FunRun: Making running enjoyable
Why do we lose interest in running?
As the new year began, I, like many others, set an optimistic goal. I wanted to lose some extra weight. But as 2020 began to unfold and the global pandemic grew, stay-at-home orders and COVID-19 restrictions made achieving this goal difficult. During the first months of the pandemic, I attempted YouTube workouts, Zoom fitness classes, and running outside. While each workout method had its advantages, running met my COVID-19 needs, helping me accomplish my goal while providing me with much-needed time outdoors. For the first couple of weeks, I started off strong but eventually my interest fell. Although I knew why I was running and how it would help accomplish my goal, I had no desire to continue. Knowing I couldn’t be the only one this happened to, I decided to focus on designing a running app to help people create and maintain a running routine using engaging content.
I started by interviewing five participants between the ages of 25–53 to understand their experience with running, what factors influenced their running habits, and where their pain points were.
Running is not fun
I learned that my interviewees understood the benefits of running, but each interviewee did not run routinely. The main reason was because of a lack of interest. Common words used to describe running included “boring” and “not fun”. After hearing their pain points, we discussed what features they would like to see in a running app. Here are some of the features that the interviewees thought were important:
- Quick access to stats: During and post run.
- Engaging content: Make running fun.
- Goal tracking: Help users achieve goals.
- Access to weather info: Give users info to make quick decisions.
What are other fitness apps doing?
After understanding users’ pain points and expectations I moved on to a competitive teardown. Using this method, I gained insight into competitor elements that worked, elements that could be improved, and elements that should be adopted. Assessing four different apps (three direct competitors and one abstract) I was able to narrow down the core pages to the home screen, activity screen, and post-activity screen.
Home screen: Three out of the four apps used the home screen as quick access to recent and new activities. Competitors used images heavily throughout their app if multiple activities were present. Tabs were the preferred navigation throughout the apps.
During activity screen: Each app made the during activity screen extremely simple, most likely to keep the user’s focus on their current activity. Commonly tracked stats included distance traveled, time duration, and activity speed. Half of the apps also provided the option to display a map on the screen.
Post-activity screen: Each post activity screen delivered information relating to the activity. Commonly tracked information included distance, time, speed, and calories burned. Each direct competitor also included an image that displayed the route traveled.
Can you make running less boring?
Now that I understood the problem, it was time to find a solution. When choosing a solution, I focused on the content that could regularly make users return. Weekly audio stories called “Journeys” and daily running challenges were my solutions to creating returning users. Journeys would draw in users who did not necessarily enjoy running while challenges would focus on creating a user’s running routine.
Designing FunRun
With my features in mind, I moved on to creating user task flow. The user task flow helped me visualize how users would navigate through the app, what pages I would need, and how each page would function.
Following the user task flow was iterative sketching. I used sketching to develop multiple iterations of my core screens. After creating a couple of variations of the core screens I enlisted others to provide a first round of design critiques.
The design critique allowed me to decide which features worked best and create my wireframes which also went through a critique.
During the final critique I learned:
- Users did not think the during activity map was necessary. They preferred it if the stats were more prominent.
- The post-activity screen needed some data visualization to break up content.
- Displaying multiple journeys on the home page was preferable to displaying one.
Prototyping and testing
After finalizing my wireframes, I moved on to creating a low-fidelity prototype. With the low-fidelity prototype I focused on testing the user’s understandability of features, content, and navigation. I ran three tests with participants that wanted to add running into their fitness routine. I tested my participant’s understandability of FunRun’s features, content, and navigation structure through three scenario-based tasks.
- It’s a nice day outside and you have some free time available to run. And you’ve decided to use the FunRun app, can you please walk me through how you’d start your exercise?
- You’ve started a mission series in FunRun and would like to continue. How would you locate and launch the next mission in the “Nature’s Wrath” series?
- You are currently on a 3-week streak in FunRun. Can you walk me through how you’d gather more information about the requirements for a streak?
Testing revealed that users were able to navigate through tasks easily but there were a couple of minor issues to address. Based on the feedback provided I made the following adjustments.
- Added color to the “missions” section of the home screen to increase visibility of different sections.
- Changed copy from “missions” to “journeys”.
- Added personalization to the user profile section.
- Added copy describing benefits of completing “challenges”.
Final prototype and future iterations
Throughout my case study the main pain point for users was a lack of interest in running. With the guidance of a major pain point I was able to create a running app that would help users stay engaged and interested in running. Using features such as “Journeys” and “Challenges” users have interactive content that will help them achieve their fitness goals. Unlike other running apps, the focus on supplying updated content can increase the likelihood of users returning to the app. According to usability tests and interviews, participants reported that FunRun would increase their interest in running provided that “Journeys” and “Challenges” were thoughtfully built out and helped them achieve their fitness goals.
Overall, I enjoyed the process of tackling an abstract issue like making running enjoyable. In future iterations I would like to focus on the following:
- Fully exploring and pursuing a future version of the app. Due to time constraints and my technical abilities there were a couple of features that were cut from the final prototype. However, with this MVP (minimal viable product) I could continue to iterate and incorporate features.
- Explore the gamification of the FunRun. After doing a competitive teardown of Pokémon Go, I found many features that could be used in a future iteration of FunRun. Features such as rewarding users for visiting certain locations and caring for a Pokémon would increase the likelihood of users returning to the app.
- Spending more time on FunRun’s theme. While I do think the color combinations and images work together well, researching what colors are associated with fun and testing with users would provide more clarity on FunRun’s theme.
