An app that keeps you motivated and active — AllAround

UX research, UX design, UI design

 

AllAround is an app that encourages people to do more outdoor activities. The app motivates users by helping them find routes and attractions around themself, choose the type of activity, plan activities with their friends and, track, and share their achievements.

AllAround cover.png

PROJECT OUTLINE

Time: 4 Months

Scope: Define the opportunity, user research, create personas based on qualitative research, create lo-fidelity and high-fidelity prototype, usability testing

Target Group: Young adults (20-45 years old).

Product or Service: mobile app

METHODS

  • User interview

  • Paper prototyping

  • High fidelity prototyping

MY ROLE

  • UX researcher

  • UX designer

  • UI designer

PROCESS

Research > Framework of Opportunity > Design Research > Refining the Concept > Testing > Prototyping > Testing

TEAM

Me and myself

PROBLEM

While we hear more and more about fitness services and tools, there are many people that don’t have enough motivation or time to start getting into fitness. This has a direct effect on their mental and physical health.

CHALLENGE

How might we lower barriers to starting a workout routine and encourage people to have more outdoor activities?

 

SOLUTION

AllAround encourages users to start an outdoor activity by suggesting attractions and beautiful routes around them. The recommendations are based on the user’s goals and interests and contain different types and levels of activities. AllAround smart notification reminds users to allocate some time to take care of their mental and physical health and track their progress.

RESEARCH

KICKOFF

I started this project during the pandemic. I saw my friends and family struggling to take care of physical and mental health. For the primary user research, I wanted to understand what are the barriers for people staying motivated and connected, what are the barriers to starting a workout routine, and what type of product can help them.

 

My questions when I started the project.

  • What is the product and who are the users?

  • How are they taking care of their mental health?

  • What challenges do the users have for starting a fitness routine?

  • What are the goals and motivations of the users?

  • What are the existing solutions for overcoming the obstacles?

  • What digital tools do users utilize for their problems? 

 

FINDING FROM INTERVIEWS

  • Users feels tired and lose motivation when they have a busy working day

  • Socializing is one of the reasons to go out

  • Users would commit to a routine outdoor activity if they have a friend to go out with

  • Weather and season are important for deciding the type of outdoor activity

  • Hard to schedule with friends

  • Want to achieving a goal. Users feels motivated if they can track their moves and calories burnt and see their progress.

  • Users feel good even after a short walk, like going to post office or walking their dog.

  • Users gets motivated when there is a new location to explore

 

SECONDARY RESEARCH

BARRIERS TO STARTING A PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

From the secondary research, I identified more excuses that people mention for not having enough activity. these findings confirm some of my insights from the prior user research.

  • Not have enough time

  • Exercise is boring

  • Being self-conscious about how they look

  • Being tired to exercise after a workday

  • Being lazy to exercise

  • not being an athlete

  • failings in the past

  • can’t afford the cost of memberships

  • being afraid they will hurt themself

  • not having enough support

 

BUILDING EMPATHY

MEET THE USERS

Based on my research I created three user persona. Each User persona has distinct needs, goals, and barriers to having physical activity.

USER STORY

Marie

As a dog owner and full-time manager, I spend most of my day behind my desk working. I want to find a dog-friendly park or beach in my city so I can take better care of my dog, have a healthier life and increase my focus and productivity.

Satwik

As a remote full-time UX researcher who spends most of my time behind the screen, I want to find interesting traction and route around my house to walk or run, so I can better control my health and sanity.

Leah

As an artist who spends most of the day in my studio and with my kids, I want motivation to go in nature for a run, so I can keep my body strong and healthy and be able to focus on work and family.

 

USER JOURNEY MAP

User Journey.png

OPPORTUNITIES

 

1 . Partnering for an adventure

Having a partner for an adventure encourages people to stick to their plan and motivates them to accomplish their goals.

2 . Recording The Efforts

Recording the hikes cycle and activities- noting the date, time, distance, and calories burned can keep people inspired and motivated.

3 . Visualizing The Adventure

People often use this tactic in their careers and life goals but positive visualization has a key role in recreational motivation as well.

4 . Fitness for all

People don't need to be professional athletes for having a healthy lifestyle. Choosing the right level of activity that matches one's capability is the key to staying active; otherwise, they lose interest and stop after a few tries.

 

COMPETITIVE AUDIT

Komoot and AllTrails are direct competitors of the AllAround but both target professional athletes. Overall none of the competitors address the challenge of users that want to have a low to medium-ever workout routine. Google maps and google travel have a comprehensive list of locations and roads but that makes it confusing for users that want to find a specific types of locations and roads.

Insufficient motivation

Motivational apps mostly focus on one aspect of motivation and mostly target professionals.

Inefficient trip plan

The trip planing and editing features don’t exist or is not user friendly.

Hiccups for collaboration

for most of the apps planing is not collaborative and the communication has to be trough another app.

 

VALUE PROPOSITION

  1. Smart and customizable notification system

  2. A thorough list of beautiful streets, roads, and hikes

  3. A thorough list of beautiful attractions

  4. Activity suggestion based on user’s location, needs, and preferences

  5. Tracking feature for speed, distance and calories burnt

  6. Sharing achievements inside the app and social media 

 

EXPLORE

GENERATING IDEAS

Having the value propositions in mind and using the crazy 8’s method I came up with more than sixteen different ideas that focused on motivation, time management, and fitness. Using the Impact-Effort matrix I narrowed the ideas down to a few potential ideas for MVP.

STORYBOARD

Big picture Scenario

Close up Scenario

 

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

 

WIREFRAMING

Link to the lo-Fi prototype

 
 
 

USEBILITY TESTING

TOO MANY TAPS

For getting relevant suggestions on the explore page users had to apply filters every time to find the type activity.

FAVORITE BUTTON

Having a favorite button on the navigation bar separated from other lists was confusing for the users.

COMPLICATED TO EDIT

Editing a trip in the app takes a lot of time and seems too complicated. User feedback showed most of the time users are spontaneous based on what they see and feel during an activity.

MORE ACTIVITIES 

Users suggested more activity types such as, surfing, outdoor yoga, and group outdoor workout spots and classes

 

UI DESIGN

The branding and color palette

 

ITERATIONS

 

TAKEAWAY