SWEATBUDDIES
End to end design project
Overview
Sweat Buddies is a fitness partnering app that is geared towards building a stronger female community at the gym. Sweat Buddies is aimed at women looking for workout partners and to allow women to feel more comfortable in the gym space.
Defining the Problem
The gym and fitness space is such a male dominated sector, that women can feel intimidated to delve into fitness. Female gym membership rates have fallen in recent years, while women’s interest in fitness is increasing.
Solution
Foster female community in the fitness space and create a stronger female presence in the fitness space by allowing women to find workout partners and feel more comfortable going to the gym.
Role
As the product designer, I was responsible for user research, designing the app, development, and testing.
Process
Empathize
In order to gain insight on the problem and better understand users’ reasons for gym anxiety, I reached out to friends who have gone to the gym or have had gym memberships. The goals for my research were to better understand what feelings other women face when going to the gym and how they would feel if there was more of a female community at the gym. I first conducted secondary research to find statistics on female gym membership rates and interest in fitness. According to my secondary research, women’s interest in fitness has grown, while gym memberships have dropped. Research also indicates that more than half of female gym goers have felt uncomfortable at the gym.
In order to gain more insight I conducted user interviews with women who have or had gym memberships. Through my user interviews, I found that a majority of interviewees avoided certain times at the gym, or had a gym partner to feel safer going to the gym.
Overall, through my secondary research and user interviews, I found that most women wanted a better female community at the gym, female safe spaces, and women only times for the gym.
Define
Through the secondary research and user interviews, I was able to define the pain points and develop the problem statements and user personas.
The main pain points discovered were wanting to focus on their workouts, having peace while working out, and avoiding unsolicited advice while working out.
The Problem Statements
How might we create a safer gym environment for women?
How might we build a stronger female community at the gym?
How might we educate gym staff to handle uncomfortable situations?
How might we create a system where reporting uncomfortable situations is easier?
Personas
Ideate
In order to design the app, I first created user flows to understand how a user would navigate the app. What would a user look for while using the app? How would the app flow from start to finish?
User Flows
The user flow above shows how a user would use the app to look for a workout partner.
Sketches and Wireframes
After identifying the user flow, of how a user would use the app, I created the sketches and wireframes.
Style Guide
High Fidelity Prototype
