Fitpal

Research

Persona Development

To better understand the needs of our target users, I conducted focus group with individuals who regularly engage in fitness training, including those with professional athletic backgrounds. A common theme emerged: while many had access to basic fitness apps, they sought more structured support to enhance their performance.

Through these conversations, two primary needs stood out:

1. Health Tracking – to monitor metrics like heart rate, calories burned, and recovery time.

2. Real-Time Sports Training – to receive immediate feedback and guidance during workouts.

“I want an app that doesn’t just count my steps—I need something that helps me train smarter and track how my body is actually performing.” – Interviewee, 28, former competitive swimmer

These insights shaped the foundation of our design. To support real-time engagement and usability during workouts, we decided to optimize the app for mobile phones and tablets, ensuring that athletes could interact with it conveniently whether at the gym, on the field, or during solo training sessions.

Persona Flow Diagram

My next step was to visualize how my personas would interact with the app during their fitness routines. To do this, I mapped out their typical user flow and identified key moments throughout the experience. My main strategy was to:

• Use the two core user goals—tracking health metrics and receiving real-time sports training—as the foundation of the flow,

• Integrate supporting tasks such as setting workout goals, reviewing performance data, and adjusting training plans,

• Highlight emotional responses throughout the journey using color codes—red for points of frustration (e.g., data overload, unclear navigation), and green for moments of satisfaction or motivation (e.g., hitting training milestones, receiving instant feedback).

This approach helped me uncover where users felt confused or unsupported and where they were most engaged—insights that directly shaped the structure and interaction design of the app.

User Flow Diagram

To further understand and optimize the user experience, I created a user flow diagram that mapped out the step-by-step journey users would take to achieve their fitness goals within the app. This diagram helped me build a clear story around how users interact with core features in context.

Sketching

Prototyping: Using Figma, I developed interactive prototypes to visualize how users would navigate between training sessions, tracking metrics, and progress summaries.

Testing: Maze Testing

The Maze testing conducted for the History, Workouts, and Tutorials pages offered valuable insights into the usability of our low-fidelity interactive prototype.

While the overall structure proved functional, the results revealed several areas for improvement before moving to high-fidelity wireframes. Notably, our assumptions about intuitive navigation did not fully hold true—especially on the Workouts and Tutorials pages. Users experienced confusion due to unclear labels, hidden features, and non-intuitive click paths.

Based on the feedback, our next steps in the design process include:

• Refining Navigation & Labeling

• Improving Visual Hierarchy

• Enhancing Feedback & Interaction Cues

• Streamlining User Workflow

Wireframing: Based on insights, I created low-fidelity wireframes focused on clarity and flow.

Flow 1

Flow 2