SideKck
Product Design | Mobile Interface Redesign
Individual Work Year: Dec 2017
INTRO
SideKcK is a mobile app that helps users to find the right gym buddies when they need to. This is a story of how a new way of gymming can be made.
I was tasked to redesign the app of SideKcK company: http://www.sidekckapp.com/. SideKcK is a mobile app designed to help users easily find the Gym Buddy they need whose schedule and goal matches theirs.
I worked with three other students at first to conduct user research and user tests. Then I worked individually to uncover insights and translate concepts into features that address user behaviors and motivations while meeting business goals. I conducted the UX/UI development of the iOS app, producing major deliverables such as user flows, wireframes, visual mockups, and prototypes.
PROCESS
THE CHALLENGE
Create a new, collaborative and easy way of gymming experience
Problems occur when gymming alone:
Feeling loneliness or losing motivation;
Need help to complete some workout exercises;
Need someone to guide and to help improving gymming skills.
As a result, more and more people have demands to find right gym buddies.
Our client approached us with one primary objective - to translate this need through creating a new, collaborative and easy way of gymming experience. Our challenge was to target the right audience and their needs to place the business in a competitive advantage.
THE APPROACH
Get to the core
Early Stage
Observation
Think-aloud protocols
Interview
Focused Group Interview
Persona
Middle Stage
Fast/low-fidelity prototype
Usability Testing
Final Stage
High-fidelity Prototype
Usability Testing
Before giving the project more structures and diving into discussing features or ideas, our team firstly went to different gyms to observe people’s behavior, and using think-aloud protocols, we understand users from a bigger perspective. Then we conducted interview twice. From two interview, we asked different types of people about their gymming experiences, which gave us a holistic understanding of the gymming market and different user groups.
For interview questions, generally speaking, we separated our questions into 6 parts:
basic gymming habits: when to gym, where to gym, workout plan, why go to this place, how does it look, share a latest gym experience, why gym, how you start gymming, any difficulty, any issue
gym buddy: gym alone or with gym buddy, why, how long, relationship with gym buddy, how to know each other, how you think about him/her, any difficulty, how to communicate, how to hang out, share an experience
trainer: why seek trainer, how to seek, how do you rate him/her, how do you feel about him/her, any difficulty, any issue, any difference with gym alone and gym with friend, share an experience
competitive product: use which gym product, pros and cons
workout plan: do you have it, how you come out, any difficulty
focused questions according to potential features of our app: what personalities of gym buddy/trainer you value, how you feel about gymming with stranger, rating system
THE DISCOVERY
Frustrations about gymming:
no motivation, lazy
no time, irregular schedule
hard to find friends or colleagues to gym together, since time, locations and workout plans are different.
Important Values listed in order for finding gym buddies:
same time, location and workout plan
efficient gym experience, help improve
personality, energetic
shape, appearance, gender
Problems of personal trainer:
expensive
after some classes, the trainer is more likely to serve as a supervisor or companion of gymming
no need to hire personal trainer after taking 2-3 classes
CORE PROBLEMS of the Original App
Unnecessary category of users
It categorizes users in this app into: public, your buddies, and private users you want to contact. Since the key function of this app is to find a right gym buddy when you need to, this category increases the difficulty of finding gym buddy and adds confusion for usage.
The only reason it has this function is because the original team thinks people are afraid of gymming with strangers. However, this concern can be solved by design.
Lack trust to find a gym buddy
When users search for gym buddy, there is little meaningful information to help them trust new gym buddy. They can send messages to them, but this way complicates the process and makes the app lose users since firstly people can use other social app to connect with each other once they get in touch via this app, secondly people have to rely on themselves and waste too much time and effort to find the right gym buddy.
Unclear User Flow
The user flow of this original app is confusing. For example, there are many accesses to 'add a workout plan'.
Besides, even though the team knows clearly about this app's core function, it doesn't dare to minimize other functions and put less important information in hierarchy.
Fail to identify two types of user needs
According to the user research, users actually expect two different types of gym buddies: one has similar level, whose time, location, workout plan match well; the other one is at higher level than them, which can guide and provide help to them. This discovery differentiates two different types of user needs towards gym buddy.
THE SOLUTIONS
Build Trust Fast
Tag system
Rate system
Show Facebook mutual friend
Put Information in Hierarchy
Put three main functions in main page's navigation bar: discovery, post, events
Put other functions in hamburger menu
Target gym buddy better and easier when you need
filter system
delete friend system
clear and easy user flow
Inclusive Design for future functions
Considering leaving space for trainer system
Considering leaving space for tracking system
RAPID PROTOTYPING
