Gym Buddy
Gym Buddy is a workout planner and progress tracking app that is designed to take the guesswork out of going to the gym.
Personas
Rah Rahman
“I always feel intimidated when I am at the gym, I feel like people look at me and know I don’t know what I am doing”
Age: 21
Education: College
Hometown: Yonkers
Family: Single
Occupation: Service
Goals
Wants to be able to exercise with a level of knowledge of what they are doing
Have a workout plan that is easy to follow
Frustrations
Having 0 experience going to the gym
Not knowing how to workout or train
Fear of looking clueless
Rah Rahman is a young man who is currently in college pursuing a Criminology degree. He has always been self conscious of his physical appearance, and it has hurt his self image. Rah wants to make a change, but does not know how or what to do at the gym. He needs something that can guide him and help ease his apprehension.
Arnoldina
“I wish there was a way for me to track my progress”
Age: 34
Education: Bachelors
Hometown: Queens
Family: Married
Occupation: Landlord
Goals
Wants to see how their strength has improved over time
Would also like a way to see how her body has changes over time
Frustrations
Has not been able to track strength progress over the years
Has not been able to see her physical progress in one place
Arnoldina is a seasoned lifter. She has been going to the gym with the goal of gaining strength and improving her physique. She fell in love with powerlifting, but she hasn’t really been able to track how much stronger she has gotten. She also wants to see changes in her physique, but saving photos into her phone is unorganized.
Ideation
Sitemap
A basic sitemap was designed in order to keep the needs of our potential users in mind. The main goal when designing our app navigation was to make it is as easy and as painless as possible. Progress tracking features, current workout tracking and new exercise discovery pages were all important to include in one cohesive user experience.
Crazy 8’ design exercise
One of the tools I enjoy for design ideation is doing the crazy 8’s design sprint. The restrictions of having 1 minute per design and being forced to do 8 separate designs is a great tool to go beyond your initial design ideas. Altough the results are usually unrefined it is a great tool to ideate.
Designs
Paper Wireframes
These are paper wireframes of the main training screen, which contains the workouts scheduled for the current day. Along with that, the screen that come after you click the start workout button is also present. Finally the post workout screen is there to give you a sense of accomplishment, and a tool to track progress through data, and the choice to add progress photos.
Progress Page
Exercise Discovery
The screens here are the progress tracking and the exercise discovery page. The progress tracking page is a safe place to save and compare your progress photos. Based on the persona of Arnoldina, users want to see the progress they have made. If you are looking for new exercise to add to your routine, that is the purpose of the exercise discovery page
Workout Page
Exercise Information
The persona that Rah has, presented a potential problems users may face. Knowing what to do, and why they are doing an exercise. The exercise information page is designed to show you how to do a exercise with correct form and why you are doing it. The workout page demonstrates what occurs when you choose an exercise to start.
Low Fidelity Screens
High Fidelity Screens
Here is the Home Screen that outline all the days you have exercised this week as a way to keep you accountable. Also there is a brief outline of the days workout with images as to not surprise the user with something they weren’t prepared for.
This is the screen that the user will see when he starts the workout. Here the user can see what set they are currently on and the weight that they used previously. The user also has the ability to edit the weight and the repetitions if they feel different that day.
It is imperative that the user feels good, and proud of themselves for doing something that is not always enjoyable to do. This screen presents a message that encourages the user and shows them how much they lifted that day and the muscles they worked on. Also they have the ability to add a progress photo that can be accessed later.
One of the key things to prevent injury and actually develop the muscle is proper form. A user like Rah who is new to the gym probably won’t know what all these exercises are, or what they do. That is why we made a screen that shows the user a video demonstration, along with the muscle groups that the exercise targets. Written instructions are also present for added accessibility.
This is the statistics section of the app, this is also where the user can view all of their progress photos or add progress photos. The calendar can be used to access the photos. In the bottom part of the page, there is also an area where you can customize the dates and compare the progress made in a before and after fashion.
A way to discover new exercises is a way to spice up your workouts. This screen shows you the basic muscle groups and allows you to touch to open up a list of exercises that you can do. If the user would rather just search an exercise, they also have a search bar on top for added accessibility.
User Flow
Along with the low and high fidelity screens, prototypes of both were also developed. Not all aspects of the app are completed, but the core and key components of the app are functional in the high fidelity prototype.
Accessibility Considerations
Checked all text with the background colors for contrast to adhere with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Heavy use of common icons with text counter parts, along with heavy uses of images to aid users
Use of video instructions along with text based instructions to aid users who prefer one over the other