PRSVR
The goal of this project was to create an automated, course-like, experience for sophisticated world class coaching and programming. The platform features both skill/technical based programming options, as well as body composition and performance based options. The platform revolves around a schedule, which allows you to add habits and workouts, from enrolled programs by the user. This is the gateway to earning points, unlocking badges and advancing through your programs towards your goals. The app features an interactive open-discussion forum where users can post or ask coaches questions directly. Users can customize and create social profiles for their peers to learn more about who they are, their interests, activity and current progress on the platform.
Tasks:
Tools:
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Overview:
Clients often struggle to achieve success in fitness programs due to poor habits outside of their training sessions and a lack of structured programming. Additionally, current training platforms fail to incorporate community engagement and gamified elements, which are crucial for motivation and adherence.
- Habit Formation: Clients have difficulty maintaining beneficial habits outside their structured training, affecting their overall progress.
- Lack of Engagement: Existing platforms do not offer a sense of community or gamified experiences, making the programs less engaging and enjoyable.
- Accountability: Clients need a supportive accountability circle to stay motivated and consistent with their program goals and daily habits.
USER RESEARCH
Research Methods: To ensure the platform met the needs of both users and coaches, we employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods:
- Surveys and Questionnaires: Distributed to potential users and coaches to gather initial insights on their preferences, habits, and pain points.
- User Interviews: Conducted in-depth interviews with a diverse group of clients and coaches to understand their goals, challenges, and desired features in a training platform.
- Competitive Analysis: Analyzed existing training platforms to identify gaps in community engagement, gamification, and accountability features.
- Usability Testing: Performed usability tests on early prototypes to observe user interactions and gather feedback on the platform’s functionality and design.
Findings:
- Need for Structure: Users emphasized the need for a structured, schedule-based approach to incorporate habits and workouts seamlessly into their daily routines.
- Community Engagement: Many users expressed a desire for a strong community aspect, including forums for discussions and direct communication with coaches.
- Gamification: Gamified elements like earning points, unlocking badges, and tracking progress were highly motivating factors for users.
- Accountability: The concept of an accountability circle was well-received, with users indicating that support from peers and coaches would help them stay on track.
Impact on the Project: The insights gathered from our research directly influenced the design and development of the platform. We incorporated a comprehensive schedule feature allowing users to add habits and workouts from their enrolled programs. To foster community engagement, we integrated an interactive forum for open discussions and direct questions to coaches. The gamified system of points and badges was designed to motivate users and provide a sense of achievement. Finally, social profiles and accountability circles were introduced to enhance user motivation and adherence to program goals.
PRODUCT FEATURES
Program Enrollment
- Navigate to the program details screen
- Conditional enrollment based on user access. If the user is upgraded to a premium/paid membership, they will be allowed to enroll in all programs. If the user is on a basic/free plan, they will be prompted to upgrade their membership with a paywall
- When enrolled, the user will be able to view and schedule unlocked workouts within the program
Workout
- Swipe or use the bottom section icon buttons to navigate between programmed exercises
- Log exercise sets with bottom sheet overlay
- Quickly "Jump To" a specific exercise using the list icon in the top right corner
- Play exercise demonstration loops and or listen to coach audio cues
Quick Schedule
- Quickly add a habit or workout to your schedule for the week
- Pull from programs you're enrolled in and select from workouts that are unlocked
- Manage your week by moving items around, editing and deleting
- Focused 7 day schedule to help the user have more intent and be present with the tasks in front of them during the current week
Navigation & Drawers
- Start and end drawers are available to access on all main pages with the top bar icons or in swiping inward from the edge of the screen, enabling additional navigation to other pages or features within the app
- Initial drawer greets the user with a selected stoic/motivational quote and allows access to toggle light/dark mode, view notifications, settings and much more
- End drawer is a visual dashboard and intermediate profile screen for the user, showing their progress across multiple categories such as weekly goals, level progress and points earned, leaderboard standing and training volume with links on each card to view the associated page with more information
Social Forum
- Two channel open discussion forum board for users to either interact with other users in "Drops" or ask a coach a question in "Spots"
- Posts include features for liking and disliking, bookmarking, tagging, commenting and more
- Dislike count and "toggled-by" info are only viewable to the original poster
- Custom database constraints applied on likes/dislikes, preventing the user from attempting both
- Posts allow users to engage with other users on the platform and quickly view their profile
Coach: Exercise Library
- Coach or admin permission/access allows the granted user to quickly pop over to the other side of the app, all within the same platform
- Among many features available on coach and admin dashboard, here we can see the coach is viewing the exercise library
- Quickly filter by exercise type or search the database by exercise name
- Flag exercises with a note, or quickly create a new exercise through the bottom sheet form that can be used and reused in program creation
Coach: Program Exercise
- Quickly add an exercise to a selected workout within a program from the coaching dashboard
- Expandable dropdown containers allow the coach to visually build a workout and organize their programming into blocks or sections
- Programmed exercises are added through a bottom sheet that uses additional bottom sheet overlays to allow for form completion without the need for the keyboard - this enhances speed and user experience
- Programming form includes exercise selection, audio selected, sets and reps/time, intensity type, video demonstration viewing and more
- Once programmed, the coach can quickly reorder or delete the exercise with available options within the associated block
- All changes are immediately surfaced on the user side of the platform
CHALLENGES
This project included many challenges both in design and development. Understanding what elements of the platform were valued was rather easy, while combining elements into an intuitive interface and layout proved to be challenging. PRSVR included months of testing and refining before settling on final designs. Some of the complexities and how I overcame them include:
- Various Program Types: Skill based programs offer a unique and gamified user experience where users have to unlock levels/workouts as they progress through their programs. Developing a system for how workouts are considered "complete", how certain exercises are logged and how this information is surfaced to the user proved challenging both on the front and back-end structure.
- Schedule Tool: Allowing users to freely add workouts and habits to one schedule while still controlling how/when/what they could add, proved challenging. This was solved through enrollment and managing "completed" workouts. Workouts can only be scheduled from programs they're enrolled in and workouts are only accessible to schedule if the workout has been successfully completed and or the workout is "up next" in the order.
- XP Point System: Points are earned through workout and habit completion from the schedule and have an associated user level. Back-end constraints allowed me to control thresholds for how habits were logged and what the maximum earned could be for any one completion. It was also important to manage items being edited or removed, to adjust the user XP and associated level. This was managed through custom functions on the front-end to calculate XP and level.
REFLECTION
Through various methods of user research and desired user experience analysis, I was able to develop a unique system and approach for putting the user at the center of their training journey while still allowing certain aspects to feel "guided", or that the coach was with them every step of the way. Allowing the user the flexibility and freedom to organize their week how they'd like, while still operating within a structured and controlled environment. This was mainly achieved through:
- Program enrollment and a scheduling tool, only allowing users to schedule from programs they're actively enrolled in and selecting from workouts that were unlocked - this prevented users from jumping around in programs without completing previous workouts first
- Providing "coach notes" and guidance in a post workout summary - this showcases stats from workout completion and allows the coach to explain where the user is at within the current program, what is coming up next and any recommendations or tips for scheduling the next workout. Users are prompted to schedule their next workout on the spot in the post-workout summary if they've completed and or "Passed" the current session
Research also indicated that users enjoyed social features and valued a community to interact with and compete within. Users also valued having access to professionals and coaches, to help them navigate their training and answer any questions. This was addressed through:
- An open discussion forum that gives users the ability to post within two channels and interact with users and or with coaches. Users can ask coaches questions and or visit the coaches profile to learn more about their professional background and schedule a video call with the coach, integrated through Calendly.
- Social profiles that showcase user info, activity, media posts, progress and achievements on the platform. Users can follow other users and like/comment on media posts. The home screen also shows media from users being followed.
- Leaderboard broken down into levels and organized by experience points earned. Points are acquired through workout, program, milestone and habit completion
UI GALLERY
