it more distinctive (including bottom navigation).
Challenge 3: Schedule Icon
Response (left):
25% of the users were expecting to add an activity based on the icon in the footer.
Solution (right):
Improve the visual of the schedule icon.
Visual Design and Character
Vibe:
“In a healthy body, a healthy spirit” as a Czech proverb says. My mission of this project was to remind everyone to be aware of not only physical but also mental well-being.
Lockdowns throughout the world have been associated with diminished emotional well-being for many people.
It is extremely rewarding to stay connected with loved ones, no matter how spread-out people are across the Globe.
Therefore; the idea of this unique way of connection through video group activities introduced some fun and engaging element for people of different ages. I tried to focus on the encouraging element of a game, knowing that everyone likes a game.
Whether you win or lose, you improve your fitness and mental health, and that’s always a win.
Colors:
I choose a dark blue gray-lavender palette and different tones of pink, blush, amaranth to complement each other. I believe lavender brings calm to body and mind but combined with some elements of red/-ish, pink/-ish shades exude enthusiasm, bringing out this energy and excitement.
Final Interactive Design
Reflection
Not Your Shoes
Empathy is the quality that we do not display often enough; therefore, we have difficulties understanding others. Throughout my research, I was able to take a closer look at others’ feelings, which helped me recognize their needs and behaviors. We cannot just assume that we all have the same situation and face the same challenges in life.
User is the Number One
Never forget that. We create and throw into life our ideas in order not to satisfy our wants but to accomplish something greater, to help others in meeting their needs in a better and more approachable way.
Believe Achieve
This project has taught me how to take a different perspective in life and that every situation depends on how you look at it. There is always a possibility in every difficulty, but you need to have the motivation to find a way to do it.