ABOUT THE PROJECT

An initial look at the current market space shows a lot of saturation around motivational and goal-based exercise solutions. These solutions mainly focused on progress tracking and providing exercise content.
However, there appeared to be a surprising lack in incentive based applications and services. In addition, most applications that exist in this space took on a more sterile look and feel. Providing this sector with a more exciting and literal game-like feel is where we decided to focus our efforts.

MY ROLE

Visual design, user research, rapid prototyping, wireframes, mockups, usability testing.

TOOLS USED

Sketch, InVision, user research, affinity mapping, personas, journey mapping, heuristic evaluation, competitive and comparative analysis.

UX CHALLENGE & RESEARCH

Since this was a generative project, we asked a wide array of questions in an attempt to grasp the reason our users were struggling maintaining active lifestyles.
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Time was the most obvious of culprits and also the most present. It wasn’t until we started digging into what our users liked to do for fun that we discovered that gaming and exploration were two often discussed goals in our user base. In addition, our users valued the accountability of being active alongside friends.
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This became our jumping off point in creating LVL UP, since we cant give users more time; how might we make the time they do have more productive and fun?

WHAT DID OUR USERS SAY?

When directly asked, users indicated they would like to be more active as they were unsatisfied with current activity levels.

Users told us consistently that if their exercise routines did not feel enjoyable they were much more likely to quit prematurely.

Users told us that exercising with friends often inspired consistency, accountability and, general enjoyment of any given exercise regiment.
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Secondarily, users cited using many different applications in the past to try to manage their exercise routines but grew bored of their sterile nature. Endless charts and graphs measuring progress were not enough to inspire consistency throughout their workout regiments.
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Users also often cited goals being hard to maintain due to their lack of concreteness as user defined goals were easy to push to the side or modify based on the their mood.

"I'm just more likely to complete
my goals if I feel like I'm having fun"

MEET STEVEN

ABOUT:
As a new student of computer science at NYU, Steven, like most of his peers, is an early adopter of technology and is always eager to utilize it to improve his life. Steven has a varied array of hobbies that range from casual gaming to participating in interim local sports leagues with friends. Pickup basketball at his local park are his favorite. Steven is a curious individual that appreciates the variety that New York has to offer.
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SCENARIO:
Having recently enrolled in school, Steven is having trouble maintaining the more active parts of his lifestyle with the mounting school workload. Similarly he is finding more and more that his energy levels and motivation seem only to be enough to play some games at night before sleep. He has tried using gyms and their subscription costs as motivation but finds the overcrowding and monetary penalty to be insufficient still.
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BEHAVIORS
Frequently sets goals
Is not consistently active
Values the way an active lifestyle makes him look and feel
Plays games after work/school
Prefers to exercise in the morning

PAIN POINTS
Overcrowding at the gym
Too exhausted and unmotivated at end of the day
Lack of initial motivation to get started
Lack of accountability from his peers

NEEDS
Motivation to inspire routine
More activity options
Encouragement from his peers
More concrete goal setting
Accountability

DESIGN DECISIONS & SOLUTIONS

All of the choices made were focused on enhancing the group and exploratory feel of a veiled fitness application. RPG elements and theming are meant to inspire consistency and set LVL UP as a brand apart from its contemporaries.

EXPERIENCE POINT SYSTEM
‍Step counter as well as quests (group/solo) to motivate users through fun and exploratory content
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PARTY / BUDDY SYSTEM
‍Group up to complete more challenging quests and encourage your friends to be the best they can be
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STEP / FLIGHT COUNTER
‍Always gain experience points while moving even if you don’t have the time to complete a quest or daily challenge
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PROCEDURALLY GENERATED QUESTS
‍Check your map and see quests you can complete around you no matter where you are

PROJECT REFLECTION

Fitness and motivation is a tricky subject. Sterile fitness counters are often used and discarded as their focus is too heavy on the physical progress of the user which in and of itself can feed negative patterns. Additionally, you are always fighting with the users time. Modern life is busy and often users lose motivation throughout the day to be active.
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The best way we found to circumvent not being able to give the user more time to exercise is to build a fun and engaging application that focuses on encouragement and inspire active lifestyles as a byproduct. Community and inclusiveness is yet another massive way to motivate users to be more active

NEXT STEPS

Continued iterations on the current design
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A more robust item selection with added shop to further inspire users to keep playing
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Quest lines and narratives to further accentuate the theming
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Customizable avatars and player versus player arenas to motivate users to play and explore more
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Augmented reality features when completing solo, group and raid quests (wave your arms like you’re swinging a sword, do motions like you're casting a spell, move to dodge enemy attacks, etc.)

LEVEL UP