Standard exercise routines don't just fail people with Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, or spinal injuries: they hurt them. Pain, dehydration, and exhaustion from routines built for able-bodied people are among the most common reasons people with motor limitations stop trying to stay active at all. The fitness app market is enormous. Almost none of it was designed for this population.
Stamina is the app that should have existed already: a personalized fitness coaching platform where certified physical therapists design and monitor exercise plans tailored to each user's specific condition, capacity, and goals. I led end-to-end UX design (from research through high-fidelity prototype and responsive website) with WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility built in from the first wireframe, not added at the end.
The problem
Three barriers kept people with motor limitations from accessing fitness support; and each one was a design failure, not a user failure:
• Exercise programs built for the wrong body. Standard routines assume a baseline of mobility that many of these users don't have. The result isn't just ineffective but it causes injury. Cost as a barrier to care.
• Progress monitoring that fell apart in practice. Without a system that made tracking easy and asynchronous adherence collapsed. Not because users didn't care, but because the feedback loop was broken.
• Cost as a barrier to care. Many accessibility-focused fitness apps still price out the exact population they claim to serve.
Research
User interviews with people living with motor limitations reframed the entire design brief. The frustration wasn't just about features, but about being ignored. For years, users had tried to adapt mainstream fitness tools to their needs and failed repeatedly. They weren't looking for a modified version of a standard app. They wanted something designed for them from the start.
Designed for three primary users: adults with spinal injuries or progressive conditions who needed plans that worked with their daily variability, adults with heat-sensitive conditions like MS who needed routines that couldn't cause dehydration or exhaustion, and physical therapists who needed to manage patient progress without additional administrative burden.
Rapid Idea Generation (Crazy Eights)
Developing Key Features (Digital Wireframes)
Building a Testable Foundation (Low-fidelity Prototype)
Accessibility was a constraint from the first wireframe: WCAG 2.1 AA requirements were embedded in touch targets, contrast ratios, and navigation hierarchy from day one.
Usability Study
An unmoderated remote usability study with 5 participants (20–60 minutes each) produced three critical findings that shaped the next round of design:
• Flexible scheduling was non-negotiable. Physical capacity fluctuates day to day (sometimes hour to hour). A rigid schedule that couldn't accommodate a bad day wasn't a fitness plan; it was a source of guilt.
• Progress needed to survive interruption. Users couldn't always complete an exercise video in one sitting. Seamless progress retention needed to be built into the core video experience, not treated as an edge case.
• Navigation was losing people. For a population where cognitive load and motor challenges compound each other, unclear navigation wasn't just a usability problem: it was a barrier to the app's entire purpose.
Iterations
'My Missed Exercises' section. Added as a dedicated home screen feature, allowing users to resume incomplete routines without searching or remembering. For users with fluctuating conditions, this was the difference between an app that works with their life and one that doesn't.
Medical history in onboarding. The onboarding form was revised to capture what physical therapists actually need to build a safe, effective first plan upfront, so the first exercise plan could be genuinely personalized, not generic.
Full-screen video + Summary screen. The exercise video interface was stripped back to maximize screen real estate, critical for users with visual challenges or those exercising away from a fixed position. Progress reporting moved to a dedicated Summary screen.
Key Mockups
Responsive design
A responsive website extended Stamina's reach, for users who prefer a larger screen, for therapists managing patients on desktop, and for caregivers researching on behalf of loved ones.
Website Information Architecture
Optimized Responsive Design
Outcome
"Finally listened to us." That's the design outcome that matters: not engagement rates or session lengths, but the experience of being seen and served by a product for the first time.
"I'm beyond happy and satisfied that an app has finally listened to us… Now I have a plan according to my needs that hits the nail on the head. Thank you so much!"
Tools: Figma
Role: Lead UX Designer: concept to delivery. User research, IA, wireframing, prototyping, usability studies, WCAG implementation, responsive design across app and web.
Stamina began as a Google UX Certificate capstone in 2021.
I'm currently exploring pathways to develop and distribute the app commercially, targeting physical therapy practices and rehabilitation centers as the primary institutional buyers.
