Fitness camera

Comp Cam is a mobile fitness app used to record a participant and document the time in which it took them to complete a workout. The team had already contracted out a development team and brought me in for consultation on the UX after the first round of development was complete.

my role

I was responsible for coming in and evaluating the existing application. At this point in the project their team was excited to have an app live but wanted to ensure the UX was dialed in. In addition I led the redesign efforts of a whole new experience.

Heuristic Evaluation

Led evaluation efforts of exsisting application design.

user research

Analysis of user behavior, interviews, mapping of user flows, and user story creation.

Architecture & Design

Responsible for the core UX architecture and creative direction.

Usability Testing

Conducted testing on main user flows.

The Evaluation

First thing I needed to know before I could truly evaluate the existing UX was understanding what the problem was the team was trying to solve in the first place. Then I could understand how the app was or was not solving this problem.

The problem being solved was allowing athletes to easily film themselves completing a workout with a timestamp continuously running for a specific duration.

With this in mind I downloaded the latest version via Test Flight and started evaluating the usability of the newly developed app.

ISSUES FOUND

1. First thing a user is greeted and tasked to do is “Enter video duration”. However, users don’t know how long of a duration of a video they will need.
   
   
2. “Start Recording” is a false action. Once the user taps the button it takes them to a live view of the camera where they will then have to hit record to begin recording.
   
   
3. Phone is allowed to go to sleep which is a critical issue. If users can’t tell the camera is recording the risk of failed or interrupted videos is high.
   
   
4. “Start Timer” remains as a clickable action once the timer has started. This could be a disaster if accidentally hit mid workout and the timer resets.
   
   
5. “Comp Cam would like to access your microphone, camera, and library.” There isn’t a prompt to explain to users why the app needs to access all these phone features.
   
   
6. Controls for video don’t orientate for the direction the user is filming.
   
   
7. When clicking “share on youtube”, then canceling, all sharing options went away with the exception of a back button on the top.
   
   
8. When clicking “share on facebook”, then canceling, the app says “Login Failed Please Try Again.” However the app doesn’t provide a way for the user to try again.
   
   
9. Videos save locally to the phone but you can’t access them again in app.
   
   
10. Once the video ends and the share options are showing, tapping anywhere on the screen will exit out of the options to share and no way for the user to share afterwards.
    
    
11. Timer background is too dark and could obscure certain areas of the video needed for judging standards.
    
    
12. Camera doesn’t allow for full feature use such as tapping to set exposure.
    
    
13. Users must save all videos regardless if they would like to or not.
    
    
14. Default keyboard is presented when entering duration on the first screen.
    
    

MOVING FORWARD

After evaluating the UX on the newly created app it was my recommendation that they halt development, take a step back and allow me to redesign what the experience should be. While my client was very eager to release their app I was able to explain the benefits of slowing down and taking a step back in order to advance their product forward.

FROM SCRATCH

I began this project from the point I start all my projects. Asking a lot of questions and understanding the users and how they would interact with the app.

USER RESEARCH

The target audience for this app is using it as proof that they completed a certain workout for an online competition.

These workouts typically range anywhere between 3 - 20 mins but can run for an unlimited amount of time until the person doing the workout completes the required amount of work or gives up.

Workouts are completed indoors, outdoors, in garages, in large CrossFit gyms or in commercial gyms.

Sometimes users have timing issues that are out of their control. (ie: Needing to wait for a group class to start or finish)

Users are required to provide information at the beginning of each video including their name, region, and a walkthrough of their equipment. (ie: showing a loaded barbell with the required weight)

Users upload these videos to a service such as YouTube or Vimeo that they can then share to an online profile.

Sometimes the phone will stay stationary and other times a second person will be manning the camera and following the person working out.

Maximum effort goes into these workouts and redoing them because of a failure in the app would be catastrophic to trust and adoption.

User Persona

JAKE WALSH /// CLASS ATHLETE
SKILL LEVEL /// ADVANCED

RESTRICTIONS

Uses the class clock and must start when the others in the class start. Jake doesn’t have someone to hit the record button for him. Jakes largest barrier for recording his workouts is that all his equipment and movements must be in the shot which is extremely difficult for class athletes.

UTILIZATION (secondary)

Jake doesn’t do intro or show setup. Jake is using the app so he can see exactly where in the workout he is hitting specific milestones.

WHY

Jake likes the app because it helps him evaluate his performances and gives him insights he may not have otherwise.

Example 1: He wants to see how long it took him to do the first 15 C&J’s in Grace vs the last 15.
Example 2: He wants to add up all the time he spent resting.

SCENARIO

Jake leads a busy lifestyle and needs to fit his workouts in at lunch. This does not leave Jake with a lot of spare time once he gets into the gym. This also restricts him from being able to arrive to class extra early to warm up and set up his camera.

Because of this Jake often has to sacrifice warm up or mobility time to get his camera setup. Once he's set up and the class is ready to go he must wait by his phone to start the recording and timer. Sometime the coach gives 10sec warning and sometimes it’s 5sec. Jake tries his best to time his start with the warning of the coach.

Coach yells “10 seconds!” Jake pushes record then starts the timer.(timer starts counting down 10,9,8…) Jake hurries to his first piece of equipment. Somebody yells “Wait! What is the back angle again on the DL?” Coach stops and explains the DL one more time. Jake has to rush over to his phone to cancel the recording. This time coach says okay guys “5 Seconds!”. Jake has his camera set to 10 second delay and decides to just leave it and start 5 seconds late, he hits record to start timer. Finishes workout and stops recording. Doesn’t need to upload or share video. He will review the video later.

THE Solution

Challenges

Early on it is crucial for me to stay committed to low fidelity sketching in order to move through as many concepts as possible to discover the best solution. It is here where I explore options on how to solve challenges such as:

How can I design this UX so the user understands that they need to tap record to start filming, then tap again to get the timer to start?

How can I display the timer for the workout without confusing the users with the timer for the video itself?

What is the best solution for the user to set the timing options?

Execution

With the combination of evaluating usability of the existing product and user research I was able to quickly design the new app while addressing and fixing the key concerns that was uncovered during the usability evaluation.

The end result was a well thought and designed app that was user focused and addressed the needs of the athletes that would be using the app.