FitQuest
A quest to make fitness more accessible
Team
Problem and Design Overview
Entering the gym world can be intimidating, especially for beginners lacking knowledge of safe and effective training methods. This knowledge gap not only increases the risk of injury but also acts as a deterrent for many eager to improve their fitness. Seeking guidance from personal trainers is a common solution, but it often comes at a significant cost and may create additional barriers to gym participation. Recognizing this challenge, we developed FitQuest—an accessible fitness application that harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) and wearable sensor technology to provide real-time feedback on exercise form. FitQuest also crafts personalized workout plans tailored to individual goals and schedules, maximizing users' potential and fostering a safer, more inclusive gym experience.
FitQuest revolutionizes fitness training by seamlessly integrating cutting-edge technology with expert guidance, making personalized training accessible to all. Utilizing AI algorithms and wearable sensors, FitQuest emulates the role of a personal trainer, delivering instant feedback on exercise form to users. With each repetition, users receive actionable insights to refine their technique and reduce the risk of injury. This feedback loop is complemented by FitQuest's ability to generate bespoke workout plans based on users' goals and availability. Whether aiming to build strength, improve endurance, or enhance flexibility, FitQuest adapts to individual preferences, ensuring optimal results. By placing the knowledge and support of a personal trainer directly into users' hands, FitQuest empowers individuals of all fitness levels to pursue their goals confidently and safely, transforming the fitness experience.
FitQuest: Elevate your fitness with AI guidance and real-time form feedback for maximum results!
Design Research Process and Key Insights
We aimed to comprehensively understand and cater to the needs of individuals who are new to the gym or seeking to enhance their gym experience. Our primary focus was on identifying these needs, the challenges they face, and opportunities for our design to improve their preparation for entering the gym, optimize their workout experience, and reduce the risk of injury. Recognizing a significant surge in interest in gym-related activities post-COVID, we noted a lack of guidance on staying safe and adequately prepared for gym sessions. This realization guided our research approach, which employed a multi-faceted strategy, including interviews with a diverse group of participants. We strategically selected participants representing varied backgrounds and experiences: a competitive bodybuilder proficient in powerlifting, a fitness coach with extensive coaching experience in powerlifting, and a novice gym-goer with limited experience. Each participant archetype was chosen to offer distinct perspectives: the competitive bodybuilder provided insights into achieving success in bodybuilding, the coach shared common mistakes made by beginners and how to prevent injuries, and the beginner offered insights into what motivates newcomers in the gym. Interviews served as our primary research method due to their capacity for in-depth, face-to-face interaction, allowing us to get personal insights into participants' gym routines, pain points, preparations, and more. This approach facilitated the collection of detailed information on how individuals of diverse backgrounds engage with the gym environment, their activities outside the gym, the shortcomings of existing gym apps, and their self-management strategies during gym sessions. We conducted design research in various gym environments, including our apartment gym and the IMA. This approach allowed us to observe firsthand the interactions between participants and gym equipment, as well as the atmosphere and social dynamics within different gym settings.
Our intial sketches of a hollistic fitness app encompassing workouts, nutrition, and recovery.
Warm-up Routines Lower the Risk of Injury and Increase Performance in the Gym
We found that warm-up routines were not common knowledge for our beginner participants. The competitive bodybuilder and the fitness coach both knew the importance of warming up, the beginner felt like they could just jump into the main workout and leave. Our experienced gymgoers mentioned they experienced injuries because of the lack of preparation before intense workouts, mainly as a beginner themselves. We learned this is usually a lesson people learn through experience, which is what we want to avoid. Getting an injury early in your gym experience will deter people away from the gym. The fitness coach emphasized the benefits of accessory lifts as part of a warm-up routine to prepare the body for main lifts. The interviews showed us the need for guidance on effective warm-up techniques. This shows the education that beginners need to have an effective and safe workout is not being taught to them. This leads us to prioritize a feature in our app that provides tailored warm-up routines based on the day's workout to reduce the risk of injury.
Injury Prevention
Nutrition as a Foundation for Fitness Success and Recovery.
From our interviews, we learned the importance of nutrition. The competitive bodybuilder emphasized that working out is not enough to reach their goals inside the gym. The hidden factor is nutrition. They have a detailed plan of all the macronutrients they need to eat before they enter the gym and after they exit the gym. For example, strategic use of high-carb meals before intense workouts to fuel performance. If you are working out and this is a personal best day you will be better off fueling and preparing earlier with proper carbs and protein. This will allow you to perform at your best. Nutrition is also the way to recover from the strain inside the gym, our research shows stories of participants experiencing plateaus in their fitness progress, attributing these stalls to bad dietary management. The participants needed more protein and calories throughout the day which led to a lack of motivation to go back into the gym. Deficiency in protein and calories will increase tiredness and increase the risk of injury because your body has not had the right nutrients to repair itself after the workout. We learned there is a direct link between diet, recovery, and performance.
Nutrition
Real Time Feedback
We learned from our participants that when they felt pain from their workouts they would continue the movement and tough it out, this led to a pivotal realization in our research. “Toughing it out” can lead to a lower-quality workout and injuries. This came from the beginner gym goer, which emphasized the need for real-time feedback on form and exertion levels. This would give the people a coach inside their pockets to help correct the workout and decrease the risk of injury. Our other participants like the fitness coach who was huge on adjusting workouts in real time accepted well this idea based on how the body felt on that specific day. Along with the app, a sensor that could track movement so we could teach in real-time to make informed decisions about their workouts, leading to a safe and more productive experience.
Feedback
Storyboards of how FitQuest and our sensor help to create a guided and effective workout.
Iterative Design Process and Key Insights
FitQuest doesn't just understand your fitness goals; it helps you clearly express and track them. This personalized approach ensures that your fitness plan aligns with your aspirations.
Our paper prototype in our envisioned usability process.
After we considered our goals for our product, we chose to focus on two tasks:
- Facilitating Clarity on Personal Fitness Goals.
- Providing Comprehensive Guidance on Exercise Form and Techniques for Safe and Effective Workouts.
In our iterative design process for the fitness app, we prioritized a user-centered approach by involving a diverse range of participants, including fitness enthusiasts, novices, trainers, and individuals with specific fitness goals. Usability testing was conducted in real gym settings, where participants interacted with the paper prototype's features, set fitness goals, accessed educational materials, and followed exercise routines. By observing their interactions and gathering feedback, we gained valuable insights into the app's usability, effectiveness, and overall user experience. Testing in gym environments ensured that the app's performance was evaluated in contextually relevant scenarios, allowing us to identify and address usability issues effectively. In the design process, paper prototyping initially helped visualize the app's features and layout. Through heuristic evaluations and usability testing, potential usability issues were identified and addressed, leading to significant revisions such as adding educational content and improving goal-setting flexibility. Finally, digital mockups were created to refine the app's design, incorporating peoples feedback for a more human-centered approach.
Lack of Education
There is a strong need for educational content. In our initial concepts and designs, we thought the sensor and bar tracking would be enough to help the people with their forms. However participants, especially beginners expressed that they needed to know how to perform the exercise or the sensor wouldn't help. Initially, the app had minimal instructional content, assuming people had a basic understanding of gym exercises, we needed to remove this assumption. Our design lacked what the beginners needed, more feedback showed us that the people using the apps wanted guidance on proper form to prevent injuries while getting feedback on if they were performing it well. We used this to incorporate detailed exercise demonstrations. Videos, step-by-step instructions, and feedback.
Paper prototype and digital mock up providing helpful information regarding the workout.
Flexibility in Workout Planning
Feedback from the iterative design process showed us the importance of freedom within the app. Initially, the app had a strict uneditable workout schedule. This is another assumption we made, we did not consider people’s fluctuating availabilities/schedules or changing fitness goals. Our participants showed us that the app had a one-size-fits-all approach that would not work well with their changing lifestyles. We incorporated a new design that would allow people to build their workout schedule and workouts if they needed to. The one the app builds would be shown as a “recommended plan” This gives freedom to the people using the app and it enhances the app's adaptability.
Paper prototype and digital mock up showing the flexibility in workout planning.
Feedback
Our participants were also confused about the bar path page. Initially, our only way of feedback came in the way of the target zone. If the sensor stayed in the correct path for the specific exercise you would know if the exercise was performed correctly. The difficulty came when you did not perform it well. The participants felt the target zone potentially would not give enough feedback to help out everyone. Now the bar path page has feedback in words along with the target zone. It will give where you went from and tips on how to avoid the mistake. Along with this, we performed more heuristic evaluations and included an educational page on how to line up the sensor with the bar, machine, or dumbbell to avoid people guessing where the sensor should be placed.
Paper prototype and digital mock up providing feedback and bar path tracking.
Resulting Design
Here is a walkthrough of FitQuest, where we demonstrate how each feature works in sync to provide you with a seamless fitness experience.
Fitquest transforms the difficult journey into fitness into a personalized/interactive experience. The first step is understanding personal goals. This begins the moment people log in and create their profile. The app uses a quick registration process where you input essential details like weight, height, age, and fitness objectives. The app also combines these figures with your available days, creating a workout schedule uniquely. This design even caters to unpredictable schedules, ensuring flexibility for people. Also, progress and personal statistics are continuously updated and displayed, offering a transparent/motivating overview of their journey.
The second task focuses on imparting knowledge about proper exercise forms and techniques, this is very important for safe and effective workouts. Fitquest approach uses a mix of visual aids and real-time feedback. When you select a workout, the app displays detailed videos demonstrating correct exercise techniques. These are augmented by the use of a wearable sensor, providing immediate feedback on your form and performance. As you perform exercises, like squats, the sensor tracks your movement, offering insights on areas of improvement. The app has undergone significant enhancements. Changes include integrating verbal feedback with visual cues, simplifying the UI by combining goals and availability into a single page, and introducing a convenient feature to add personal notes and access instructional videos directly from the workout routine. These improvements not only enrich people's experience but also emphasize our goal to make fitness accessible, understandable, and personalized.