IWAP
IWAP (I want a partner) is an app for which I had the pleasure of doing both the UX Research and UI Redesign. IWAP is an app that allows users to match with someone in their area based on things like age, gender, fitness, goals, etc. so that can exercise together and stop leading sedentary lifestyles.
Main Screen for IWAP
UX Research
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you had the best idea ever. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, without research and testing to back it up that idea can go away as quickly as it came. Let me introduce you to IWAP.
The Challenge
For my final project I worked with a client in Portugal and I knew that the goal of IWAP was to create a mobile solution that enabled people to search, in any location, for a group or a single person to do exercise with, thus increasing everyone’s motivation, focus, and commitment. My clients wanted to fight the lack of motivation and sedentarism by providing an easy solution to get people exercising daily. Originally the target audience was for everyone who wanted to embark on a journey to live a more healthy lifestyle and for those wanting to further improve. With two weeks to get this done I knew I had to start the research to dig into pains points, problems, and most importantly the solution. I quickly found that there was little to no UX Research done on their end and the UI desperately needed a redesign.
How might we help people that don’t feel motivated to do exercise alone find other people to do exercise/sports with?
The Problem
People often do not feel comfortable working out with strangers even when they do feel more motivated when having someone to workout with.
Why is this a problem?
Think of the big picture: Can you remember the last time you exercised? Well, you aren’t alone because many others cannot. As people, we tend to do things that comfort us and frankly, for many, this does not include exercising and getting in shape. It involves sitting on the couch snuggled up to our favorite Netflix show eating chocolate ice cream while hoping for zero interruptions. We (yes, all of us) can take a small step to get energized to move our bodies and change our lifestyles. With my problem statement in hand, I needed to prove my assumption and do some research.
Research
Once I understood the problem, I wanted to confirm my assumptions so I did a short 2-minute survey for further insights. With a total of 32 responses, the responses helped move the research process forward. Out of everyone who took the survey 56.3% of those were male while the other 43.8% were female. 75% of survey takers were between the age range of 20-30. This meant that IWAP did have a target audience, young adults rather than what they originally indicated their target audience was (everyone). Furthermore, 81.3% said they exercised 0-2 times a week with more than half of that saying it was zero times per week. Moreover, 71% of people said that they would enjoy having ratings in form of stars and reviews. IWAP features ratings to help people find their right match so people saying their preferred method allows for the UI strategy to be more defined. Lastly, 59.4% said that they prefer exercising outside rather than indoors. This was great since it let me know that people do want to go outside and get active. After surveying, I conducted 5 surveys and highlighted the five interviewee quotes below.
What People Are Saying
Interviews.
“I feel motivated when I have an exercise buddy.”
— Interviewee
“Reviews and ratings are very important they’re a first impression”
— Interviewee
“I like exercising outside if there is someone to do it with.”
— Interviewee
“I am much more likely to exercise if I have someone to do it with.”
— Interviewee
The keyword here is someone, people feel motivated to go outside and exercise when they have someone there to hold them accountable for it. They have the intention to be healthier and with IWAP they’ll have the ability to turn that intention into action. The interviews confirmed that people would find an app like this useful but had strong opinions as to what they felt the app needed. Firstly, people wanted a safety feature. Many said if they were to meet up with a stranger they would want a tool on the app to make them feel secure in case they felt in danger or some level of risk. Furthermore, they would want to match based on four main categories: gender, age, fitness level, time availability, and goals. Interviewers also said they wanted some exercise recommendations because when meeting up with someone it could be difficult to break the ice and agree on workouts. Lastly, all said they found the usability difficult and a bit confusing. After empathizing with the users I moved on to the competitor analysis.
Competitive Analysis
After understanding the users’ needs I also did some competitor analysis since it’s important to understand where IWAP stood with their competitors and more importantly how they stood out and what would help them further leverage their strengths.
When comparing IWAP to competitors it was obvious that their strongest feature was the ability to rate and review matches. Furthermore, compared to their counterparts the UI was clearer and overall simple to navigate. IWAP needed a UI redesign, and both exercise and premium options to reach more users and make the experience pleasant. For the sake of the two weeks given I focused on one user flow and the UI redesign. Let’s meet some user personas!
Gonçalo Pereira
Age: 28 years old
HTML5 Consultant
Single
Gonçalo is a recent web dev grad who now finds himself with more time on his hands and wants to change his sedentary lifestyle. He has always dabbled with sports and enjoys exercising but doesn't have anyone to do it with now that he moved from Porto to Lisbon. Furthermore, some pains to keep in mind when thinking of Gonçalo are: he doesn't know anyone in the city, doesn’t know where to exercise, shy when it comes to meeting new people, doesn't feel like he's that good at sports/etc. His goals include: getting fit & gaining muscle, meeting someone his age to workout with, and do exercise at least 3-4 times a week.
“I love hiking! I connect with nature and get fresh air as often as I can. However, having someone to exercise with motivates a ton.”
Kassie Ingalls
Age: 25 years old
UI Designer
Single
(Secondary User Persona)
Kassie lives in Denver, Colorado, and enjoys any outdoor activity. Like most people her age she lives a social life however, she struggles to get anyone to exercise with her. Although she doesn’t mind doing it alone she would enjoy having someone who can exercise with her to keep pushing her towards living a healthy lifestyle. She uses apps to track her weight and heart rate but would like an app that would help her find people in the area and also suggest new activities for her to do with that person.
Adriana Medina
Age: 27 years old
Communications Assistant
In a relationship
(Tertiary User Persona)
Adriana lives in Portland, Oregon. She’s usually working from home and doesn’t know many people since many of her friends moved away. Her work life is always busy so on her time off she likes to focus on both her mental and physical health. She wants to start doing outdoor yoga but feels insecure doing it alone. Her boyfriend does not want to partake as he is usually busier than she is so having an app that would provide a workout partner would be ideal.
The user journey map illustrates the path that Gonçalo takes and the pain points, emotions, and end goal of using the IWAP app. It starts with him thinking about living a healthier lifestyle and ends with him going on a workout with a match by having used the IWAP app.
The user storyboard just puts into perspective in a more visual context a typical day with the user Gonçalo and how he experiences IWAP. His goal is to meet with a new person in his area and change his current lifestyle. As demonstrated by using the app he is more motivated to follow through with his goals and also meets someone who has the same fitness level as he does so he feels comfortable enough to continue exercising with her.
UI Strategy
After completing the UX research for IWAP it was time to focus on the UI strategy. In order to get a sense of what would work, I started with lo-fi since it was evident from the UX research and interviewing that users did not find the current UI to be intuitive. Furthermore, I also did a mood board as well as a style guide to give the app a strong identity. I also did prototyping and additional user testing to make sure I delivered the best version of IWAP and motivate users to download the app and get active.
Moodboard
When it came to the mood board getting inspired for the UI I wanted for the app to be in a dark mode as it helped give it a more sleek and sophisticated aesthetic. Furthermore, I wanted to incorporate pops of color also to give it vibrancy, the key colors were dark indigo, turquoise, Fushia, along with an icy light blue. There are illustrations as it added to the playfulness and the simplicity of navigation. Images for exercises needed to be clear and depict the description it would have on the app. The dark colors were inspired by nature and sunsets.
The style guide is clear as to the types of imagery that is used in the app along with the acceptable colors. Outlined are how they are supposed to be used as well as which colors do not go together when it comes to the logo. The primary colors for the app are dark indigo and icy blue, while the secondary colors are pink and turquoise for pops of color, and the tertiary color is white. The typography used was SF Pro Display for headers and titles and SF Pro Text for smaller descriptions and the chatbox. Buttons, icons, and the search bar are rounded to go with the rounded illustration. The images are also rounded on the edges to keep the app consistent all the way through.
Lo-Fi
When creating and testing my lo-fi there were minor changes in design rather than the layout itself. I tested the lo-fi on 10 people did minor iterations and once I guaranteed it was good with 5 more users I moved on to the next step.
Mid-Fi
For the mid-fi screen, small changes made were in the icons for the feature they did not go well together and did not seem consistent so they were redone for the high-fi. After doing user testing I did change to dark mode and also added illustrations to make this seem light and fun to give a more welcoming feel. Besides minor changes and color palette, nothing much changed from mid-fi to high-fi.
Main Screen
For the main screen when testing with users many expressed feelings of confusion when first looking at the app. They thought that perhaps it was a GPS app and not a sports app to match with others. Many also felt overwhelmed when looking at the app. The main changes made were in the colors the dark mode took away the feeling of overwhelm and minimizing the size of the map while adding tags to match let the users know this was indeed a sports app.
The second screen I was focused on was the sessions screen. Originally it was the chat screen but I ended up deleting sessions making it into the activities screen because many users did not understand why the sessions screen was just where they had to go and message people. The activities screen on the other hand was clear since it demonstrated different exercises the person could participate in and also would allow them to get specific instructions on how to perform activities. Moreover, I made a separate icon for the chat screen so people could know that if they needed to send or receive a message they would simply go there.
Chats Screen
As previously mentioned the chat screen was created so that users could intuitively understand that this is where all their messages would be sent and received. Furthermore, the option to send a voice message or add an activity was included. Another tool added to this screen was the safety tool at the top right due to many users indicating that they would feel safe/comfortable knowing they could report someone if anything went wrong or they didn’t feel comfortable.
The final screen, which had some more changes was the profile screen. The profile screen changed in design to give the user profile more emphasis with the dark colors. Rather than have so much information all at once in order to be more digestible there are sections for specific areas users want to see. They get to see simple information like their name, email, fitness level, and their rating, as well as, what percent of a challenge they have completed. They can also see their location, preferred time to exercise, and preferred activities if they press those icons. Furthermore, they have the profile name on top so they know what screen they’re on and the editing tool in case they need to edit any information.
Original IWAP Video
This project was amazing to work on and working with the clients was a pleasant experience through and through. What was most rewarding was verifying through research that people wanted this app and would find it encouraging to feel motivated and exercise. As well as having the opportunity to implement these changes and show the clients all the work that went into it. The video above is what IWAP originally looked like before any research or changes had been made. To see the video with all the changes scroll to the top of the page to be able to compare the differences. The prototype in this video simply shows what they originally had but does not reflect how their app looks and works currently. The purpose of this video is simply to show what they had and how much of it was actually prototyped.