Lift Buddy

The Problem

Lift Buddy is a passion project, driven by a personal pain point of mine. I've been wanting to get into weight training for a very long time. However, as someone who knows nothing about anything gym‐related, the thought of getting seriously injured from doing something wrong, scared me! Additionally, asking someone for help at the gym can be extremely intimidating.

Research

With this frustration in mind, I wanted see if others also felt the same, and if so, how they're currently dealing with it.

User Interviews

I surveyed 16 users with varying backgrounds in weight training, and conducted 4 interviews with users who are interested in beginning.

Key Insights

• 53% of users weight train either with a partner or a group of friends. Majority of these users identified as a Beginner or Intermediate weight trainer. While majority of the remaining 47% of users who weight train alone identified as Advanced weight trainers.
• Users prefer to weight train with at least one other person as you'll have someone to spot/support you and take photos/videos to check your form.
• When looking for credible weight training information, majority of users look towards (1) YouTube, (2) Instagram, and (3) Friends, as having easy‐to‐access visual instructions from a tight‐knit social media community, accompanied with hands-on advice from more advanced friends makes it easy to find information that best suits the user's needs.
• 89.4% of users track their weight training progress through journaling, a fitness app, or taking photos/videos.

Competitive Analysis

I made a list of the current most popular Health & Fitness apps and identified the key features I envisioned Lift Buddy to have.

Pain Points

• Focuses more on quantity than quality. For example, there are lots of workout material within the apps, however without any explanations of why these movements are beneficial and effective.
• Some apps allow users to track their progress, however only when accompanied with a third‐party accessory (ex. FitBit).
• Lacks the ability to receive feedback and connect with others. Both of which were ranked highly as important wants/needs when beginning weight training.

User Persona

I wanted to interview users who were relatively new and users who had substantial experience weight training. I created a persona for beginner weight trainers based on the users I interviewed.

Design Solutions

Home Page

The home page is designed to include features that both beginner and experienced weight trainers look for to make their gym life easier. At the top is a carousel of comments left on the user's posts from fellow Lift Buddies, followed by a curated workout plan and demonstration videos. This addresses the pain point of providing beginners with support/advice from other weight trainers and helps to build a sense of community.

Journalling & Setting Goals

Through my primary research, I found that 89.4% of users actively track their weight training progress in some sort of way. As such, I knew I wanted to dedicate navigation tabs solely for journaling and setting goals. The journaling page focuses more on users tracking their sets, reps, and weight, as well as any notes they may want to reference in the future. The goal page was designed to motivate users, with progress bars visually showcasing how much closer they are to achieving their goals.

Visual Design

Style Guide

Lessons Learned

As this project is on‐going, I intend to usability test my designs for refinement of user interactions and experience.