Keep Fit — An App Design for Fitness Trainer’s

Background

As the final project for my UX Bootcamp at Growthschool, I picked up a problem statement to help gym trainers track their trainees’ workouts with ease. As a fitness enthusiast myself, I found this a very interesting problem to solve. So I decided to create an interface for trainers looking to supervise their sessions well, and trainees seeking a worthwhile workout experience.

Problem Statement

Fitness trainers are seeing a significant rise in people looking to get fit. With every client, comes a different requirement and a different goal. Design a product to allow trainers to create a plan and track the progress of each user/group intensively.

With the pandemic hitting us and everyone staying home with no physical activity, people increasingly feel the need to be fit. A few of them like to hit the gym, while a few others want to work out outside the gym but would like to follow a plan. Some people follow YouTube challenges or fitness apps, but aren’t sure whether they’re heading in the right direction as per their fitness goals. Those hitting the gym have different needs, like wanting to tone their body, build muscles, or simply get in shape. Even though their trainers make plans for them, it’s difficult for trainers to keep track of all of their trainees. This is often because each of their trainees has a different goal, or the trainees are not regular.

Most fitness trainers prefer not to use an app as it can be a hassle. The trainers who do use fitness apps tend to be part of a business. By understanding the trainers’ frustrations, I was able to design an app to solve their problems in a simple yet effective manner.

Kickstarting the Project with Brainstorming

I started off by doing individual brainstorming alone and with a group in my bootcamp.

I scoped down some of these ideas and conducted research.

Research Problem Statement:

With the recent increase in people looking to get fit, trainers are finding it difficult to share fitness plans and keep track of their trainees’ goals — despite the aid from excel sheets and fitness charts. People seeking fitness feel like they aren’t on the right track to reach their fitness goals. How can I as a UX Designer create a product for trainers to plan sessions and monitor their clients according to their individual needs? Additionally, how can this product help fitness enthusiasts find the right trainer to consult about their fitness goals?

Desk Research:

From my desk research, I found the trainer’s role is to:

• Helps perfecting form
• Understands the trainee’s personal requirements
• Stay accountable to keep their trainees on track
• Provide nutritional guidance (if they are a certified nutritionist)
• Help improve their trainees’ overall well-being.
• Tailor a trainee’s exercise for a particular day to accommodate his/her mood
• Prepare a workout chart
• Use of phasing system
• Educate their clients on all aspects of health, fitness and exercise.
• Learn about the various workout formats which are available

Primary Research:

I divided my primary research based on two types of users — trainers that use an app and trainers that don’t. Finding the right users was slightly challenging, so I messaged some of the trainers on social media and made a few user interview calls.

I found the following common goals between both the app users and non app users —

• Keep the client motivated by giving them pep talks and reminding them about their goals.
• Suggest taking a break when the client feels demotivated or bored.
• Challenge the client once a week by making the session harder.
• Understand and help the clients with their limitations.

Some trainers felt that using an app would become a hassle as it would be difficult for them to find what they need at the right time. I found that a lot of trainers weren’t very tech-savvy, and so preferred an old-school method to guide their trainees.

I clubed both the users and created one user persona.

User Persona:

User Flow:

After understanding the user’s needs, I created a mind map to help me design iterations.

Low fidelity Wireframes:

I decided to keep the design as minimal as possible so as to not overwhelm gym trainers using it. I started out by designing low-fidelity wireframes.

High Fidelity User Interface

I created a prototype based on the low-fidelity wireframes and even improved some features after receiving feedback from my peers in the bootcamp.

🎬 Prototype

Here’s a video of the prototype showing how the app funcitons.

👉🏼 Future Scope

• With research on how trainers and nutritionists create a diet plan, I’d like to improve the diet plan feature.
• I’d also like to design a trainee’s side of the app and thereby improve trainer-trainee interaction.