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For the last 4 months of 2019, I lived in Australia for a study abroad term at the Royal Melbourne of Institute Technology (also known as RMIT). During my time in the ‘down under’, I got a challenge to create a fitness application that can (hopefully) solve an actual problem that the campus is currently facing.
A lot of RMIT students are NOT aware of, and engaged with, the RMIT fitness activities.
It is suspected that locating the class’s promotions within the main website has caused the fitness section to be drowned by the amount of overwhelming information. Additionally, offline registration might also be a contributing factor to the low number of new students.
To educate potential users about RMIT fitness activities and increase the class’s registration and occupancy rate.
We conducted our domain research by interviewing fitness staff and observing fitness activities in RMIT.
There is a significant pain point in the current registration process:
Our group conducted an observation by visiting and joining (exciting, am I right?!) some fitness activities offered on campus including fitness classes (Zumba, body pump, karate), dance classes (urban hip hop, Funkadelics), gym staff desks, and the Melbourne city bath (a city fitness centre which RMIT has a partnership program with). Through the observation, we found out that:
Our target is limited to RMIT’s students and staff, however, we divided the still-large-market into three distinct groups: Casual Users, Sport Enthusiasts, and University Staff
Based on the insights we gathered, we created three ideal user personas that represents each user group.
In the search page, users are able to scroll on activities feed and search their preferred fitness activity.
The page displays users’ upcoming, saved, and past activities. Also, users are able to sign-in to their class on this page by scanning a QR code that will be available in the class on the front desk.
Knowing that participants lack motivation, the achievements page provides users a feature for point collecting and rankings to keep users motivated.
In the profile page, the user will see their personal achievements, including their points, rankings, and medals. They can also edit their personal information by clicking on the settings icon where they can find functions including help and support, sign out, etc.
By having detailed low fidelity sketches, we were able to map up the flow of our ideal users when completing tasks.
We created a design library (includes components, patterns, guidelines, brand identity) to create an integrated workflow. We also did several iterations for a variety of design items e.g., navigation bar, top bar, class card.
Our initial concept was showcased to three potential users in a usability test. The test consists of 3 different scenarios and tasks.
“The share function can contribute tremendously to (casual) users just like me since we can be more passive when searching for activities’ information and end up joining activities that were referred by friends.” — Theofilo Serur
“It is easy to navigate through the app.”
— Patrick Downling
Despite the compliments and even though users can complete all tasks successfully, we found out that there are some significant problems that impact the app’s usability. Some reoccurring problems we found:
By having a clear direction on what works and what does not, we created the third iteration and delivered a final presentation.
Designing a fitness application booking system for Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Melbourne has been an absolute blast! Here are some key things I learned throughout the process:
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