Overview

Every year, over 40% of individuals make New Year’s resolutions related to fitness. And at the end of the year, less than 10% of individuals report reaching their fitness goals (as well as their other resolutions).

There are many reasons for this. Whether it is a lack of time, resources, or passion, it can be hard to push yourself to completely change your physical lifestyle in one year. Not to mention that going to the gym can be intimidating, daunting, and sometimes even boring.

But, what if you didn’t have to do it all alone?

Grow Together

Research

I sent 100 random participants a survey using Google Forms so I could understand and empathize with different types of gym-goers. I have selected some key questions and responses that have impacted my design decisions.

A fitness application that connects like-minded first time and avid gym goers to each other in order to reach their fitness goals, build confidence, and to track their progress with partners.

”Overwhelmed”, “anxious”, and “intimidating” were a few of the common adjectives used to describe the feeling of walking into the gym for the first time alone. Some reported feeling not as anxious due to having prior experience with athletics or going to the gym with a friend.

How did you feel the first time you entered a gym?
(Please answer with a few sentences)

67.6% of survey responders reported feeling gym anxiety. 29.6% do not, and 1.4% work out at home.

Many survey responders reported feeling that their gym experience is different with a partner. Mostly positive due to partners being a source of motivation and the addition of a fun, competitive, edge. Some do not like the experience because it can be distracting and detrimental to following a workout in a timely manner.

Have you ever experienced gym anxiety?

Do you feel like your experience is different with a partner?
Why or why not?

Competitive Analysis

The concept of creating an interface to find matches has already been done in the form of dating apps. The challenge would be to ensure that users are connecting for fitness-related purposes while utilizing the familiar user experience of swiping to find matches (without succumbing to Hick’s Law - which states that the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.

I decided to analyze the closest fitness accountability app I could find, a dating app, and a fitness app catered towards tracking progress and community.

Helf

Helf is an app that allows you to find the best health professional for your goals. It’s an app based in Arizona that allows you to sort and hire top personal trainers, yoga instructors, nutritionists, and more. You can specify where you would like to work out (virtually or in person) as well as purchase sessions on the app.

Tinder is a well-known dating and social networking app. It allows you to ‘swipe right’ to engage with potential matches, and ‘swipe left’ in order to skip them. There have been many apps before dedicated to the idea of meeting others, but Tinder became well-known because it ‘gamified’ the idea of dating and popularized online dating. The swipe format and profile customization aspect are still used today on other dating apps such as Bumble and Hinge.

Strava is a popular fitness app designed for tracking runs, hikes, yoga, and over 30 other sport types. It’s particularly used to track routes, but it also features the ability to build a support network, receive data insights, and join/create challenges.

Key Takeaways

• All of these apps allow for profile customization at the beginning of the flow (adding your interests, favorite activities, etc)

• Bright colors, additional whitespace

• Fixed navigation bar on the bottom of the page

• Helth allows you to search for trainers by category, which is a great organizational feature

• Tinder features photo verification, which is always needed if users may have safety concerns when meeting up with a person

• Familiar icon usage

Find an Accountability Partner

Search Fitr for ambitious partners based on goals, availability, and other common interests. Strike up a conversation, schedule a gym visit, and become fitness partners (and future friends).

Schedule workouts that will be guided based off of the areas you’d like to exercise with an easy to understand process.

Schedule Workouts

Stay motivated by tracking you and your partner’s progress with a personalized statistics section. View partners as sources of inspiration and community, rather than competition.

Solution