A startup owner came to me with a request of designing a fitness app. People have realized how essential it is to stay fit and exercise. Hence they are using fitness apps to work out at home. There are tons of fitness apps available, all these apps provide a catalogue of courses to select from. Once you select a course and pay for it you work out for a couple of days and then you become weary of it. That’s what happens with the vast majority of people. We decided to help people build a habit of working out by giving beginner workouts for free!! and a lot more interesting stuff...
Forming a habit of working out
We wanted to help people to form a habit of working out. So, I researched how a habit is formed. A habit is constructed as follows:
We created a WhatsApp group and invited friends and neighbours, there were about 55 people in the group. On the first day of testing, we shared the workout in the group and 32 people worked out. As days passed the number of people actively working out began to drop, and on some days hardly 3–4 people worked out. We started to analyze our users’ behaviour and we got a lot of insights about why people aren’t working out. Space & time was not the issue. Workout is a big physical task it's like climbing a mountain without any experience and without knowing the pleasure of the view from the top. So, we started pitching smaller tasks instead of a full 40–45 minutes workout. We added challenges to the app which would be like hills for people (easier to climb, easier to do)
We started a squat challenge in the WhatsApp group and saw higher engagement. Even new members in the group started doing the challenges.
Gamification and Reward System
The habit loop is completed by a reward. You will work out again if you feel good at the end of the previous workout. Hence rewards were important for us. We called our rewards — Fitcoins. Fitcoins are awarded for every workout or challenge that is successfully completed. The user could use these Fitcoins to redeem gifts, vouchers, coupons from the shop. We also added a leaderboard to make the app more competitive.
Tribes
Most of us are working out at home right now, and it gets boring to work out alone. So we also created tribes, users can create their own tribe and invite their friends and other people to join. A tribe can work out together, chat, comment on each other’s workout and we are adding more cool stuff to do in the app.
We are changing the face of traditional fitness. We help you get healthier with your friends, family, and kids together. Join our mailing list to get early access to the Tribes.Fit.
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