As a product made for social good, Stamina is an app focused on fitness coaching for people with motor limitations, such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and bone cancer, among others.

It helps users improve their health through custom exercises and routine plans according to their needs, coached by certified physical therapists.

Goal

Design a fitness coaching tool app for people with limited motor function with a proper exercise plan that will improve their wellness.

Target Audience

Anyone with limited motor functions (Parkinson's disease, MS, cerebral palsy, etc.) and seniors who want to get physical activity.

Role & Responsibilities

• UX designer leading the app and responsive website design from conception to delivery.

• Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs, determining information architecture, and responsive design.

Key challenges (pain points)

Standard Routines

Not all the exercise sets work the same way for everyone: some get dehydration or others feel pain and as result, they cannot go on and finish the routine.

Insufficient progress tracking

The reasons vary: from therapists having busy schedules to users feeling they have no improvement in their condition.

Pricing

Using rehabilitation centers and fitness apps as references, having treatment and physical activity are not affordable, especially for disabled people with low income.

Research Study

User interviews were conducted and most of the interview participants reported feeling frustrated that they don’t have custom proper exercise plans for their needs.

The feedback received through research made it very clear that users would be open and willing to do exercise on their own if they had access to an easy-to-use app to help guide them.

Personas

Louise

• Age: 59
• Education: High School (incomplete)
• Hometown: Elkins, AR
• Occupation: Homemaker (pensioned)
  

Louise is a homemaker with several fractures in her spine who needs customized exercises online and according to her condition because she feels pain whenever she does her current routines and can’t complete them.

Carla

• Age: 37
• Education: MBA
• Hometown: Port Arthur, TX
• Occupation: Program Manager at UT
  

Carla is a program manager with multiple sclerosis who needs a custom proper exercise plan because she gets tired easily and has heat sensitivity, so she feels dehydrated most of the time.

Kwame

• Age: 44
• Education: Bachelor of Physiotherapy
• Hometown: Des Moines, IA
• Occupation: Physical Therapist
  

Kwame is a physical therapist who needs an app or software to provide proper exercises to his patients and track their progress because, according to him, it’s a little hard to hit the spot on the exercises his patients really need.

Starting the design

Ideation, Sketching & Wireframing

Take a look at the
Stamina low-fidelity prototype

Usability Study

Parameters

• Study type: Unmoderated usability study.
• Location: United States, remote.
• Participants: 5.
• Length: 20 - 60 minutes.

Findings

Reschedule Routines

Sometimes the user is not available at the time he/she needs to do the routine. He/she wants to reschedule it when he/she is available.

Resume Missed Videos

When a video is missed by the user, he/she wants to resume it later but doesn’t know if those videos are saved somewhere else.

Sections and Options Hard to Find

Participants reported some sections that took time to be found, as well as links that should be prominently shown.

Refining the design

Based on the insights from the usability studies, I added and applied design changes like the ‘My missed exercises’ section, to allow users to access all those exercises which they couldn’t complete during the routine and complete them later.

Additional design changes included the forms when the new users create an account and fill it up before starting to use the app: some inputs and questions were modified according to a standard medical history form.

This is one of the mockups that suffered radical changes. The insight was that a video needs to cover the entire screen of the phone; as well as having the criteria “the simpler, the better”, especially if there’s a video playing.

The progress textarea was moved to a new screen called ‘Summary’, in which the user can notify his/her coach about the completion of the routine.

Key Mockups

High-fidelity prototype

The high-fidelity prototype followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype, including design changes made after the usability study.

View Stamina Hi-Fi prototype.

Style Guides

Responsive design

Sitemap

With the app designs completed, the next step was to design the responsive website. A sitemap was created with the purpose to organize the screens and have a clear vision of them. The structure was chosen in order to make things simple and easier.

Responsive designs

The designs for screen size variation included mobile, tablet, and desktop. They are optimized in order to fit the specific user needs of each device and screen size.

Going forward

Takeaways

Impact

“I’m beyond happy and satisfied that an app has finally listened to us. I’ve been given different routine plans that at times I can’t complete. Now I have a plan according to my needs that hits the nail. Thank you so much!”.
—Potential user with a progressive impairment

What I learned

“Set a high goal, think big and do big”: once you achieve it, set a higher goal and do it bigger, and do it again to keep the impulse.

It is learned that the most difficult part of working on a project is taking the first step. But once you define and set where you want to go, you will eventually enjoy the journey and the path will be easier for you and the team.

Next Steps

1

Conduct more research and studies to validate addressed pain points and evaluate how successful the app is in reaching the goal to boost up the user’s wellness.

2

Evaluate the pricing plan and how to make it better to have more satisfied users (in case needed), and provide incentives and rewards to users for successfully having benefits in their body after using our product regularly.

3

Implement more possible accessibility tools like microphone and sensors for people with progressive or critical motor and speech impairments.

4

Implement a strategy to promote awareness and the importance of getting physical activity people with motor limitations, as well as making more certified coaches join the Stamina team to have versatile routine plans for everyone.

+1 (619) 4855-900  |  edith@edithmoreno.com

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