CASE STUDY
Creating a circuit workout with Movement
I designed a new experience for people who like to create their own circuit workouts. They can build the exact circuit they want to do and follow the workout with an interactive timer. I focused on providing flexibility in building the circuit structure and enabling users to add new exercises.
MY ROLE
UX/UI Designer
UX Researcher
TOOLS
Figma
Airtable
TIMELINE
3 weeks
Dec 2020
OVERALL PRODUCT VISION
Create a community where individuals who have creative workout ideas can easily build and share them in a digital format. And individuals who are looking for new workouts can find new workout content and follow them in an on-demand, interactive way.
Workout creators
Create workout
Create workouts in flexible circuit formats with exercises I want to include.
Post workout
Post and sell the workout content so that I can share what I love and monetize on what I create.
Workout followers
Find workout
Find the type of workout I enjoy and have access to fresh content so I never get bored with my workout routine.
Follow workout
Follow the workout in an interactive way, on my digital devices, at any time that works for me.
DEFINING THE SCOPE
Create workout experience
Given the 3 week project timeline constraint, I had to cut down and clearly define the scope. For this project, I focused on the Create Workout flow only.
I designed a responsive web app for those who like to create workouts for themselves to follow later - since sharing was out of scope. Also, I deprioritized designing Follow Workout because there are so many workout apps already out there that nail this experience. I wanted to solve the more interesting problem, where solutions didn’t exist yet.
Later, I would build upon what I created here to move towards the bigger product vision.
USER INTERVIEWS
Understanding the needs and motivations behind workout creators
I interviewed 7 participants, composed of those who created their own workouts, those who followed others' workouts, and those who did both. I learned what differentiates creators from followers, and how creators think about their workouts.
Workout creators vs. followers
Workout creators
"I know me best"
"[Planning] makes it feel real...I start getting pumped"
"Once you have a goal, it's inevitable to learn about it"
Workout followers
“I like to turn my brain off”
“I’m already spending the time to workout”
“They’re complicated”
KEY RESEARCH FINDING
Workout creators like to build their own workouts because they want to incorporate specific, new exercises
In addition to providing the ability to create flexible circuit structures, it was important to allow users to input new exercises so that they can incorporate those exercises into the circuits they build.
FROM USER INTERVIEWS
How to try new exercises
01. Find new exercises
(from YouTube videos, Instagram, Google searches, group classes)
02. Add 1-2 new movements per workout
03. Reference videos for form
All workout creator participants generally followed the above steps to incorporate new exercises into their workouts.
COMPETITIVE RESEARCH
Gap in the current, saturated fitness app landscape
Although the fitness app market is crowded, it was clear that there was a gap for building customized workouts for circuit structure, which is commonly used in HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts.
The apps that currently exist in this space are only simple timers. It only counts down for you, and you cannot specify what exercise you should be doing at that moment.
REDEFINING THE PROBLEM
As a user who likes to create my own circuit workouts with new exercises I discover,
I need to plan circuit workouts with flexible structure and customized exercises,
so that I can complete the workout later in an easy-to-follow manner
(without having to memorize the workout sequence or switch between multiple apps to lead the workout).
WHAT IS A CIRCUIT?
The anatomy and hierarchy of a workout
STARTING TO DESIGN
Workout builder
Assumptions
Users are not beginners -
Given my target users who like to create their own workouts, I assumed that they are not beginners to working out, and thus are familiar with various circuit formats and terminology.
Desktop first -
User interviews uncovered that users like to carve out time to sit down and plan their workouts in detail, often in a notebook. Given this and the fact that users prefer the larger desktop screen for more complex user flows, I assumed that most users will be using the create workout flow on their desktop, and designed for the flow in desktop first.
Building blocks of circuits
It was crucial that users were able to build a variety of circuit types. So I gathered the various types of circuit structures that I encountered through research and over the years, and broke them down into common components:
Structure
Exercises
Rounds
Breaks
SKETCHES + WIREFRAMES
Exploring ways to design a dynamic circuit building experience
PROTOTYPE + TEST
Testing the usability
I ran 2 rounds of usability tests across 6 total participants to test the usability of both the add movement and create workout flows.
3/3 participants were able to successfully create a new workout with a ladder circuit.
I identified the top priority changes and iterated on the designs.
Full backlog of changes ⟶
MAKING THE CHOICE EASIER
Applying Hick's Law
User interviews and group critique with other designers revealed that the create workout view can be overwhelming. I applied Hick's Law to simplify this complex view, which many fields and choices.
Categorizing choices - group items together to narrow down huge volumes of info.
Obscuring complexity - present part of the process at any one time on screen.
Flexible circuit builder for every type of circuit
Add a new exercise
Users can add new exercises they found to their library, along with a picture, notes on how to do the exercise, and a link to reference form later.
Build circuits with exercises from your library
Add your custom exercises from your library to your circuit.
Dashboard
One dashboard to see it all. Main CTA prompts the user to start a workout for today.
Designing for mobile web
Because the Create Worout flow is complex, my goal for the mobile experience was to make it usable on a smaller screen and consistent with desktop, so users can leverage association for learnability.
NEXT STEPS
Next, I would focus on the Follow Workout flow since this completes the user journey from Create Workout. Then, I would continue to design Share Workout and Find Workout to build out the overall product.
I would also work on some of the deprioritized items for Create Work to improve the experience. For example, I want to add the ability to save circuits, so that users can pick and choose combinations of circuits to compose slightly different workouts.