iOS
Launch Year
2020
What I did
- Ideation & Funding
- User & Product Research
- UI / UX Design
- User Testing
Target Audience
- Beginning and Advanced weight lifters
- At home workout audience
- Personal Trainers
Taking the MVP to the next level
Fit Society was initially created in the attempt to combine the best aspects of all the top fitness apps on the market and put them into a beautifully designed package.
The core features allow users to create, share and perform workouts.
Fit Society’s goal is to help people get into better health. We do this through providing great workout plans and giving people the ability to create and share their own workouts with others.
Defining a goal
Putting user feedback into action
After launching the MVP, I received significant user feedback. Some of the items that were mentioned were…
- The design is too subtle. There needs to be more pop to it.
- Not enough content. Video breakdowns and more workouts would be great.
- Usability improvements are needed in key areas such as the workout in progress, home and menu screens
The goal is to provide enough content and value to satisfy users. I also need to create a more visually appealing app that separates itself from the rest of the fitness apps out there.
Scope
The scope for this update was fairly significant with a refreshed look and richer content. Some of the feedback I was given has always been on the roadmap for future releases; videos and guided workouts for instance. However, the old designs I had already created didn’t fit the look of what users wanted to see. I had to design a look that appealed to users to justify the investment.
In the long term though, the goal is to turn the app into a platform that allows for content creation, an e-commerce marketplace and even as a white label app.
Constraints
I was once again constrained by numerous factors including lack of personnel, the need to outsource and funding.
Outsourcing has been resolved as I have a rock-solid team I can rely on.
Getting content was the biggest task. I’m a one-man outfit designing the product, marketing and of course the content creator. Finding a cost-effective way to get the content isn’t an easy task.
Luckily, I know a few professional fitness competitors and have a background in videography.
Design Process
And now for some design work
Research / Ideate / Information Architecture & Flows / Sketching / Wireframe / Design / Test / Iterate
Design Process
Research
To determine how to update the visuals and provide better features, I conducted a competitive analysis.
For the analysis, I examined what the competition exceled at and what their weaknesses were. I also studied the visual design to see what elements and interactions were effective.
Nike Training Club
- Strengths
- Brand Recognition
- Great Design
- High quality videos
- Great coaches and trainers
- Weaknesses
- Cannot document or keep a historical record of the amounts you lifted on exercises within the app
- Users cannot jump around the workouts and do different exercises. You must complete each exercise in order.
- Bodybuilding focused fitness plans are lacking
- Bodybuilding function is lacking when it comes to supersets, circuits, etc..
- Cannot create your own workouts
Fitplan
- Strengths
- Fitness influencer name recognition. If they are big on Instagram, they probably have some type of plan on this app.
- Offers some free workouts
- Offers a social component for users
- Can see what workouts you did and how many times you did them
- Offers a free 7-day trial
- Bodybuilding Focused (They have really homed in on their niche)
- Weaknesses
- Cannot create your own workouts
- Cannot see the results of your workouts
- No way to create a weekly plan without purchasing a routine
- Some key features are locked behind a pay wall
- Bodybuilding Focused (Losing out on a significant percentage of users that may be turned off by the bodybuilding aspect)
JEFIT
- Strengths
- Decent app name recognition
- Fun and inviting UI design language
- Uses native functionality
- Paid Plans are low cost
- Has a social component (Not a super active community though but the concept is good)
- Has a workout creator
- Can share workouts with other users
- Has a ton of features
- Weaknesses
- UI is too cluttered. A lot of cool features get lost in all the clutter. It feels like it’s trying to do too much.
- Workout creation is not intuitive
- Personal storage is limited for free users
- Some functionality is confusing, and the component placement doesn’t make sense
- The same components are different sizes in certain areas.
- Some components are too small and not easily interacted with
Design Process
Visual Language
I wanted to give Fit Society a unique look that was clean and modern. To figure out the palette and visual language, I created a mood board to help guide the decision.
Colors & Material
Ocean
#5063EE
Sky Blue
#91A0FD
Night Sky
#23253A
Typography
San Francisco Pro Text – Regular
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
San Francisco Pro Text – Light
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Design Process
Information Architecture
To keep things simple, I prefer to use an app called Mindnode for information architecture. It’s simple to use and easy to decipher.
Architecture
Design Process
Wireframes
The great thing about working with a solid team for an extended period of time, is you develop an understanding of their skillset and cadence.
The international team I work with is outstanding and we have a great rhythm as a team. Since they developed the MVP, I only had to provide Mock up Flows when absolutely necessary. Otherwise a quick conversation during our daily stand-ups resolved any questions they had.
Mock Wireframes
Final Product
Final Product
After months of design and development, we launched the MVP of Fit Society on the App Store. While significant updates were already planned, I wanted to get the product out to the public and see what the feedback would be.
Old
Busier with data that doesn’t always need to be seen. The card doesn’t have enough pop to it.
New
Cleaner, more focused and clearer directions in what the user should do
Big Results
The results were a net positive across the board
- +350% Increase in Units
- +278% Increase in Impressions
- +250% Increase in Sessions
- +221% Increase in Product Page Views
Lessons and Outcomes
Upon the first update, the user growth was exponential. This not only proved that the updates I gave were the right path to take but feedback the feedback has been mostly positive.
After launching the new version of the app, several things became apparent.
First the good:
The visual update and improved experience were a huge hit. Users loved the new look and the data proves this.
The videos were awesome, and users loved that it was now provided on the workouts. Lots of users don’t know how to do certain exercises so this was a massive improvement from the MVP.
Now the bad:
The new experience was intuitive for most part but some of the cooler features are buried or not 100% obvious. Providing tutorials or more guidance may help improve this.
Making the sign-in process easier in that once a user has signed in, they are not logged out for a long time, if ever.
Results
Overall, this has been an exciting update and I can’t wait to continue improving and adding more awesome features. The goal is to have this app be the first thing that comes to mind when people think about fitness.
Project
Fit Society App 1.1
Platform
iOS
Launch Year
2020