Helping people live healthier lives, together
Helping people live healthier lives, together
Role
Role
UX/UI designer
UX/UI designer
Duration
Duration
12 weeks
12 weeks
Tools
Tools
Figma, Adobe Suite
Figma, Adobe Photoshop
PROJECT OVERVIEW
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Amigos served as my capstone deliverable during my Springboard UX/UI Apprenticeship
Amigos served as my capstone deliverable during my Springboard UX/UI Apprenticeship
My relationship with physical activity resonates with many — I struggle with consistency when it comes to staying active despite having a strong desire to live an active, healthy lifestyle with my local community. Amigos materialized out of the need to promote healthier lives centered around sports, physical activity, and community.
My relationship with physical activity resonates with many — I struggle with consistency when it comes to staying active despite having a strong desire to live an active, healthy lifestyle with my local community. Amigos materialized out of the need to promote healthier lives centered around sports, physical activity, and community.
PROBLEM
PROBLEM
23% of American adults do not meet physical activity guidelines
23% of American adults do not meet physical activity guidelines
99.6% of people understand the health benefits of physical activity. Yet, a majority of American adults fail to live healthy lives – myself included. This begs the question – why is there a discrepancy between knowledge and action?
99.6% of people understand the health benefits of physical activity. Yet, a majority of American adults fail to live healthy lives – myself included. This begs the question – why is there a discrepancy between knowledge and action?
SOLUTION
SOLUTION
Designing a social networking platform for people to connect through sports and physical activity
Designing a social networking platform for people to connect through sports and physical activity
PRIMARY RESEARCH
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Secondary Research
Secondary Research
I read more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications narrowed by keywords including, “social exercise”, “social workout”, “physical activity”, “benefits”, “challenges”, etc, until I gained sufficient baseline understanding of the most common barriers to physical activity. The main barriers to an active lifestyle fall under two categories:
I read more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications narrowed by keywords including, “social exercise”, “social workout”, “physical activity”, “benefits”, “challenges”, etc, until I gained sufficient baseline understanding of the most common barriers to physical activity. The main barriers to an active lifestyle fall under two categories:
Let's dig deeper…
Let's dig deeper…
What are some benefits to being physically active?
What are some benefits to being physically active?
What are some benefits to being physically active?
Primary Research
Primary Research
Learning about the benefits of being socially active made sense to someone like me, someone that thoroughly enjoys social sports and activities. If I can share healthy experiences with others, why don’t I?
That is not the case for everyone.
I wonder why that is? Since there were questions left unanswered, I set my sails towards conducting my own user interviews with real people.
I interviewed 5 participants (ages 24-29) of varying activity levels to form an understanding of human behavior and trends in physical activity.
Learning about the benefits of being socially active made sense to someone like me, someone that thoroughly enjoys social sports and activities. If I can share healthy experiences with others, why don’t I?
That is not the case for everyone.
Why is that? Since there were questions left unanswered, I set my sails towards conducting my own user interviews with real people.
I interviewed 5 participants (ages 24-29) of varying activity levels to form an understanding of human behavior and trends in physical activity.
"I am more likely to engage with people in my neighborhood"
"I am more likely to engage with people in my neighborhood"
People tend to do things by themselves or with their friends, family, or spouse because it is convenient to their lifestyle.
People tend to do things by themselves or with their friends, family, or spouse because it is convenient to their lifestyle.
"I started training at the gym because of my sister"
"I started training at the gym because of my sister"
Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. However, what is important is the extrinsic motivation to engage in activities with those around us. The absence of such external circumstances often fails to yield consistent, internal motivation.
Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. However, what is important is the extrinsic motivation to engage in activities with those around us. The absence of such external circumstances often fails to yield consistent, internal motivation.
"I am looking for someone with a similar budget for activities"
"I am looking for someone with a similar budget for activities"
60% of users found it difficult to find compatible exercise partners that matched their interests, experience level, energy/personality, and gender.
60% of users found it difficult to find compatible exercise partners that matched their interests, experience level, energy/personality, and gender.
This begs the question:
This begs the question:
How might we encourage active lifestyles?
How might we encourage active lifestyles?
PLAN AND IDEATE
PLAN AND IDEATE
Design
Design
At first, I theorized 2 mobile solutions to reduce sedentary behavior: create a fitness program or diet plan. However, when taking into account my three themes: convenience, motivation, and compatibility – I realized that a social networking app focused on personalized user experiences better promotes physical activity by way of fulfilling the fundamental human need of social interaction.
At first, I theorized 2 mobile solutions to reduce sedentary behavior: create a fitness program or diet plan. However, when taking into account my 3 themes: convenience, motivation, and compatibility – I realized that a social networking app focused on personalized user experiences better promotes physical activity by way of fulfilling the fundamental human need of social interaction.
Bringing the idea to life
Bringing the idea to life
Sisters Jaylene and Shawna use Amigos to create and organize a recreational futball league wherein they can add members, set up teams, and organize matches.
Sisters Jaylene and Shawna use Amigos to create and organize a recreational futball league wherein they can add members, set up teams, and organize matches.
Victor wants to know if anyone is currently playing basketball at a local court. He opens the Amigos app and finds John playing 1.3 miles away.
Victor wants to know if anyone is currently playing basketball at a local court. He opens the Amigos app and finds John playing 1.3 miles away.
User Flow: Creating a new profile
User Flow: Creating a new profile
Input name, age, gender, photos
Enable location
Enable notification
Select interests
Assign skill level to each interest
Success screen
Input name, age, gender, photos
Enable location
Enable notification
Select interests
Assign skill level to each interest
Success screen
PROTOTYPE
PROTOTYPE
Sketches
Sketches
I started mapping out the app's hierarchy, navigation, and interface elements where I sourced inspiration from popular apps such as Google Maps, Yelp, and Tinder to ensure the user experience of using Amigos is familiar to most users. Moreover, I prioritized simple and self-evident actions when creating new app features such as the skill-level assignment found in the onboarding process.
I started mapping out the app's hierarchy, navigation, and interface elements where I sourced inspiration from popular apps such as Google Maps, Yelp, and Tinder to ensure the user experience of using Amigos is familiar to most users. Moreover, I prioritized simple and self-evident actions when creating new app features such as the skill-level assignment found in the onboarding process.
Explore, manage, or host activities
Make new friends
Stay up to date
Onboarding steps
First round evaluation
Presented below are the three main research findings from my first round of usability testing. I leveraged these insights during the next design iterations.
Hi-fidelity screens
Skill assignment
Explore local activities
Find a friend feature
Browse news feed
EVALUATION
EVALUATION
Usability Testing
I conducted 10 usability tests on 4 red routes over the span of 8 weeks to evaluate the functionality of Amigos. From user testing I can uncover problems and discover opportunities that will improve the user experience.
The findings are presented below.
Replace color skill-based tier levels with monochromatic icons
4/5 users were unable to recall the color assignments as it related to skill levels
2 users did not find the color tier from Green > Orange > Purple to be intuitive
Solution: Replace with monochromatic icons that clearly indicates tier-based skill levels
Improve visual hierarchy by ranking actions and content
2/5 users had trouble locating the "Host your own group" CTA
Those users mistook “Host your own group” as a search bar or they did not see it on first glance
Persistent search bar took up unnecessary space
Solution: Call attention to the “Host your own group” action by turning it into a perceivable CTA and placing it immediately under the tab menu
Solution: Save valuable screen space by updating the persistent search bar into a smaller, yet distinguishable search icon
Improve navigability
Improve navigability
3/5 users had trouble navigating to the “Groups” feature
Those users navigated to the Explore icon in the navbar when it actually belonged as a tab menu under the Social icon (groups = social groups)
The Explore text label was ambiguous as it could indicate the exploration of activities and groups
Solution: Update the text label from Explore to Activities as this aptly communicates the purpose and function of the destination and its nested content more accurately
3/5 users had trouble navigating to the “Groups” feature
Those users navigated to the Explore icon in the navbar when it actually belonged as a tab menu under the Social icon (groups = social groups)
The Explore text label was ambiguous as it could indicate the exploration of activities and groups
Solution: Update the text label from Explore to Activities as this aptly communicates the purpose and function of the destination and its nested content more accurately
FINAL PROTOTYPE
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Amigos was created out of a necessity to create a safe space for people to connect through sports and physical activity. As a frequent relocator, I could have benefited from a comprehensive application like Amigos to introduce me to new friends and communities.
Community is the underlying ethos of Amigos. I translated the underlying ethos into a company that emphasizes harmony, growth, and exploration by:
Helping build active relationships with like-minded individuals
Facilitating participation in sports and physical activity
Providing an all-in-one community engagement platform for local communities
Amigos was created out of a necessity to create a safe space for people to connect through sports and physical activity. As a frequent relocator, I could have benefited from a comprehensive application like Amigos to introduce me to new friends and communities.
Community is the underlying ethos of Amigos. I translated the underlying ethos into a company that emphasizes harmony, growth, and exploration by:
Helping build active relationships with like-minded individuals
Facilitating participation in sports and physical activity
Providing an all-in-one community engagement platform for local communities
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
What did I learn?
What did I learn?
Completing my first UX project came with plenty of lessons learned.
01 | Combatting unconscious bias: As humans, it is natural to be biased towards our own work. This unconscious bias hinders user-centric design because design decisions are based on personal intuitions instead of evidence-based research.
02 | Know your UX Laws: Ignoring concepts such as Miller’s Law can cause cognitive overload when your app demands extraneous working memory or Jakob’s Law where users expect familiar functionality based on their past experiences. Accounting for the laws of UX helped me build an intuitive and user-centric app.
03 | Perfectionism is the enemy of progress: Seeking pixel-perfect design in the early stages of the design process is a major hindrance to progress. It is critical to understand that great design is iterative, and iteration is based on user feedback.
Completing my first UX project came with plenty of lessons learned.
01 | Combatting unconscious bias: As humans, it is natural to be biased towards our own work. This unconscious bias hinders user-centric design because design decisions are based on personal intuitions instead of evidence-based research.
02 | Know your UX Laws: Ignoring concepts such as Miller’s Law can cause cognitive overload when your app demands extraneous working memory or Jakob’s Law where users expect familiar functionality based on their past experiences. Accounting for the laws of UX helped me build an intuitive and user-centric app.
03 | Perfectionism is the enemy of progress: Seeking pixel-perfect design in the early stages of the design process is a major hindrance to progress. It is critical to understand that great design is iterative, and iteration is based on user feedback.
Future Opportunities
Future Opportunities
Creating a product living between Facebook, Meetup, and Tinder left me with wanting more time to fulfill every single design opportunity I had in mind, including:
01 | Include additional features: Users can currently use the map to search for activities, but what about locating nearby soccer fields, basketball courts, yoga studios, and so forth? Users want to find compatible friends and suitable spaces for these activities to take place. Another feature I would like to implement is user rating systems. To ensure user safety, people should be aware of any users whom have received multiple “reports”.
02 | Monetization strategy: Users can pay fees to take part in activities such as lessons or tournaments. I would also be interested in including sponsored recommendations, e.g., groups can pay Amigos to prioritize their group during searches and/or recommendations.
Creating a product living between Facebook, Meetup, and Tinder left me with wanting more time to fulfill every single design opportunity I had in mind, including:
01 | Include additional features: Users can currently use the map to search for activities, but what about locating nearby soccer fields, basketball courts, yoga studios, and so forth? Users want to find compatible friends and suitable spaces for these activities to take place. Another feature I would like to implement is user rating systems. To ensure user safety, people should be aware of any users whom have received multiple “reports”.
02 | Monetization strategy: Users can pay fees to take part in activities such as lessons or tournaments. I would also be interested in including sponsored recommendations, e.g., groups can pay Amigos to prioritize their group during searches and/or recommendations.
