Fyga
A Real World Conquest
Fitness • UX/UI • User Research • Mobile
Have you ever needed motivation to exercise? Have you ever needed accountability? Then try getting fit for a higher purpose: Reuniting a kingdom!
Choose a side, work solo or as a team, and complete fitness challenges to take over the land and conquer the kingdom of Fyga.
Getting Started
During our design program, my team and I were briefed with a few statistics regarding the health and fitness trends of Millennials:
Millennials are the fittest generation ever: 60% are involved in some form of high calorie burning activity
However, the prices for gym memberships are climbing exorbitantly high
Our project brief stated that millennials are seeking alternative ways to stay happy, healthy, and active, as well as gaining a greater appetite for adventure and specialized fitness activities.
My Role
Team Size: 5 Project Duration: 6 weeks
Responsibilities:
Conducting domain research and creating a competitive analysis
Drafting and finalizing interview scripts and testing plans
User Sourcing
Creating research artifacts: User persona, user journey map, affinity diagrams
Research
Key Insights
Our overall key insights from the research are:
Mobile apps are used more often for fitness activities
Lack of motivation and time are key factors in preventing consistency in routines
Millennials enjoy the feeling of a communal fitness environment
User Interviews
12 users & 3 SMEs
We began the research phase by conducting user interviews to get an understanding of:
The goals and frustrations of Millennials and their fitness
What digital platforms are Millennials using as part of their health routines
User Quotes
“It’s more fun when you get to share the experience”
-Cameron
“I need to stay engaged in some sort of activity but I need variety”
-Fatima
SME Quotes
“I've noticed group training has become a more and more popular trend. I think people like the idea of sharing the same pain as those around them”
-Brett, Personal Trainer
“I guarantee you that there are very few people going to gyms who feel a sense of connection to the other people there.”
-Joe, Fitness Manager
“To accomplish a goal, you have to focus on that goal. If you can make it fun, all the better.”
-Jeremy, Personal Trainer
Survey
We decided to try and gather supplemental, quantitative data from a large audience of 112 Millennials by releasing a survey on various social platforms. Here are the results:
Top 3 most popular places for physical activities are:
Outdoors
Gym
Home
Most popular fitness apps used:
MyFitnessPal
Apple Health
Fitbit
67% of respondents use mobile phones and quite a big portion of the interviewed (22%) don’t use any devices while exercising
Competitive Analysis
3 direct competitors and 3 indirect competitors
Based on the insights we received from the user interviews and surveys, we now had a better idea of who could be our market competitors. We then were able to conduct an informed competitive analysis using the following products:
The biggest insight:
There is not a big emphasis on social fitness activities like our users desire
User Persona
Meet Megan!
Megan’s Journey
Further understanding Megan was key to what we would accomplish later. With that, we created a story of a day in the life or Megan
Problem Statement
“Active and social millennials need a way to seek and build communities to keep them motivated and engaged in order to progress with their health and fitness goals.”
Design Principles
We chose these design principles as guidelines because they address being social and staying engaged:
A Community Is Stronger Together - We help individuals find like-minded people who will share knowledge, build diverse communities, compete and connect with each other.
Motivation Drives Success- Feel inspired to achieve your health and fitness goals by relating to others with similar aspirations
Progress Will Always Be Noticed - It is important for your achievements to be recognized. Improvements will be seen and accomplishments will be rewarded & shared.
Fitness Can Be An Adventure, Too - Explore different fitness activities that add thrill and adventure to your daily routine
Brainstorming Solutions
Now it was time to come up with some divergent ideas, try them out, and converge them into one solution.
Divergent Concepts
Our team sat down in a meeting and came up with 5 divergent concepts that we tested with 10 users. The concepts and results are as follows:
Concept 1: Gamification
Perform fitness activities and expand a personal map by completing them
User Feedback:
Positive reaction to the gamification of fitness
Appreciation for the option to chose to work as a team or alone
Greater need for participation incentive, there’s not enough competition
Concept 2: Schedule Finder
This concept identifies gaps in one’s calendar and suggests fitness activities to fill them with
User Feedback:
Concerns on the actual feasibility for this concept
Positive comments on the friendliness of the interface
Lacked the feeling of community
Concept 3: Find Fitness Friends
Look for people who are available to exercise in your area and meet up
User Feedback:
The main pain points for the participants were the “Poke” feature and the level of safety that the app does not seem to provide.
Helpful for connecting with a fitness community, if safety was better addressed
Concept 4: Challenge Boards
Compete in challenges that you create and invite others to join
User Feedback:
Too much information displayed
Easy concept to understand
Focused less on being social and more about impersonal competition
Concept 5: Creating Groups
Join local, small sized fitness groups where users can build a community through shared interests
User Feedback:
Similar to Facebook, and more limiting
Good if users only want a small amount of people to meet
Big Takeaways
When testing the concepts that lacked a social aspect, users, again, mentioned they would’ve liked to see that!
The idea of a gamified fitness experience was most enjoyed, although users thought it needed refining
The Solution: Fyga
Since users expressed interest in a game, and they really enjoy the idea of social fitness, we took various aspects from our divergent concepts and brought it all into one converged design.
View the Prototype
Key Screen Breakdown
Onboarding Process
Because this is a game, it has a bit of a learning curve. After selecting a team, the user would set off onto the onboarding process that was given to them in the form of informational text bubbles indicating important elements on the screen and what their functions were. Our intention was to give users the gist of the main features up front, and then let them explore the rest of the app to see what else it held.
This was a bit of a road-bump for some users:
It was common for users to move quickly past this section, or not read and absorb the information
There was no option to go back and review the rules, therefore it left some users with a loss of place
Discover your team
Immediately after creating a new account, the user is automatically navigated to a series of questions. These questions acted as a personality test, and added a bit of mystic to the team selection process. Users needed to select adjectives, symbols, and quotes that they best identified with. Once complete, the user would be given a recommended team based on their personality questions. They still retained the choice to select another team, however the goal of this entire process was to group like-minded individuals together.
The reactions were mixed:
Users liked the idea, but found some wording too complex
Some users were not sure about the association between the words and symbols
Home Screen and Team Challenges
Following onboarding, the user is taken to the map which displays their current location, team challenge areas (the dark circles), the inventory chest, and a toggle to switch between solo challenges and team challenges. There is also a small info icon about the inventory that displays the rules and item purposes. We asked users to select a challenge area and explore the available options.
This is what users experienced:
The dark circles were not immediately seen as challenge areas and users stated that they could use descriptors to clearly indicate what they are
It was mostly easy for the users to find the team challenges, however some users navigated to the “Team Fox” accessed in the bottom navigation
Team Page
Here is the team page. This was designed to emphasis the social aspect of fitness that millennials claimed they wanted. We included a QR code that users on the same teams could scan and team up in person to complete the same challenges together. It was even incentivized to link up by increasing the amount of XP that “teamed-up” users would receive for completing challenges. It would get people of similar mindsets together to complete fitness challenges for a higher purpose of assisting their team. We also included a live “team feed” based on location. This was meant to connect users together who otherwise would not meet.
The users thought:
This was simple and clear. The QR code was liked and the concept of grouping together for more points was seen as clever.
The user feed was well understood, but users though that the “New Post” text box could have more emphasis
Profile
This is the profile. We designed this to hold particular information about the user’s personal progress, their items, and some general settings. We also reserved the option for the users to switch teams if they so like. We also included the option for users to click on the different items in their inventory to show what their purposes were.
Future Recommendations
Overall, users liked the concept of gamifying fitness. However, our testers expressed that the app’s purpose and its features need to be better explained, or more intuitive.
We recommend:
Improving the onboarding experience by progressive disclosure as opposed to front loading
Applying more intuitive descriptors to the challenge areas, possibly including symbols denoting faction ownership
Consider removing the item feature until their use is thoroughly fleshed out
We recognized this was a project with many features and possibilities. The conceptual effort was applauded by our classmates and professors, even though it needed much improvement. Regardless, it is something our team was proud of.
Thank you for reading!