How might we increase gym attendance and engagement by being a social connection tool between gym members?

Problem

• Core Issue: People want gym partners to learn from and workout with, but struggle to find and engage with them.

• Specific Challenges:

  • New gym-goers struggle with consistency and achieving desired results.

  
  

  • Seasoned gym-goers have the knowledge and enthusiasm to help others but lack a way to offer their support with convenience.

Process

• Research Methods:

  • Social Media Analysis: Researched Twitter and Reddit threads to understand user needs and pain points in fitness.

  • User Interviews: Conducted multiple design sprints, interviewed gym-goers, and gathered feedback to achieve product-market fit.

  • User Journey Mapping: Mapped out user journeys and iterated designs based on feedback and anecdotes.

• Solution Experiments:

  • Created a mobile community platform for gym-goers to connect and find gym partners, built fully by a remote dev shop.

  • Prototyped a "Pay a Partner" marketplace for aspiring trainers to offer their services.

Iterations

• Lo-Fi Explorations: Created paper prototypes and user journey maps.

• Mid-Fi Explorations: Used mobile prototyping tools and Invision to create tappable wireframes.

• High-Fi Prototyping and Development : Collaborated remotely with a design and development team to produce the first release of the app.

Final Design

• High-Fi Prototype: Released the app to the App Store with a design focused on social connection and scheduling.

• Collaboration: Worked with hired developers and visual designers to bring the app to life, though there were challenges with backend development.

Insights

• Privacy Concerns: Most notably among women, there were significant concerns about privacy and safety, indicating a need for more robust security measures.

• User Feedback: 65% of users expressed interest in the concept, but privacy issues led to a 30% drop in active users after the first interaction.

• Invalidated Concept: Despite the initial interest, the concept of a social scheduling platform for gym-goers was invalidated due to unresolved privacy and safety concerns, requiring a pivot or significant redesign.

Test Findings

Outcomes

• Released to the app store, though the backend development was not well executed by inexperienced planning & execution

• Though the idea is great in theory , most people (especially women) expressed concern over privacy issues which shows this environment to be potentially unsafe