Under Armour Record App

Concept Project

Overview

Under Armour is a major athletic brand for active apparel and accessories that is moving in the direction of fitness technology and wearable devices. Their current fitness app, Under Armour Record, is primarily a social network for established athletes, where they can post pictures, motivational messages, and statistics about their completed workouts and accomplishments.

Opportunity

For the purposes of this in-class concept project, our objective was to create the next iteration of the Under Armour Record app with features that can meet the growing demand for the ability to monitor performance, provide motivation to maintain a fitness regimen, and track individual progress.

Outcome

After conducting user surveys, competitive analysis, and user interviews, we created affinity maps, user flows, personas, and a prototype that demonstrated customizable features that address multiple audience needs for personalization and motivation. It allows people to be their own fitness coach and helps them stay on track towards achieving their personal goals.

Project Details

Role: My teammate and I equally participated in the research, usability testing, user interviews, design iterations, sketching, and prototyping. This collaborative working model maximized our potential to capitalize on design ideas and ensured a cohesive outcome.

Tools: Axure, Google Docs, OmniGraffle, Keynote, Post-Its, Typeform, Sharpie Pen & Paper

Topics: User Research, User Interviews, User Surveys, Usability Testing, Affinity Mapping, Persona Creation, Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Presenting

Teammate: Pauline Parikh

Timeline: 2 weeks


Research

User Surveys

To begin, we created and sent out a survey to learn about people's health and fitness habits, their use of wearable devices and fitness apps (if any), and their need for reminders and/or external motivation. This allowed us to determine where we should focus our competitive analysis and which specific areas we needed to research more thoroughly.

Competitive analysis

We performed a competitive analysis with the current Under Armour Record app and the top four fitness apps that people reported using in our survey to compare their available features and identify potential areas for improvement.

According to our findings, the two features that people wanted the most in a fitness app were customizable programs and reminders with calendar integration. And yet, none of the most popular apps we researched had both of these features. We decided to capitalize on this opportunity by developing and highlighting these features.

Note: Under Armour has now acquired Map My Run.

User Interviews & Affinity Mapping

With these features in mind, we conducted a series of user interviews to learn more about their levels of fitness, exercise routines, and motivational factors, as well as specific options they would want when customizing a fitness program for themselves. We wrote down key takeaways from these interviews to visually map out their behaviors, needs, pain points, and possible solutions.

This map revealed trends across people's behavior patterns and their corresponding needs, and people naturally fell into one of the following categories: those who were starting a fitness program, those who were continuing a fitness program, or those who have never done a fitness program. In a second iteration of this affinity map, we separated these groups and drew connections between their specific pain points from our research and potential features that could address those needs. This allowed us to further define our scope and laid the groundwork for our personas.

Persona creation

We developed personas based on the patterns from our affinity map to determine their specific pain points in more detail and identify any common needs between them. This helped us establish ways that the customizable program feature could serve multiple groups of people and ensure that our design choices responded appropriately to address audience requirements. Our primary persona represents someone beginning a fitness program, and our secondary persona represents a more advanced athlete continuing or adapting a fitness program.


Design & Iterations

User Flow

We created user flows for these personas that demonstrate the customizable program feature's versatility and ability to address the needs of multiple audience groups. The flow of setting up a personalized program is the same for each persona, yet the options within that process allow each of them to make choices that fit their specific needs and take the first step towards accomplishing their individual goals.

Sketches

Pauline Parikh (left) and I (right) discussing features from our sketches.

We sketched the screens for user flows separately to visualize the different persona needs based on our earlier research. We then compared and discussed our sketches together to determine screen layouts and functionality and ensure the cohesive integration of our ideas.

WIREFAMES

We combined our sketches to build high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes in Axure. (Click on an image below to view in detail.)

Prototype

USABILITY TESTING

We conducted usability tests throughout the development of our prototypes and integrated the following changes based on the feedback we received:

  • Simplified reminders setup and included it in the personalization process

  • Placed the option to connect a wearable device in the upper lefthand corner to make it easily available

  • Clarifying the personalization process by making it available in the dashboard

  • Added a list of "marathons near you" option to the marathon training personalization setup


Presentation & Feedback

Overall, we received positive feedback about our prototype and the research we presented.

We delivered the prototypes mobile along with our personas, the research behind design decisions, and our recommendations for future iterations.


Next Steps

  •  Lifestyle Feature: this feature would focus specifically on making small steps towards a healthy lifestyle and educating users as they go along. It would highlight incremental progress to encourage continued participation in the program, as our research indicated that visualizing progress and past accomplishments motivated people to stick with it. We created an additional persona based on our research, named Sarah, whom this feature would serve.
  • Marathon Sign-Up: This feature would explore the option of being able to actually register for a marathon (or other type of race) from within the app.
  • Calendar App Integration: This feature would allow a person to access or open their calendar app from within the Under Armour app to schedule specific workouts or simply block off time for exercise.

  • Nutrition Log: This feature would allow documentation of calorie intake and its nutritional breakdown based on a person's specific fitness program.

  • Meal Plan: This feature would provide recipes for meals that fit within a person's specific calorie plan.

  • Fitness Challenges with Friends: People could set up and customize friendly competitions with each other, such as most number of steps taken in a week or farthest distance run.

  • Find Local Fitness Opportunities: A person could select types of fitness activities they enjoy (zumba classes, rock climing, etc.) and based on their zip code, it would provide a list local classes and gyms where they could attend those activities in their area.

  • Weather Integration: If a person's program has them scheduled to do an outdoor activity on a day with inclement weather, it could automatically suggest an indoor alternative to discourage people from blowing off a workout because of the weather outside.

  • Wellness from a Medical Perspective: This feature would focus on helping people with medical conditions stick to a healthy amount of activity for them, whether it's an athlete in rehab, someone with a physical condition, or someone recovering from surgery. This would help keep them on track and improve not only their health, but their quality of life. This has the potential for doctors to have input and help monitor patients' progress.