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Challenge.
How might we motivate people do be more active?
Skills.
Interaction Design, User Research, Visual Design
Solution.
Exercise your inner artist. Walking Art incentivizes people to exercise by tracing their path as they walk so they can make art out of their walks.
My role.
This was an independent project wherein I worked as a Product Designer. I conducted user research and tests and developed the visual design of the app.
- Problem Statement -
With modern lifestyles becoming more and more sedentary the necessity of regular exercise increases. However, it is difficult to find the right motivation to get out and exercise. While fitness apps exist they often present data such as number of steps and miles in a direct and technical way which tends to be boring and off-putting. Moreover, beyond that they don't provide much incentive to exercise.
I began conducting research to find out how I can motivate people to be more active.
- Research Insights -
I Interviewed 10 people of all ages and genders to understand their pain-points and needs.
Pain-points:
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Not exercising causes demotivation which makes it harder to exercise.
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Gym memberships are expensive and working out at home is a task.
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Working out alone is boring and finding someone to exercise with you is difficult.
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Sticking to an exercise routine with work is difficult.
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Intense exercise feels more draining than rejuvenating.
Needs:
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A way to exercise socially with company or in a friendly competition.
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Exercise that doesn't feel like an intense and stressful task.
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An exercise routine they can follow at their own pace.
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A fun and engaging way to exercise
- User Personas -
Based on the interviews I complied two user personas for my app:
- Solutions -
01
A fun and creative way to get people up and walking. Choose or draw your own outline and compare your walking path to the original artwork.
02
Walk at your own pace. Pause and continue the journey at any point. Users decide the scale of their path and therefore decide how much they wish to walk. In this way exercise becomes a relaxing activity.
03
Follow your friends to see their paths and how much they've walked. Like and comment on their posts. Exercising alone can also be a social activity.
- Business Goals -
Quantitative:
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Increased rate of new users signing up (product as an incentive)
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Increased number of walks recorded on the app (maintaining engagement)
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Increased rate of total miles walked by each user (motivation provided by the app)
Qualitative:
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Retention- keeping exercise fun and enjoyable for users.
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More people being active enjoying the outdoors
- Visual design -
Since a big part of exercise is mental rejuvenation I chose a calming and serene aesthetic for the app.
- High Fidelity Design -
- Low fi Wireframes -
- Reflection & future steps -
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User testing the path tracking mechanism: Since this is a new concept I was unable to prototype the mechanics of mapping a path. I am curious about the scaling aspect of the path. The idea is that a user can create the same art if he chooses to walk 2 miles or 20. But how sensitive can the path tracking be to small distances? If a user were to walk within a small area would the path account for it?
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Grid layouts and location preferences: Cities with grid layouts would limit the creative scope for each artwork? Can the app suggest artworks based on the location layout.
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Global explore tab/ algorithm based on popularity: It would be interesting to see not just the paths of people you follow but also of other users with high engagement.