UX/UI Case Study: Hive Fitness

Project Overview

Goal

Product

Project

My Role

The Challenge

How the messaging feature will integrate within the app and its features is the main topic of discussion and how it will reflect the goal to increase repeat usage and sustain engagement is the solution. We cannot just simply add a messaging feature, that is not enough.

User Research- Understanding the User

Secondary Research

The following was distilled from researching the existing apps and none contained all of these points in one app :

Creating a Community
By creating and cultivating a community with communication, I found that people who participate in challenges and workouts with friends are more likely to complete the challenge, maintain their fitness goals, and encourage others to join.

Gamifying the Experience
Maintaining engagement is encouraged by gamification. Earning achievement awards by completing workouts/ challenges and making the leader board fosters friendly competition.

Visualize Progress
Being able to see and track your progress has a huge effect on people’s motivation and engagement. It’s important for people to visualize their progress in order to take actionable steps to improve.

With all this in mind, I thought about how to create a messaging feature that would increase engagement and repeat usage.

Competitive Analysis

Mapping — Synthesizing Research

In order to see what solutions would drive engagement and repeat usage, I organized my insights with an affinity map. I also wanted to see if I could find what type of incentives and encouragement would motivate users. After organizing my insights into different categories, I determined what ideas would be most beneficial to help me achieve my goal with this app. Some things that were found are:

  • Engagement: Most people stated that tracking apps can be boring and wished there was engagement other than charts and data to look at. Challenges/Leaderboards increase motivation.
  • Community: A like minded community is ideal for support, motivation, and encouragement.
  • Incentivizing: Rewarded for goals and achievements can drive motivation.
  • Accountability: Data tracking and social aspects to the app can increase accountability, participation, positive competition, and the above mentioned. Social support/community that would author encouragement and increase intention.

Having workout buddies significantly strengthens a bond because you’re both working towards the same life goals together. While competing with myself? What reward do I gain from the app? I love to compare cycling routes with others because it motivates me to push harder.

Sketches — Ideation

Low-Fidelity Sketches

User Flows — Navigating the App

User Workflows

  1. How might we share progress with a friend?
  2. How might we respond to an unread message?
  3. How might we like and comment on a friend’s post?
  4. How might we check out a friend’s profile and send them a message?
  5. How might we join a cycle challenge and share that as a post?
  6. How might we check our achievements?

Wireframes — Low and High Fidelity

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

  1. Do the messaging features feel intuitive to use and familiar?
  2. Does the ability to share/post progress, achievements, workouts, and challenges feel intuitive to use and familiar?
  3. Does the proposed color scheme, button placement, screen flow, and icons feel intuitive to use and work in harmony?

I then utilized the testing results and feedback of how well users were able to complete each task given to them to create my hi-fidelity wireframes. I worked out the details of the screens, made UI components more readable, and reiterated on some of the user flow tasks that people had issues with completing. A second round of testing was then done to ensure that there weren’t any major usability issues.

Usability Testing — Iterating

Testing

Features — Visual Design

Branding

My Solutions

Creating a Community

Gamifying the Experience

Visualize Progress

Key Takeaway

Next Steps

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Visual Design, Installation Design, UI / UX Design

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