My Responsibilities: Wireframing, conducting user interviews, concept validation, prototyping in Figma, creating storyboards, pitching to our clients

Deliverables: Figma prototype, Interactive pitch deck in Figma

As part of an Interaction Design studio class, I worked with two peers to consult for our client, Arity. We were tasked with identifying an app for Arity to partner with and creating features which would provide value to all stakeholders: Arity, the app we were partnering with, and the users of the app.

We ultimately designed new features for Nike Run Club, and created interactive prototypes in Figma which closely replicated their design language. Our professors and client were so impressed with the features we prototyped that they set up an opportunity for us to pitch our designs to the Global Design Director for Nike Run Club.

Problem Space Exploration

We began our work by conducting an extensive review of different health and fitness applications. We documented their available features, and placed the apps on a 2x2 comparing whether they were guided vs. independent and used in-home vs. outside.

We interviewed eight different users with a range of different exercise routines to understand how they interact with exercise apps and how they approach their exercise habits. We wanted to understand what they are thinking about before, during, and after a workout. Ultimately, we identified three key insights which guided our next steps:

Preliminary Mockups

Based on these guiding insights and the industry research we did, we identified four opportunities for innovation in the health and fitness space in which Arity could provide value to app developers:

After identifying these opportunity areas, we went back to our industry app research and found the three best apps for a potential partnership with Arity: Strava, Orange Theory Fitness, and Nike Run Club.

After selecting these three apps, we brainstormed potential integrations and then created storyboards depicting potential new features. We presented these three ideas to Arity for feedback.

Selecting a Single App

Our client liked all three of our potential focus apps and features, and gave us free reign to select the app we wanted to go with. We ultimately chose to focus on Nike Run Club because the feature we were prototyping was one which did not exist on the market at all, as opposed to a feature which existed in other apps, but we were bringing to novel scenarios. We believed that this would be the feature that would create the clearest competitive advantage and in turn, would be most promising for Arity’s long-term interest.

Wireframing

After selecting Nike Run Club, we began creating rough blueprints and wireframes of different potential features to add to Nike Run Club.

We started by mapping out the interactions we imagined for each feature:

After creating these blueprints, we created wireframes of the screens which were necessary for these interactions:

User Testing

After creating four distinct wireframes, we conducted user testing with eight different runners (some who use Nike Run Club and some with no prior experience) to gain feedback on the features we created. We gained some foundational insights into the priorities of runners, and identified three key areas of focus for our features:

Prototyping

After conducting user testing, we began developing four features as part of our final prototype. Before we began prototyping, we had to recreate Nike Run Club’s design system in Figma. This included recreating interactions and matching color palette and typeface. Once we had recreated the design system, we began creating our prototype.

A preview of the interactions we created can be seen below:

1. Coach

Our first new feature, Coach, is an enhancement of Nike Run Club’s existing in-ear guidance. We heard from users that the existing guidance system feels robotic and predetermined, meaning that it is not specified enough to each run. Coach gives user live, personalized feedback based on detailed acceleration and location data processed by Arity’s SDK to motivate users on their runs and help them achieve their long-term running goals.

2. Guided Routes

The Guided Routes feature we created builds on Nike Run Club’s existing suite of guided runs, with the added benefit of pairing these guided runs with specified routes. Guided Routes relies on users’ location and elevation data processed by Arity’s SDK to ensure a Guided Route that perfectly matches with the pace of the in-ear guide.

3. Explorer

The Explorer feature is one which builds directly on the Guided Routes feature. In addition to the automatically generated Guided Routes, Explorer allows users to select Guided Routes which have been shared (and liked) by other runners.

4. Landmark Runs

The last feature we created is Landmark Runs, another expansion of in-ear guided runs paired with a specific route. However, this feature is focused on discovery of new places, with in-ear guidance for runs along notable landmarks or neighborhoods in a city. The audio will need to custom-created for each landmark run, and will encourage the runner to observe the beauty or history around them. Users can receive alerts for landmark runs whenever they travel to a new city, allowing them to immerse themselves in their surroundings without disrupting their daily workout routines.