Type of project: Personal project following the Design thinking process
Process overview: Semi-structured interviews, Affinity mapping, Empathy mapping, POV formulation, How Might We, Competitor analysis, Braindumping, SCAMPER, Paper prototyping, User testing, Digital Wireframing, Branding&UI-Design.
Tools used: Figma, Google Docs, (good old) Post-it notes & Paper and pen.
Shifting the focus from performance and weight loss to mental well-being when exercising
This case study illustrates how the design thinking process was applied to identify problems and user needs within the user group of busy women striving to incorporate more exercise into their lives, and the design of a user-centered solution to address these challenges. Through empathetic research, I identified the issues of experiencing exercise pressure regarding performance, weight loss, and appearance in most exercise routines/programs, being in the way of a balanced exercise routine that they felt good about. Additionally, I recognized the desire to move the body to feel good mentally and physically. This led to the development of a solution to shift the focus from traditional exercise focuses and norms to the positive mental health benefits associated with any form of movement, making it effortless and enjoyable to move.
1. Empathizing with the users through interviews
The first step was to put ourselves into the user's shoes, by empathizing with their lives, problems, and motivations. This was done through 5 semi-structured user interviews. I wanted to find out about the user's attitudes and motivations for exercising and their daily lives and routines in connection to exercise.
The sampling for the interview respondents were young women who for some reason would like to exercise more than they currently do. The main themes of the interviews were, why they want to exercise, the reasons for not exercising more is, what happens when they do exercise, and what prevents them from exercising.
2. Defining the problem to focus on
The goal of the define phase is to analyze and synthesize previous findings from the empathize stage, to develop a comprehensive understanding of users and the context, guiding the creation of a problem statement framing the design challenge.
Affinity Diagramming
Affinity diagramming was used to organize and sort the large set of data into groups in a meaningful way, forming main themes and enabling insights into the users, their motivations, and their problems. It's a usable foundation for the design process and informs the creation of empathy maps that would further synthesize the insights and help create a problem statement. The process involved writing data on pieces of post-its, clustering them together, and forming groups and subgroups, that then were named and connected.
Insights from Affinity diagramming summarized:
After completing the affinity diagramming, the main insights and groups were summarized into a doc to provide an overview in a practical format.
Some of the main obstacles to exercise are:
● Tiredness and lack of motivation after a long day or in the morning
● Pressure on weight and performance in exercise programs and routines
● Setting too high goals which creates pressure and makes it hard to follow through
● Prioritizing other activities
● Preconceived opinions on certain forms of exercise such as the belief that needing to train for at least 30 minutes for it to be worth it
The attitude for wanting to exercising more:
● The prominent theme of feeling good mentally and strong physically after exercising, although they still would think seeing physical results is a plus.
Empathy Mapping
Empathy mapping was then done to better understand the users from the viewpoint of what the user says, does, thinks, feels, and from that pinpoint their needs. Formulating the needs helps with creating an actionable and user-centered problem statement.
After reviewing the themes from the affinity mapping, I wrote down quotes and keywords in the quadrants of "says, does thinks feels". I then analyzed the data by clustering similar pieces of data together and naming them.
Formulating needs
Finally, I identified user needs from the quadrants, by marking the verbs (activities and desires), user traits, and inconsistencies/contradictions. The one marked in green were the ones I felt fit together and that I decided to focus on. Note: Now when reflecting back, the needs identification could have been done straight after the affinity diagramming analysis to save time.
● Want to exercise without feeling pressured to excel or lose weight, and associate positive feelings with exercise
● Achieve exercise balance.
● Exercise regularly
● Exercise to feel energized, happy, mentally and physically well
● Feel strong
● Exercise with friends.
● Exercise time-efficiently.
● Schedule in exercise.
● Feel motivated to exercise more often.
● Learn more about different forms of exercise.
● They want the exercise to be effective
Defining problem statement to crystalize needs
First, I broke it down with "user, need, insight", which I then put together and summarized into an actionable problem statement. This format is meant to serve as the user's "point of view" on the problem.
User: A young, busy woman who wants to exercise more
Need: Obtain a balanced exercise routine that does not focus on weight loss, appearance or performance.
Insight: The user has experienced pressure related to performance or weight loss in connection with exercise and fitness programs, which makes her unmotivated. This, along with overly ambitious goals, creates pressure and makes it difficult for her to sustain exercise in the long term. She wants to exercise because it's fun, to feel strong, and to optimize her mental and physical well-being rather than lose weight.
Need: Obtain a balanced exercise routine that does not focus on weight loss, appearance or performance.
Insight: The user has experienced pressure related to performance or weight loss in connection with exercise and fitness programs, which makes her unmotivated. This, along with overly ambitious goals, creates pressure and makes it difficult for her to sustain exercise in the long term. She wants to exercise because it's fun, to feel strong, and to optimize her mental and physical well-being rather than lose weight.
Problem statement/POV
“A young, busy woman who wants to exercise more often needs to obtain a balanced and regular exercise routine that does not focus on weight loss, appearance or performance, because she wants the mental and physical health benefits of regular exercise, but she easily becomes unmotivated when the focus is on weight loss, apperance and performance."
Make POV actionable through "How Might We" Questions
How might we question were formed as a transition phase Before starting to come up with ideas that could potentially solve the problem. They open up and reframe the problem statement to inspire generating a wide range of solutions. Out of the 7 brainstormed HMW questions, I chose 2 main questions to focus on for the ideation, marked in green.
● HMW design a solution that motivates young women to exercise for mental and physical health benefits?
● HMW motivate a young woman to work out to feel good, have fun be happy and energized?
● HMW we support a young woman to keep up with their exercise routine long term?
● HMW shift the focus from performance, comparison, and weight to mental well-being when helping a busy woman to exercise more often?
● HMW help a young woman to achieve a good balance between exercise and other everyday life activities?
● HMW help a young busy woman optimize her mental health with balanced and regular exercise?
● HMW help young women overcome false assumptions about exercising?
3. Ideate for solutions
Competitor analysis
A competitor analysis was done to research the market on categories that address the chosen problem statement. In this stage desk research was done on the overall subject and the research done on the connection between mental health and exercise. This stage was done both before, during, and after ideating for solutions.
The covered app categories were:
● The overall fitness app market, the most popular and the new “trendy” ones
● Fitness apps that focus on mental wellbeing and self-care
● Fitness apps for women
● Fitness apps that focus on habit creation
● Fitness apps that focus on low-pressure exercise
● Mindfulness apps/mental health apps
● Fitness apps that focus on mental wellbeing and self-care
● Fitness apps for women
● Fitness apps that focus on habit creation
● Fitness apps that focus on low-pressure exercise
● Mindfulness apps/mental health apps
What I found out from the competitor analysis:
● Although there were fitness apps that marketed themselves as more holistic and for "self-love", but still focused on weight loss and body image indirectly.
● Although there were apps on the market focusing on mental and physical health benefits, they mainly focused on yoga or pilates.
● I noticed a trend of short, manageable everyday workout fitness apps, such as "7-minute workout", on the top list.
● Although there were apps on the market focusing on mental and physical health benefits, they mainly focused on yoga or pilates.
● I noticed a trend of short, manageable everyday workout fitness apps, such as "7-minute workout", on the top list.
I created a list and described them shortly, and included the main ones that have good UI flows in a prototyping tool, to familiarize myself with the mental model of fitness apps and design patterns for health apps.
Braindumping & SCAMPER
The focus of this stage was to come up with as many ideas as possible, to explore different ways of solving the problem before sticking to one solution, which the method of braindumping was useful for. The ideation method SCAMPER was used in connection to the competitor analysis, to take an existing product and innovate on it to come up with something different.
After exploring some of the ideas and sketching them out, I chose one of them based on evaluating them against the user needs and problem statement as well as assessing their feasability.
The chosen idea & design hypothesis
After exploring some ideas while simultaneously doing the competitor analysis, the inital design hypothesis was formed with the main functionality the app would provide to solve their problems, meet their needs, and provide value:
● Taylored and Balanced Movement Routine: Uses user input during sign-up to craft a personalized exercise routine aligned with their selected feel-good movement goals such as focus, energy, mood, and stress reduction. Delivers realistic recommendations for weekly exercise levels tailored to each user's fitness level, addressing the need for a balanced and achievable exercise routine.
● Emphasises that all movement comes with benefits: Encourages users to start small and emphasizes that every movement counts. Focuses on achievable movement videos rather than prioritizing longer ones. Addresses the need to exercise efficiently, and the assumption that only 30 min is worth it.
● Habitual yet flexible schedule on the day and time they decided on. The user moves on the decided day and time she decided on. The user chooses new videos every week from recommended options aligning with their needs and interests.
● Diverse and Fun Movement Library: Provides a variety of fun and feel-good workout videos, categorized with filters for music style, time, and coach diversity. This addresses the want for enjoyable workouts and the exercise goal to feel good, as users are dissatisfied with movement focused solely on fitness or weight loss.
● Science-based Knowledge Hub: Educates users on the mental health benefits of movement, shifting focus towards feeling good rather than achieving specific body types. This addresses the want to get the mental and physical health benefits from exercise and combat feelings of being unmotivated.
● Insightful Wellness Tracking: Empowers users to track progress and stay motivated by providing insights on the connection between movements and their well-being. It addresses the need of wanting to get the mental and physical health benefits from exercise
● Personalized Reminders: Delivers motivating reminders of the positive effects of movement, inspiring users to engage in workouts despite the pain point of prioritizing other activities.
Low fidelity Prototyping
Flow for setting up movement routine during signup
Main screens & functions
Evaluating through user testing
The paper prototypes were evaluated through user testing with 4 users from the target group. The feedback was summarized with changes for the next iteration.
● In screen 4 of the setting up routine flow, users felt uncertain about the recommended routine without knowing the duration of workouts. Add the duration of workouts to the recommendation statement for clarity.
● Users found the option to "choose the time that suits your schedule" limiting. Allow users to select the day for their workout first, then provide the option to choose the time later in the app for more flexibility.
● Options like "strict" or "nice" for workout style were confusing. Remove these options as they don't align with the app's focus on fun and non-demanding exercise.
● Users found it demanding to pick their own videos each week. Change the app to recommend videos for the workout routine, providing a surprise element that users appreciated.
● Narrow down the options for workout locations (gym or outside running) to prioritize features based on MVP (Minimum Viable Product) criteria.
● Users expressed reluctance to report mood every day and preferred a quick and easy method. Remove the "Mood for the day" insight and the option to reflect with text. Instead, provide a slider-based insights report before and after videos for quick and easy feedback. Allow users to report other times if they wish, but streamline the process to reduce overwhelm.
● Users felt the movement library should be separated from the knowledge hub. Separate these sections to improve navigation and organization within the app.
● Remove the separation of "For your routine & all videos" in the movement library. Include recommended videos for the routine at the top and offer the option to explore all videos further down or in a mixed format for a smoother user experience.
New design hypothesis & digital wireframing
New design hypothesis
● Customized movement routine when signing up based on feel-good movement goals such as “focus, energy, mood, stress reduction”, and recommending number of days and minutes of movement each week.
- Provides a customized and achievable movement schedule every week based on movement time and day recommendations, users' personal needs, and health goals, with videos based on interests and goals.
- Emphasizes that all movement counts, encouraging to start small, to address the user's assumptions of having to move 30 minutes for it to be worth it.
- Provides a customized and achievable movement schedule every week based on movement time and day recommendations, users' personal needs, and health goals, with videos based on interests and goals.
- Emphasizes that all movement counts, encouraging to start small, to address the user's assumptions of having to move 30 minutes for it to be worth it.
● Movement library provides videos from various categories that are focused on having fun and feeling good. The user can choose from filters regarding music style, time, coach, and more. The workout coaches have different body types and nationalities, showing “real” people. Users can explore the movement library with recommendations based on goals and previous videos/interests (AI) to add to routine or explore the full library by applying filters.
● Knowledge hub educates the user about the connection between movement and good mental health, and all the positive health benefits that movement gives for your focus levels, energy levels, hormones, stress levels, and more, and gives science-based explanations. Shifting the focus to exercising to feel good in yourself rather than achieve a specific body type, based on the users' facilitators and barriers for motivation and goals for exercising.
● Provides Insights on the connection between users' movements and how they are feeling, (in connection to their wellness goals such as), so that the user can see the wellness benefits of their movements and get motivated to continue. Self-reported metrics about wellness parameters such as “mood”, “energy”, and “focus” (based on movement goals) before and after videos, or any time user wants. Users can check in at other times as well.
● Personalised and motivating reminders of how good movements make them feel that motivates the user to start the workout.
● Compatible with smart tv so that users can have an enjoyable workout experience at home without relying on phone.
Branding and UI Suggestion
Way forward, limitations and learnings
To continue this case there would be more iterations on the design, meaning the wireframes would be tested and refined. The full task flow would also be constructed to map out all journeys.
The focus for this case was discovering problems through design thinking and innovation, leading to other aspects being less emphasized such as other stakeholders than the end user, and the business model needed for launch.
A learning from the process was that empathy mapping was not needed to form the problem statement since I already did enough analysis and mapping of pain points and needs through affinity diagramming, which I will take with me for future projects.
Overall I believe the design thinking process is an incredibly powerful tool for problem investigation, finding the right focus, and for ideation. However, for the design and development phase, more agile processes with a focus on fast iterations would be suitable.
