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A running app that uses running partners and challenges to help keep you accountable and fuel your drive.
Project Role
Seja Kwon, UX/UI Designer
Duration
July 2021 - August 2021, 4 weeks
Tools
Figma, Procreate, Photoshop, Illustrator, Miro
Project Overview
Discover
Ideate
Prototype
Test
Guerilla Testing
Final Prototype Test
Wireframe
Sketching
Lofi/Hifi Prototype
Wireframe
Sketching
Analysis
Competitor Analysis
Research Interview
User Personas
Problem Background
You know that feeling when you're extra motivated to go running to be healthy or lose weight for a week or two, only to lose motivation quickly and go back to your normal lifestyle? Kick is a running app that's designed to help solve that. I was brought on for an existing traditional running tracking app thats focused on sharing stats and progress with friends and families. The problem they faced is that they noticed heavy engagement with the app for the first three weeks, then a significant user dropoff. The company's hypothesis was that creating a direct messaging system would help to create increased usage of the app and sustained engagement. Currently, the app does not have a way to alert or message others.
Design Requirements
1. Create the opportunity for users to message each other with health and fitness goals/achievements
2. Create an integrated messaging experience throughout the product drives engagement and repeat usage
Problem
How might we create an engaging experience that implements messaging into fitness?
Solution
Restructure and design a traditional running app into a more challenge driven and partner focused running experience.
Introducing Running Buds. A new way to run with running partners digitally. Being running buds with friends and family allows you to compete in challenges to stay accountable, motivate and uplift one another through sending cheers, and direct message one another to keep each other in the loop.
Running Buds
Head to Head
Challenges
Head to head challenges not only allow you to compete with your family and friends in an entertaining way, but also help to keep each other accountable to complete each others challenges. Beat your running buds challenges and win cool achievements and have bragging rights. Add bets to make things even more interesting!
Now you can send direct messages to your friends and families! Stay connected like never before! Send cheers to motivate and lift your running buds spirits with funny and cute animations and iillustrations!
Messaging
and Cheers
Competitor
Analysis
I started off by doing some competitive research, looking at some direct and indirect competitors for the app. One key factor I looked for was if any competitor had a direct messaging system. To my surprise, none of the competitors that I looked into had one!
The closest thing I saw to one was sending a cheer, which was basically sending a emote with an uplifting greeting caption, or messaging through a comment section on a post or forum board. These were all great ways to communicate to others using the app, but were missing an intimate more personal means of communication of direct messaging. On top of that.
All the apps had means of setting goals but most were only for the user to achieve and see. Some had ways to send goals by means of challenges to followers, but the execution did not feel competitive nor an experience of an achievement. The Challenges also werent a very prioritized experience and felt more like an afterthought.
Some had ways to send goals by means of challenges to followers, but the execution did not feel competitive nor a feeling of an achievement. The challenges also werent prioritized and felt more like an afterthought.
Research interview
I moved on to interviewing to get more in tune to what motivates runners. Due to limited time constraints and running apps not actually having a direct messaging feature, it would be difficult to ask people about their experiences using that feature. Instead of traditional one on one interviews, I decided to ask questions on a dedicated and active running community forum on reddit. Since there was no direct messaging feature on any of the competing running apps that I tested out, the closest thing I could relate to this was a real life running community. My idea was to connect peoples digital running connection to a real life running connection and find points or behaviors missing there that I could try to implement into a direct messaging system for a running app.To my surprise, I got much insightful feedback in such a short amount of time.
Key Research Insight
Running apps are missing out on something and thats RUNNING PARTNERS.
Having a running community around you brings camaraderie, but running partners bring more personal accountability, bond, and competitive spirit. These are key points made by many runners who have had running partners, which helped motivate them to keep running consistently. By focusing on a running partner experience in a direct messaging system, Kick could stand out from an oversaturated market of running apps.
Target User
● 18 - 34 years old
● Very tech-savvy — they are on their phones for several hours a day
● Very budget-conscious
● Messaging and communicating with friends and family is a very important part of their daily lives
Contemporary, Trustworthy, Humorous, Motivational, Competitive
Brand personality - a trusted friend with a good sense of humor who always has your best interests in mind.
I wanted the visual direction to be silly and illustration based, with bright pastelle colors. I tried to steer away from a corporate UX style flat illustration thats been popular these days. Ex: LinkedIn.
The logo is angled to show a sense of dynamicism and speed. The freeflowing style of the letters also give a feeling of movement. The flare or serif at the beginning of K represents a leg being lifted up to run or kick. Kicks meaning is the ability to finish strong at end of the race. The word KICK! also gives a strong and confident feel but at the same time doesn’t take itself to serious. I felt inspiration from action words in comic books. You know, the ones that go.... KICK! POW! BOOM!
Branding & Moodboard
Userflow
I wanted to make sure the app had all the functionalities of a running app, but add emphasis and prioritization on the running partner relationship and head to head challenges.
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Sketches / Lofi Prototype
User Interviews & Insight
To test out my app I interviewed 10 people for two rounds of user testing interviews. 5 for my lofi wireframe prototpe, and then 5 for my final hifi prototype. Overall, I got some great insight that helped to drastically improve the functioning of the app as well as sharpen the focus of the direction of my app. I also got some great ideas from users that I implemented into the app after testing. The most important lesson that I learned from my users, was to focus on the competitiveness between running buds on the app.
Biggest Insights from users I implemented into my app after testing
ADD REMINDER MESSAGES
Making the add buddy button more prominent, maybe on the front of every profile
-EMPHASIS ON COMPETITION BETWEEN RUNNING BUDS
-Show stats in the running buds page at top to compare and compete between you too.Get rid of compare stats button
Change Challenge symbol maybe, gift box doesnt really give feeling of competing or challenge
Add request to be buds more at first
Final Hifi Red Routes and Prototype
Complete a run
Create and send a challenge
Create and send a challenge
Accept a challenge
Send a cheer to a Running bud
Clickable Prototype
Link to my final Figma file here
Illustration Credit
A lot of the illustrations in the app were ones I picked out by talented artists that I found through dribble. Due to little time for this project and me not being the greatest illustrator, I curated an illustration direction for my app that I felt fit my app style. Here are the illustrations that I used that werent mine with the Artists credits and information. They can all be found on dribble.
Julien Laureau
Product design & illustration
Felic Art
Illustration
Rado Mitkov
Motion Design
Felic Art
Illustration
Daniela Lan
Illustration
Lua Marinho
Illustration
minghan
Brand / Graphic Design, Illustration
minghan
Brand / Graphic Design, Illustration
minghan
Brand / Graphic Design, Illustration
Outcomes
Overall I am quite satisfied with the result of this project. From a product and business standpoint, I felt that I uncovered a good insight into a solution that would be viable in the running app market and would stand out from competitors. I feel like if given more time, I could improve the execution a bit better, but still feel like I got my point through. I am starting to feel more comfortable with the UX Process, or specifically what UX process fits me and allows to me to work and solve problems efficiently. Probably the biggest feedback I got from users during testing that I did not include, was to expand from just a running app, to a fitness app that also measures other activities besides running. With the concept of the app, I think that would be a great idea and for the future of this app would be the biggest priority! Through every project I am doing, I feel that I am growing as a UX designer and feeling more confident by the day!
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