Timeline: November-December 2022
My Role: UX Design, UI Design, UX Research
Project Type: Mobile iOS app redesign
Designing a Habit-forming Fitness App
About Playbook
The Playbook app is a platform where fitness influencers grow their subscription-based businesses by hosting their workout programs, recipe guides, and more on an app. Fans pay a monthly subscription price of $14.99 to use Playbook and have access to thousands of curated workouts.
Why redesign Playbook?
Playbook is an app I personally use and when I saw their opening for a contract position towards the end of 2022, I had to apply. Even though I did not win the contract, this is the work I would have loved to do for Playbook and I’m thrilled that they rolled out a feature I designed during this project 6 months later in the summer of 2023.
Redesign at a Glance:
Clearly Displayed Progress
Because research revealed that a weight tracker was the most requested feature by Playbook users.
Rearranged Layout
Because seeing progress has a positive psychological effect on people.
Added Weight Tracking
Because heuristic analysis uncovered that a more minimalistic look would improve usability.
RESEARCH
Understanding Playbook Users
Secondary Research
I sifted through hundreds of Playbook reviews in the Apple Store and discovered that the most requested feature was the ability to track weights during a workout.
With this in mind, I wanted to discover why weight trackers are useful to people beyond the obvious. From reading this study, I discovered that tracking workout progress in general has a positive psychological effect on people.
Primary Research
I conducted my primary research on people who follow to one of the most popular influencers in the Playbook app, Claire Thomas, because I’ve noticed that a large percentage of people in her Facebook group, #teamCPT, are active users of the app.
I received 53 responses to the 6 question survey I posed to #teamCPT to understand their engagement with the Playbook app and what they would want improved.
“My biggest complaint is that there is no where to track how much [weight] you’re lifting.”
— Anonymous
Survey Results & Validation
40% of survey participants mentioned that they would benefit from a weight tracker.
15% of survey participants want an easier time finding which workout is up next in their program without having to scroll past all previously completed workouts.
17% of survey participants want a more advanced timer that has options for timer-centric workouts, like EMOM, TABATA, and AMRAP.
The survey results validated what I discovered in my secondary research- that people really want the ability to log their weights.
Insights:
People value convenience: People don’t want to juggle multiple apps when working out and often find themselves doing so. For example, one app to know what exercises to do, one to log their weights, and one to set a timer.
People value tracking and seeing their progress because it’s the best way to know if they’re improving and reaching their goals.
Evaluating The Current App
With the survey results citing navigation-related pain points in mind, I conducted a Heuristic Evaluation.
Through analysis, I discovered the Playbook app’s major opportunities for improvement fall within creating a more minimalistic design while addressing ease/efficiency of use and accessibility.
Screenshots taken from my iPhone, November 2022, demonstrating low contrast ratios and a cluttered interface.
Based on research, I identified the goal:
Design an interface that helps users better visualize and track their progress to create a more rewarding user experience.
DESIGNS
1. Creating a Weight Tracker
Based on competitive research, I designed a weight tracker that’s functionality is a happy medium between mainstream fitness apps and classic weight lifting apps because Playbook’s style falls between these two extremes.
Mainstream fitness app - Evolve You: Follow-along workouts where users view workout information or use the weight tracker on separate screens.
Classic weight lifting app - Strong: Users view basic workout information and access the weight tracker on the same screen.
Introducing the Playbook Weight Tracker:
Once accessed, the weight tracker overlays the exercise details screen. This keeps the exercise details free from clutter and gives the user freedom to choose when to track each exercise and which exercise they want to track.
2. Clearly Displaying Progress
Playbook currently shows progress in the influencer’s workout guides with a check mark next to each completed workout. In some cases, there is a progress bar to show the user how close they are to completing the entire program.
I wanted to break progress into smaller chunks and show progress more outwardly than the current app to bring users a stronger sense of accomplishment more often.
Once a workout is completed, the user earns a check mark for the corresponding day and the completed workout is shaded in.
3. Rearranging Content
I created a more minimalistic design by changing how users navigate though the app. I also addressed accessibility by using colors with higher contrast ratios.
Adding Sequential IA
I gave Collections (where users find different workout programs) sequential Information architecture to reduce the amount of decisions a user has to make at a time when selecting a workout.
Minimizing Scrolling
I broke down workout programs into different weeks to minimize scrolling for multi-week programs.
Optimizing White Space
I optimized white space within the workout by rearranging the sets/reps information, and creating more space around the video elements to let the content breathe.
“I don’t usually want to rate something immediately after using it.”
— Luis
USABILITY TESTING RESULTS
Changing How Playbook Encourages Influencer Ratings
During usability testing with the new designs, all participants mentioned that they did not like how the app prompts them to rate the influencer immediately after completing each workout.
Interestingly, my initial research did not indicate that placement or frequency of ratings bothered Playbook users.
Because overall ratings alone cannot be seen by the end-user in the Playbook app, and I don’t have access to Playbook’s internal data to tell me how ratings impact influencers, I decided to improve the overall rating user experience based on usability testing results.
Image showing my rating screen. Rate Claire 5 stars and check out my animation here.
My solution assumes that people are less willing to rate a product immediately after trying it. I suggest prompting users to rate the influencer after completing 5 of their workouts. If a user skips the rating, prompt them again after they complete another 10 workouts, etc.
UPDATES & OUTCOMES
2023 Playbook Updates
This project was completed between November 2022 and December 2022. After resubscribing to the Playbook app in June 2023 to see how the app has changed, I noticed that they implemented a weight tracker!
Image showing Playbook’s weight tracker, June 2023 (left) and my designs, December 2022 (right).
Key differences (beyond styling) involve how the act of logging weights is handled. In the Playbook app, there is a single icon that brings the user to a page where they can log weights for the entire workout. The history tab shows the history of all logged exercises.
In my design, each individual exercise has its own weight log screen and the history tab only shows the history for the exercise currently being logged, with the most recent entry at the top.
Conclusion
I had a lot of fun working on this project and engaging with people in the #teamCPT Facebook group to discuss app suggestions and possibilities.
My goal was to design an interface that helps users better visualize and track their progress to create a more rewarding user experience.
I accomplished this by:
Creating a weight tracker because tracking workout progress is proven to help people reach their goals and build healthy habits.
Displaying progress through a workout program more outwardly by organizing the app in a way that shows people’s accomplishments first.
I’m thrilled that Playbook rolled out a weight tracker in 2023 because this further validates the design direction I chose for my project and it shows that Playbook is listening to their users.
Takeaways
Let go of what you want to design if people are saying they want something else.
I went into this project expecting to redesign Playbook’s Discover section (where users go to explore new workouts and influencers) because I had trouble using this section of the app. To my surprise, few people mentioned this issue in reviews and even fewer mentioned this in the survey I sent out. As a result, I changed my design direction to better cater to Playbook’s users because even though this was a passion project, there is no point in designing something that no one wants.