Motiv.
A Health & Fitness Tracking Application
Motiv aims to be a personal companion for staying active and motivated. With intuitive tools and tailored support, Motiv helps turn small steps into big achievements.
Challenges
There are countless ways to collect health and fitness data using smartphone apps, wearable devices like fitness trackers, or sampling tools such as glucose monitors. However, users often face challenges such as:
Remembering to sync their device with their smartphone app.
Interpreting the collected data to identify potential issues.
Setting meaningful health and fitness goals and staying on track.
Sharing their health and fitness data with healthcare professionals effectively.
Simplify Health Tracking: Provide a seamless and intuitive way to collect, sync, and visualize health and fitness data from multiple devices in one place.
Empower User Growth: Help users set achievable goals, interpret their data, and take actionable steps to improve their health and fitness journey.
Objectives
Researching
Many health and fitness apps offer robust tracking features, but they often fall short in usability and user engagement. Common issues include overwhelming interfaces, lack of personalized insights, and difficulty integrating data across devices. Through user interviews and competitive analysis, I explored these challenges to identify how Motiv could better address the needs of users—empowering them to make meaningful progress without the frustration.
Research Goals
Enhancing Usability & User Engagement
Assess the usability of existing health and fitness apps and identify opportunities for improvement.
Examine strategies to improve app usage consistency and overall user engagement.
Understand how users set and adhere to health/fitness goals and track their progress.
Goal 1
Optimizing Data Utilization & Health Outcomes
Evaluate how effectively users utilize and interpret the data collected by health and fitness apps.
Investigate how app data can be used to recognize and address potential health problems.
Explore the processes for sharing health and fitness data with healthcare professionals and peers to enhance health outcomes.
Goal 2
Goal Setting & Adherence
Identify any friction users face when sticking to goals.
Explore why some users might not be using these apps and what prevents them from doing so.
Evaluate how users currently set goals and their expectations of themselves.
Goal 3
Interviewing Users on Current Health & Fitness App Usage
How are people currently engaging with health and fitness tracking apps? To learn this, I conducted user interviews both in-person and virtual interviews via Zoom.
Conducted in-person and remotely.
Participants from various ages, marital statuses, genders, and occupations.
Data was synthesized and analyzed.
“If I can’t customize it, I don’t want it”
During the interviews, an interesting and common occurrence showed that some very active people do not use health and fitness apps often. These users are usually confident in their fitness and health journey and do not think there are features within these apps that could benefit them.
Common Themes Found Through Interviews
All participants expressed that personalization if very important to them for their experience with health and fitness apps. The reason range from personalized workouts dependant on age, height, and weight to building workouts for specific muscles groups and goals.
Personalization
Many users expressed liking visualizations for reminders, progress, and trends.
Also, all users said that they find the app reminders useful and not an annoyance.
Visualizations
Lack of time is consistently the biggest struggle user face when trying to stick to routines and goals for their health and fitness.
Time
Almost all said that setting goals is easy but they also all say they have trouble sticking to their goals. This leads me to believe that setting goals is not as easy as they think. They are setting goals but not realistic ones.
Goal Setting
All users stated they would share their data directly from their apps with their
doctor.
Though a couple admit it could help for some competition and motivation or help redefine fitness.
Data Sharing
Most health and fitness apps were either already on their phone, with their smart watch, with their local gym, or at-home exercise equipment like the Peloton.
Companion Apps
Even if users are not super health or fitness-minded, or feel that they are not sticking to their goals and routines, they still check their apps daily.
Daily Use
Many are unaware of what their apps are able to do, which ones can be connected, and what devices they can be used on
In summary, user are not often aware of the full extent of capabilities
Unaware of Full Capabilities
Many participants expressed not being very knowledgeable about health and fitness. In turn, these participants stated they rely on external sources to help guide them and inform them.
Others find motivation from external sources.
Relying on External Sources
Building Empathy
Understanding the needs, frustrations, and motivations of users is at the heart of designing meaningful experiences. To truly connect with the people who would benefit from Motiv, I created a detailed user persona based on research insights. This persona helps bring the user’s perspective into focus, guiding design decisions that prioritize empathy and usability.
Jane Gnas - User Persona
“When I am trying to implement new health and wellness/fitness routines, I want to find and implement routines that can ebb and flow with my lifestyle and changes, so I can stick to my goals and feel better overall.”
Recommendations
To address this, the app should offer a robust personalization engine that tailors workouts and recommendations based on individual user profiles, including age, height, weight, and specific fitness goals.
In addition, the app could integrate a customizable tracking system, allowing users to select and prioritize the data they wish to monitor, such as steps, weight, calories burned, heart rate, standing hours, alcohol consumption, and daily mood. This would enable users to receive more targeted advice and insights, enhancing their overall engagement and satisfaction with the app.
Personalization
The app should incorporate more dynamic visualizations for reminders, progress tracking, and trend analysis. Users appreciate visual representations of their data, so offering customizable charts and graphs that track their progress over time—such as fitness milestones, health trends, or goal achievements—would be highly beneficial.
Additionally, the reminder system should continue to be a key feature, with the option to personalize reminders based on user preferences and goals. Given that users find these reminders helpful rather than annoying, maintaining their presence while allowing for customization in timing, frequency, and format would further improve user engagement and adherence.
Visualizations
The app should offer quick, efficient workout options that can be completed in short periods, such as 5, 10, or 15 minutes. These "micro-workouts" would cater to users who struggle to find time for longer sessions, making it easier to integrate fitness into their busy schedules.
Additionally, the app should offer users fluid routines - that is, users should be able to pick a routine for each day based on their free time, energy level, and mental space.
Finally, incorporating suggestions for how to integrate physical activity into daily routines—such as stretching or quick exercises during breaks—can help users make the most of their free time without feeling like they're sacrificing it.
Time
The app should include a guided goal-setting feature that prompts users to consider factors like their current fitness level, available time, and lifestyle. This feature could offer personalized goal recommendations, breaking larger goals into smaller, manageable milestones that are easier to achieve and track.
The app could also incorporate a reality check function, where users receive feedback on the feasibility of their goals based on historical data and patterns. This would help users set goals that are ambitious yet attainable, increasing their likelihood of sticking to them and maintaining long-term motivation.
Goal Setting
The app should offer a selective data-sharing feature that allows users to easily share their health and fitness data directly with their healthcare providers. This could include secure, one-click sharing options for specific data points, such as activity levels, heart rate, or weight trends, to facilitate more informed medical consultations.
Data Sharing
The app should be cross-functional with a variety or the top devices - smartwatches, exercise equipment, and so on. This will allow users to house all their data in one place and keep flow when working out.
Companion Apps
The app should offer users the chance to do walk-throughs occasionally. Users should also get weekly hints about different features within the app.
Unaware of Full Capabilities
To support users who rely on external sources for health and fitness knowledge, the app should offer an integrated content hub that provides reliable, expert-curated information on topics such as nutrition, exercise, and wellness. This hub could include articles, videos, and tips tailored to the user's fitness level and goals, making it easier for them to access trustworthy guidance within the app.
Relying on External Sources
Data Encryption and Privacy
Data should be encrypted with services like cloudflare. Users should be made aware of this encryption and privacy feature and this should also be a pillar and main marketing point of the app.