Graduation project: GymBuddy

With my graduation project it was possible to choose an assignment by yourself and find a client for it. Fitness has been my biggest hobby for a number of years and that's why I wanted to do something with it. After a meeting with the owners of my local gym, a problem emerged:

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Members, especially beginners, lose motivation to exercise, so they exercise less often or stop exercising. - E . Fokstra, owner Fysio & Fitness Middenmeer.

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The Research

To find out where this problem came from, I did several types of research. I did desk research to investigate what motivation is, why people exercise and why they often drop out. Then I wanted to go deeper into this by conducting surveys and interviews. I then processed all these insights into an overview and from there I started to come up with ideas and sketches.

Key Insights

One of the most recurring insights was that exercising with someone is a good way to stay motivated, you can encourage each other and you don't want to disappoint the other person by not showing up. I saw the most potential with this direction, so I started making flows and low fi sketches. After a number of feedback sessions and iterations, I started working on the prototype.

The Prototype

I worked out and prototyped a concept in which the user creates an account and can see via a gym map which other users are looking for a sports buddy at nearby gyms. The user can filter on different specifications such as: age, gender and sports goal in order to find the ideal sports buddy that suits him or her. From here, the user can choose a day to exercise together via a chat and a date planner.

While working on the prototype I performed various usability and A/B tests with the target group. I was able to get a lot of valuable information here. Through the usability test I was able to find out at what choke points the user got stuck, what was unclear and whether they would even want to use the app.With this project I mainly had to learn to work with a lot of independence, I had to make my own plan of what that had to be done, conduct interviews and user tests and finally ask for feedback in order to improve my work. I also had to take privacy related things into account. Can the app also work without using your location? What information is required to fill in when creating your account?

By the end of my graduation project, I had tested and improved my prototype several times. In the end, I am not only proud of the result, but also of what I have learned during the process. It was very exciting to be completely responsible for a project from start to finish, and especially to have it tested by the target group where you find out whether the concept can solve the design challenge or not.

I received a number of enthusiastic reactions from the testers and this kept me motivated to continue my work.

There are plenty of people who want to gym together, but this makes it more accessible to make contact with someone and to exercise together. - Hilde.

Last week I had to go to the gym alone, I skipped the gym because I don't like working out alone. So on those days I would like to find someone with the same fitness goals. - Kayleigh.

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