Exerpedia

Discover, learn and save new strength training techniques straight from your phone!

Client: Personal Project

Role: UI / UX Designer

Time: 2 Weeks

The Background

This project was completed as my "application task" for Hyper Islands Design Lead program. To fulfil the requirements of the task and to display my design thinking and production abilities everything was done by me. The task was:

1. Identify and formulate an everyday problem that you would like to solve.

2. Create a Life Hack to solve your problem. One or more of the elements of your hack must be a technology or a digital service.

3. The Life Hack must be functional - meaning that you need to include documentation of how it can be used and explain how it works so that we might test it.

The Problem

I am a newbie at the gym. I have a loose workout plan based on a push / pull / legs split. Being so new to strength training, I don’t always remember which exercises I was supposed to do, or how to properly execute them.

Currently I spend too much time researching and looking up exercises before each workout. I wish there was an easy way to discover, learn and save various exercises at the gym.

The Solution

Excerpedia! A comprehensive database of strength training exercises in your pocket.

An app that provides the user with easy access to information about various exercises, as well as a way to discover and save new ones.

The Process

1. Discover 

I conducted a competitive analysis of existing products that provide a similar solution to my problem. I was able to find 2 apps as well as 1 website that do a good job of fulfilling this need (some better then others). I identified opportunities to improve on the weaknesses of these solutions by focusing on usability as well as providing more comprehensive content.

Additionally I developed 2 personas (one primary, one secondary) to further define the problems / needs I am attempting to solve. The primary persona is based on myself, the newbie, who is very new to the gym as well as strength training. The secondary persona is based on a friend who has worked out in the past but has taken an extended break and is getting back into it.

2. Define

From the personas I developed user stories. From these stories I identified 4 primary needs as well as potential solutions in the form of features for the app. I refined this list of features adding in additional supporting features such as account creation and user onboarding.

With the refined list of features I conducted a card sorting exercise by writing each item on a post it note and organizing them on a board. From here I noticed a natural hierarchy, which I would use as a base for my apps structure. Using this and all the information gathered so far I developed thumbnail sketches of each screen.
 

3. Develop 

After forming a strong understanding of what I am designing, and developing an initial architecture to work with, I developed low fidelity wireframes of each screen. Using these wireframes I put together a simple clickable prototype with InVision.

4. Test

I conducted a preliminary usability test with a convenience sample of 4 people. I set the scene for my participants by explaining the general premise of the app and asked them to think aloud while exploring. Some confusion was created by the limited visual design and interactivity, though all 4 participants identified legitimate issues that gave me clear areas to improve on.

I iterated on my designs based on the feedback from the tests and presented the updated designs to the same audience. With the updated visual design of the UI and placeholder content the confusion from the previous iteration was resolved. Following this second round of testing I was able to recieve more concrete feedback on the expectations and needs of the users. 

5. Deliver

Taking into consideration what I learned from the user test I refined the UI and redesigned some of the features. I introduced some early branding ideas and refined the visual design of the app. Using clear colors, legible typography and place holder content, my app is beginning to take shape.

The Conclusion

I set out to design a minimum viable product with myself being the core audience. I believe I was successful in achieving that goal. Though there is still room for development, I believe that there is a legitimate need for an app like this outside of my own personal use. 

Additional features that could be designed in the future include: user onboarding, account creation, stretches, workout plans, and fitness tracking. 

Please find the latest versions of each screen and explainer text for each feature in the chart below.