Project Overview

Team Training App

 

A two-week design sprint with a team of three while at General Assembly.

Tough Mudder (TM) is a team-oriented 10-12 mile obstacle course designed to test physical strength and mental grit. The event is an un-timed challenge that puts camaraderie over finisher rankings and allows participants to experience exhilarating, yet safe, world-class obstacles.

The Crush It! app facilitates team training, helping Tough Mudder participants prepare for the obstacle race while fostering camaraderie as a way to encourage people to do more events in the future.

Role: User Research | Ideation | Wireframe Iterations (Training Flow) | Hi-Fidelity Protoypes

Project Type: Native Mobile App

Design Toolkit: Paper & Marker | Post its | Sketch | Invision

Deliverables: Interviews & Affinity Mapping | Competitive Analysis Matricies | Usability Testing | Storyboard | Site Map | User Flows 

Research Phase

Combining Training with Social Media 

User Interviews

Our research began by trying to uncover the TM participants' motivations for doing Tough Mudder or similar obstacle races. The following are key findings from our interviews

  • Users preferred to train alone when they needed/wanted to focus on their workout
  • But most would only run the event as part of a team (typically signed up with a team)
  • Most used social media to share and track progress on their routine workouts as a way to connect with others and motivate themselves to stick to a workout plan
 
Personas - Troy.jpg
 
 

Competitive Analysis

Since competitive obstacle race companies did not have mobile apps, with the exception of Spartan Race, we analyzed other training/ team-building apps in the market in order to assess the best-practices in the marketplace. The following are the best features from the comparables that made working-out and/or team-building.

Highlights of Competitors' Apps

  • Easy way to track progress during each individual workout
  • Easy way to track workout schedule
  • Specialized or theme/goal based workout regimes
  • Outlet for sharing on social media
  • Use of short videos on loop to demonstrate required workout motions

Problem

As a one-time Tough Mudder veteran, I need an easy way to build my team and to help us to train appropriately, so that we can "crush" the course.

Solution

The Crush It! App is a mobile solution that easy allows you to build a team, train for obstacles with your teammates, and share ones progress

Each member of the team generated as many solutions as possible within 10 minutes then we regrouped for 5 minutes sharing feedback on the ideas. We repeated this process for two more rounds, building on the successes of the previous iterations, converging on a single cohesive solution. The resulting sketches were developed into a low-fidelity prototype in order to conduct initial tests for usability and flow. 

Key pain points:

  • Users preferred to move through the exercises at their own pace and not be required to wait for teammates. However, they still have a way to know the team's status of completion for each obstacle
  • The home screen and the social media page has no mention of the event, team name and team roster

We addressed the major pain points in our design then created the high-fidelity prototype for more testing, this time with an added focus on testing for the user's understanding of the training concept and how it may potentially impact individual training, teamwork and motivation to do TM again.

Ideation, Sketches & Prototype

Team Building Flow Initial Wireframes

Training Flow Initial Initial Wireframes

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Prototype

Retrospective & Next Steps

One of the major challenges of this project was reconciling the user's preference to train/workout by oneself but still wanting the sense of inclusion, teamwork and accountability that comes with being part of a team. Though we believe that we struck a good balance, we will need to do more testing to prove our hypothesis. 

Another hypothesis that was difficult to test at this stage was whether the app would motivate people to sign up for another race. We believe the easy, engaging and enjoyable team building and obstacle preparation process will entice participants to do the event again and they may even invite newcomers the next time.

Below are additional steps that would make Crush It! a more comprehensive solution:

  • Full payment process through the app: this would supplement the app's ease of use and perhaps increase sign ups

  • Developing the app from the invitee's perspective: The presented solution is from the team leader's perspective. Designing the onboarding process from the recipients perspective would round out the presented user flows

  • Full access to Tough Mudder's business capabilities: This may open up new and much clearer avenues for designing incentives into the app that may increase repeat participation

  • Developing the team stats page: this page cannot instigate competition amongst teammates as it's against TM's ethos

  • Find a team or matching feature for free agents: Though solo participants are currently a minority of TM's customer base, this feature may grow revenue from this cohort.