Life Time Fitness

A feature that helps members and trainers foster a community within their local gym. 

Project Type: Adding a new feature
Roles: UX research + design
Industry: Fitness
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Zoom, Google Sheets

DISCOVER

Empathize | Competitive Analysis | Secondary Research | Interviews

Overview

The Problem

During Covid, gyms were forced to overcome a lot of hurdles with health regulations and social distance protocols. During the 2 year stint, Life Time encouraged trainers to do whatever they could to boost morale, keep gym goers engaged, and build a community. Many trainers created facebook groups, recorded workouts online, and built workout programs that catered to the local’s goals.

Now that regulations have been lifted, Life Time has been wanting trainers and guests to return to their app for regular use and community building. The trainer’s current concern is that there are no tools that suffice for morale building, communication, and customizing workouts.

LifeTime members and trainers want to have a gym community!

Analyizing the Problem

Corporate Limitations

Corporate has instructed trainers to use the Life Time app for communication purposes, despite its lack of communication features.

Insufficient Class Information
& Limited Customization Options

This can make it challenging for members to align their training for races.

Lack of Communication Features

The app currently does not offer effective communication tools, such as messaging or chat functionalities.

Limited Adaptability

Trainers had to resort to alternative methods like recording sessions, creating a Facebook group, and maintaining an email list to keep members engaged and connected.

Competitor Analysis

Getting to know our competitors

I anaylyzed a number of fitness apps as well as messaging apps to see how other comunicating features were set up.

Talking to Users

Interviews

Interviewed 2 LifeTime trainers & 3 LifeTime members to see how both parties are communicating and identify their needs.

Although I am a member at LifeTime Fitness, I had to keep my biases in check. What I might want may not be what ALL members want. 

Expected Outcomes:

• Trainers & members want the same things they are being offered in different platforms such as email and facebook.
• Connecting the information would be helpful for all parties. 

DEFINE

Synthesizing Research | Affinity Mapping | Personas | HMW | POV Statements

Insights from Interviews:

3/5 users mentioned they do not want another platform to keep track of communication and notifications.

2/5 users don't have Facebook and don't want to join!

3/5 users don't have notifications on and only check notifications when opening their apps. 

Because of corporate instruction to communicate more within LifeTime resources such as the App and user insight to stray away from more platforms, my research supported my design direction to design a community feature within LifeTime's App.

Personas

Defining the User

Based off of interviews, I created two personas to represent the two types of identities I wanted to focus on while designing a new feature. 

The Trainer's POV

Understanding the Trainer's point of view and their relationship with members. 

Grant, Trainer

Age 31 | Edina, MN

Experienced trainer who motivates athlete's to accomplish their goals through healthy habits and training techniques. 

Goals
Communicate and maintain relationships with LifeTime members
Creating an engaging atmosphere for members
Help members accomplish their fitness goals

Needs
Communicate workout details and tips
Share links to articles and recipes
Highlight accomplishments and kudos to members

Pain Points
Mass emails not delivering to all recipients
Corporate Limitations

The Member's POV

Understanding a LifeTime member's goals and motivations. 

Angela, Member

Age 25 | Minnetonka, MN

Joined LifeTime 2 year ago and enjoys participating in classes 5 days a week. She is developing training goals and looks to trainers for advice on how to improve and reach her goals. 

Goals
Improve her healthy habits
Correct training techniques
Connect with more members with simillar goals

Needs
Prepare for her workouts
Group workouts
Support to stay motivated

Pain Points
Feeling disconnected
Gaps in routine

LifeTime Fitness's Original Home Screen

How might we create a virtual community or forum within the app where gym members can connect, share experiences, and seek advice from both trainers and fellow members?

How might we provide a platform for gym members to share their achievements, challenges, and progress with their trainers, fostering a deeper level of engagement and support?

How might we implement a notification system in the app to keep gym members informed about any updates, announcements, or new training opportunities from their trainers?

DEVELOP

Idea Generation | Prioritization | Information Architecture | User Flows | LoFi Sketch

Community Integration on Home Screen

LoFi Ideation

Exploring layouts, grouping design styles, & creating actions anticipated by user flows. 

DELIVER

Interaction Design | Feedback | Iteration | HiFi Prototypes

Feedback & Iterations

Priority Revisions

Adding more directional callouts/banners. Users were not quite sure what the community page was when it jumped into a list of groups. I reorganized the Community Home Page into two tabs. The first tab included a banner that was more inviting with a call to action to "connect with like minded achievers.

The call of action phrase on the header wasn't up to par in color testing so I   adjusted it to be dark gray within LifeTime's color palette instead of white.

HiFi Wireframes

How does the community feature address users needs?

The Problem

Lifetime trainers and members used inconsistent platforms like email and Facebook groups for communication. Trainers aimed to establish and nurture a community within their local gym while adhering to new corporate regulations. The goal was to assist members in reaching their fitness goals and fostering relationships with like-minded athletes. This involved connecting with small groups, fostering growth, and promoting excellence within the athletic community.

The Solution

A community feature for athletes that helps members and trainers connect and communicate through a fitness-focused groups encouraging a community within their local gym through LifeTime's app.

Prototype

Hi-Fi Prototype

REFLECT

Next Steps

Conduct more user testing/research with trainers and members and discover what type of content is most useful. I think there is more we can do to connect the community feature to workouts and goals. During interviews I learned more about healthy habits and fitness challenges that LifeTime hosts and I believe we could somehow incorporate the weekly meetings with trainers into the community feature. 

Key Takeaways

Listen to the users! What I think users want versus what they actually need can be different. There should always be a reason behind the design. 

Design with reason. It was helpful to constantly ask myself "why am I putting this there?"

Embrace the Figma Community! Rather than spending so much time looking for generic icons, I found it was a lot easier to grab from the community. It saves a lot of time so I focus more on user flows instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. 

Kraft

End-to-end mobile app + branding

Made with coffee. Filled with creative eagerness. Energized by purposeful design.

Let's work together!