Let's get moving
My role
Product designer (team lead of 5 designers)
Timeline
6 Weeks
Company
BOLD is an online 8 or 12 week fitness program designed by physical therapists, doctors and other industry professionals for adults aged 60 and above in order to help them maintain their physical health and improve their balance, strength and mobility.
The goal
Previously, BOLD did not offer a comprehensive dashboard for its users. There were three main goals for creating a centralized dashboard:
1. Increase program completion rate
2. Increase user return after they completed the 8/12 week program
3. Create a valuable and intuitive experience for the users
The challenge
The most interesting challenge for this project was designing for the elders. How do we build the dashboard so that it's understandable and easy to use? What considerations and limitations should we think about when designing something for older adults? What does the given demographic need/want from the program? What motivates them? What do they like, what do they not like?
final deliverables & results
A dashboard that my grandma can understand
In 6 weeks, my team and I researched and designed a dashboard for the online fitness program to improve the overall experience for the user through the program and beyond. The dashboard is meant to serve as a centralized hub where the users can track their progress through the program, access tips and articles, and see the badges they've earned.
After conducting usability tests with the final prototype, we learned that on average users found:
The overall ease of use of the dashboard - 8/10
The written copy comprehension - 8.5/10
DISCOVERY
Sports, computers, and elders
In order to design a product that elders find intuitive and valuable, I took several approaches to understand how the users engage with apps and online platforms. I conducted competitive and comparative market research to find design trends and patterns, and conducted user interviews with potential users to find their habits and needs when exercising.
USER INTERVIEWS
In the preliminary user interviews with non-BOLD users, I found some interesting trends among older adults:
1. There were two primary groups: those who exercise 4-6 days a week for about 1-3 hours a day, and those who exercise infrequently
2. They mainly track their health by means of mood, quality of sleep, energy levels
3. Most were frequent users of Facebook
MARKET RESEARCH
I looked into several online platforms that are targeted at elders, such as AARP, Suddenly Senior and Senior Living, and more. I found several common threads among them:
1. Simple and clean design
2. Article-forward: many websites provided written content such as articles and blogs
3. Bigger fonts and clear information architecture
Ideas were synthesized using digital sticky notes
IDEATION: STEP 1
Sketching
After gathering and analyzing the research findings, my team and I got together and sketched out ideas in a “Crazy 8’s” format, and then dot-voted on elements (“modules”) that we liked. From this, we then narrowed it down to having the following modules in our dashboard:
- Motivational quote
- Weekly timeline
- Up next video
- Personal stats
- Badge collection
- Featured article
- Expanded weekly class view (below fold)
IDEATION: STEP 2
Iteration, iteration, iteration
We then ideated on layouts, by splitting into pairs and working on three different iterations, to see which elements work best in various illustrations:
- A very clean and minimal design
- A familiar, facebook-like design
- Accessible design with enlarged fonts and graphics
IDEATION: STEP 3
Bringing it to life
From initial sketches, to mid-fidelity mockups. At this point we started adding a bit of color and experimenting with fonts and information architecture. We prioritized the “up next” video to be the most important module, since it's the primary product of the program.
deliverables
Final Result
HOMEPAGE
ARTICLES MAIN PAGE
VIDEO PLAYER (LIGHT)
VIDEO PLAYER (DARK)
We added an option for a dark mode for the video player. It has several benefits:
1. Reduces eye strain, especially in low-light environments
2, Improves visibility for users with low vision
3. Improves focus by allowing the content to stand out while the surrounding area is receded into the background
ARTICLE VIEW
MOBILE HOMEPAGE
MENU
VIDEO PLAYER (LIGHT)
VIDEO PLAYER (DARK)
validation testing
Users found the dashboard useful and easy to understand
We then reached out to people we interviewed in our preliminary research, as well as went out to conduct a guerilla research in public spaces. We tested our solution on 10 people, and after getting their initial feedback, we made a few adjustments in the written copy, such as renaming the main page from “dashboard” to “home”, making headers and CTAs more consistent and clear “watch now vs watch next”. Overall, the interviewees ranked:
The overall ease of use of the dashboard - 8/10
The written copy comprehension - 8.5/10
A few takeaways from the usability test:
- Interviewees had an easy time finding the first and foremost video
- They reacted positively to the welcome message at the top left of the dashboard
- They reacted positively to having articles on the dashboard
Next steps
So, what's next?
From the research, we found the next steps that could be taken for making BOLD and even more valuable experience for the users.
TRAINER PROFILES
Several interviewees mentioned they’d like to see profiles of the trainers, so that they can learn about their backgrounds and get to know them better, thus making it feel more personal.
OPTION TO SEEK SUPPORT
It’s important to be able to express negative emotions, to be heard and supported. A good way to do provide more support to the users is to have an option like “discouraged” in the post-workout feedback, and having a coach reach out to the users personally
PERSONALIZING FEATURED ARTICLES
A few interviewees expressed the desire to have more personalized articles and tips, based on their health needs.
Let's chat!
I'd love to connect with you! Let's talk about anything, and grab some coffee
© Anastasiya Pak 2020