ATHLEET
Multiplayer Fitness App
Context
Athleet was a gamified, social fitness app I worked on with fellow designer Justin Ballard. Our vision was to gamify workouts to make them more fun through collaboration and competition so people can get invested in their health.
THE GOAL
To provide robust training guidance and progress tracking, while empowering Athleets to connect with one another to find training buddies and make new friends.
Problem
Role
Tools
Contributions
Beginners often lack a clear plan, and training alone is lonely demotivating, and potentially unsafe.
Co-Founder
UX/UI Designer
UX Researcher
Product Designer
Figma
Adobe CC
Xtensio
Google Slides
Visual Design
Branding
Interaction Design
Research
Design
Test
Refine
Design Process
52.9%
think having a rewards system to help keep them motivated
85.3%
workout at home, the gym, or both
96.8%
access fitness content through a mobile device
Research
We surveyed and interviewed 34 people in and out of the fitness community, from friends to personal trainers. Of the people we surveyed:
Problem
Lack of Motivation
Getting started
Training Alone
Expensive sub fees
Nutrition Support
Why?
Users report lack of motivation as biggest obstacle to working out
Beginners often feel lost and confused and train ineffectively.
Fitness tech rife with high-priced equipment & subscription fees.
Discouraging for beginners to work out alone.
Advanced users frustrated of no all-in-one training and nutrition tracker.
Solution
A customizable goal tracker
Clean UI with video tutorials and well-rounded programs.
Users can connect + complete group fitness challenges.
Free version with basic training & social functionality.
Modular nutrition tracking to make a “one-stop shop” for all fitness needs.
USER PAIN POINTS
A few more problems were identified with further analysis of the surveys.
We wanted a bright, active aesthetic that pops off the screen.
HEURISTIC & COMPETITIVE ANLAYSIS
The major apps we looked at for our competitive analysis were the Apple Fitness+, FitBod, Nike Run Club, FitOn, Strava, and My Fitness Pal. A feature analysis found they reflect what users found frustrating when using them.
Key Takeaways
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Few apps take advantage of nutrition guidance -- this is an area we can take advantage of for people to track nutrition as part of their health
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One of the more popular ways for community support functions on these competitors' apps was challenges
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Suprisingly, not many of the competitors do milestone rewards
WHO ARE OUR USERS?
To help define our case study, we asked the following question: How might we design an app that trains fitness enthusiasts of all experiences, track progress and nutrition, and connects with other “Athleets” in the community?
We categorized our users into two primary types:
Start the Design
In this phase, we worked established our personas, information architecture, sketches, wireframes, and set up a low-fidelity prototype to test with users.
PERSONA ONE: The Beginner
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Benny is a young adult who needs a specific training plan because he’s an inexperienced athlete.
PERSONA TWO: The Advanced
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Abby is an experienced crossfitter who needs goal and progress tracking because she wants to be a competitive athlete.
USER FLOW
This information architecture immensely helped with the app's organization.
DESIGN SKETCHES
From the lo-fidelity sketches, we designed the mid-fidelity prototype with several key features.
A simple user profile that allows user to track their progress.
A training program based on science where users can access training and safety information.
Monthly fitness raids that connect users based on interests, experience, and location.
Figma Prototype: Version 1
The first iteration prototype runs through the app from the perspective of a beginner user. This is what we used to conduct initial usability testing.
Usability Studies
While our users could navigate the user flow of the app, we heard feedback that while our app was nominally more robust than the competitors, it lacked a marquis feature to get people to use it instead of what they already use. As such, our usability sessions shifted more into desirability sessions.
FINDINGS
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Advanced users value nutrition tracking the most.
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The majority of users enjoyed the collaborative fitness challenge ideas.
Revising the Design
When we realized the multiplayer aspect of our design was what people valued most, we went all in on gamification. Now Athleet pivoted from a training app to a physical MMORPG health and nutrition tracker. Users are invited to create teams to complete challenges cooperatively, from simple weekly “quests” to the monthly “raid” that reward teams with “loot” in the form of avatar borders, team banners, profile themes, trophies, and so on.
While maintaining features that make fitness apps successful, we also turned toward the loops and systems of online games like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2, Halo Infinite, and Genshin Impact. Live service games designed around engagement and retention will result in users becoming deeply invested in the engagement and their health.
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The redesigned profile screen is cleaner and features recent workouts, raids, and rewards.
We streamlined the active workout screens to display the standard metrics fed by a wearable.
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
As you can see, we have refocused the design around the cooperative, MMO-esque weekly quests and monthly raids. Rather than a training app, we refocused it to be a health tracker that encourages social connection.
Takeaways
Athleet is a living project and undergoing constant iteration. Now that we have redesigned the primary function of the app, we have our next steps lined up.
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Circle back to our users: Since the scope of our design has changed, we need to get Athleet in front of people to update our user data and personas.
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Build out a more robust and meaningful rewards system with the ability to see the different themes in prototype.
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Collaborate with more fitness community like trainers, instructors, and athletes to craft more exciting and effective quests and raids.
REFLECTION
Athleet is a passion project for us, combining our two favorite hobbies: video games and fitness. Our mission is to gamify the workout app experience enough that even the most skeptical user can find joy in exercise.
Thank you for reading our case study! If you found this interesting, you can reach me at jennthnmai@gmail.com, or my partner Justin at howdy@justinballard.design.