Who doesn't want a perfectly toned body nowadays? Whether by following a diet chart hoping to fit into that old dress, shedding those extra pounds has always been a struggle. Even, a study said that one can stay fit an increase their life expectancy by regular physical activity.
Ah! Thanks to COVID-19 pandemic for restricting us to continue our physical activity .:(. But how about an app that would help you carry on your physical activities like workout from home?
Challenge
Surprisingly even after acknowledging these great benefits of regular exercise, a large group of people face difficulty in stepping out of their houses and visiting any fitness training Centre or the gym due to busy schedule and lack of proper training. So, I decided to take upon this challenging task and apply it to my real life. As I myself lost 8kgs of weight during this pandemic, and thought to apply it into my newly learned UX/UI knowledge into practice by creating an app for all those gym and fitness freaks.
Target
To get a clear insight to decide the features of the app, during my research I narrowed my user base to all those fitness freaks of the age group 18–35 years who want to workout but couldn't due to some reason or procrastinating nature.
Discover
In the first phase, I prepared few things such as what would my audience like to view in this app which will make this app more useful for them. Then I prepared few questions for my audience to set aside assumptions about the users. The questions mainly included WHAT does my user exactly want and don't .
- Are you using any apps for your fitness training ?
- Do they need personal trainer or not?
- Do they enjoy using app and getting fit during this process?
- What is the main function you look for in the app?
And much more.
User Personas
Based on the user interviews I took for some user personas highlighting the want/ and points of user.
Following are conclusions inferred from the user I took:
- 80% of the users were gym freaks who wanted a daily workout routine.
- 90% of users preferred working out at home and needed a qualified trainer who could guide them in a better way.
- 70% of the users found it difficult to go to the gym because of their busy schedules and needed an online application.
- 85% of the users stopped using the existing applications either due to advertisements or due to irrelevant and unwanted exercises.
- 90% of the users were looking for a feature which included water intake reminder so that they don't forget a proper amount of water intake.
Design
Followed by the information architecture, I started creating the low-fidelity wireframes (screen wireframe) to define the content to be covered on the screens. After scribbling for hours, I came up with clean and minimal designs which would meet the users needs.
Visual Design
To implement the designs and give it a visually pleasing appeal, I designed the UI Style Guide wherein I decided the font, iconography ,colors and other visual aspects which goes best with the concept of the app.
Font
To make the typography experience pleasing, I used Alfa Slab One, Roboto font. This font showcases growth, energy, and power. Moreover, it is readily available and free of cost.
Colors
I chose orange as the primary color for this model because orange color symbolizes joy, creativity, fun, freedom, enjoyment. So, I thought orange would suit the best for the app.
Prototyping
To make the user experience smooth and practical, I added smart animate that would occur when users will navigate from one screen to another. This animation helped in improving the user experience and providing the app a pleasing look and feel.
Conclusion
Overall, it was a worthwhile experience designing an app from the scratch as it was full of learning and complications. Working on this app, helped me apply all the insights I had gathered during the research and accomplish the real challenge.
This is the initial phase of the design where I wanted to test my design skills, there is more to learn and know with the time.
Thankyou for reading! I hope you like it, Please drop your valuable comments. Any feedback to improve my skills will be highly appreciated!