Bicep— A community app for people who love working out.
Summary
Bicep is a social app for people who love working out, enabling members to join events, chat, and form communities around their passion, starting at their local gym.
Bicep also enables tracking workouts. -Like strava, but for people who love working out.
Jan-Feb 2020. UX & UI Design, Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma. Personal Project, Portfolio.
Key Features
Activity Feed – Shows upcoming sessions, network activity, suggestions and sponsored posts.
Making it easier to stay up to date and find upcoming events quickly. Also enables finding more specific content using the search bar, or via tabs.
Groups – Enables users to connect and meet-up.
Groups are formed around gyms or shared interests. Enabling in-person meetings via Sessions users can mark themselves as Going to, or Pass in one tap.
-Mimicking the easy-going dynamic of gym-buddy friendships.
Workout Tracking – Helps users record and make sense of workout data.
The static keyboard helps users record workouts and time rest-breaks with minimal effort using one hand, without switching apps.
The data dashboard helps users make better sense of their data by utilizing user-created exercises and workout routines as data filters.
Method & Insights
I conducted five semi-structured interviews at the gym with experienced gym-goers about social habits connected to the gym and workout tracking. I then used interview insights to design a online survey collecting 50 responses. Aiming to learn if and how people make friends at the gym, if they’re active in any online forums, and if they track workouts. Then utilized affinity mapping to organize insights and spot themes.
Spotting turns strangers into gym buddies.
Asking or offering to spot a lift often starts a conversation that continues over time.
30% are members of or regularly visit gym-forums.
Forums dedicated to working out, strength training, bodybuilding or fitness
50% want but can’t hang out with gym buddies.
They’re unsure how to suggest meeting outside the gym, and say it feels weird asking.
Tracking apps too cluttered -users want simplicity.
Users want to track workouts but say many apps are complicated, -they want something way simpler
60% say communal events would be helpful.
Recurring comunal events like “Friday Bench Session” and “Taco Tuesdays - Gym then Tacos”.
Friends are overrated, spotters aren’t.
Coordinating with friends is fun but difficult, knowing people at the gym who can spot is more practical.
User Personas
Dedicated Dave
Passionate, experienced gym-goer wanting to log workouts to monitor performance and keep himself accountable. Currently connecting and finding advice in online-forums but has few real gym buddies to connect with about working out.
New Guy Ned
Fresh off the boat and in a new city, Ned wants to make new friends through shared hobbies but lack effective strategies for connecting with people. He could cold-approach when working out but hesitates, thinking people will feel he's disrupting.
Competitive Analysis
I tested five popular workout trackers to learn about key features and functionality.
Trending Features
Insightful statistics
Helping users spot patterns and better understand their physique.
Automated coaching
Helping users reach goals faster by notifying when to change weights, rest and how to escape plateaus.
Specialized programs
Programs targeting specific muscles or aesthetics, often promoted by influencers.
Problem
How might we help gym-goers build friendships around their favorite hobby -working out.
Solution
Helping gym-goers connect and organize online, turning their local gym into a social starting point.
Sketches
User Testing & Iterations
I focused on testing the workout tracker, asking users to record one workout and asking for their thoughts about each concept.
Design Objectives
Incentivise subscriptions through added features.
Enabling more advanced workout analytics and community features. Simultaneously giving brands community access via sponsored posts.
UI should look powerful, and feel energetic.
To make users want to engage with the community and feel a sense of accomplishment working out.
UX should spark community engagement.
By making commenting, creating and joining sessions effortless.
Concept
Raw, energetic, engaging.
Energetic brutalism mixed with simplistic cards, buttons, and comment sections recognized from online-forums to make community interactions feel fun, low stake and low effort.
System
Flowchart
All Screens
Takeaways & Next Steps
Sometimes qualitative beats quantitative.
When selecting in-person interviewees, it was easy identifying who works out a lot and doesn’t. Online surveys proved helpful by providing data but of questionable quality since respondents self-reported how often they work out.
Want to explore options beyond subscriptions.
Inspired by Strava but seeing how features are purchased in online-games, it’d be interesting exploring other, or additional payment models than subscriptions and sponsored posts. Skins, loot boxes, and rewards might not be bad ideas, — or marketing.
Dark UI design was tough but a good starting point.
Designing for dark mode was challenging but in the end rewarding. Seeing how trends in health, ethics, and inclusivity impacts design, I’m sure more apps will offer dark-mode and believe Bicep was a good learning opportunity.