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FitGame Mockup

FitGamer

FitGamer is a mobile app that offers personalized recommendations for physical activities to encourage a healthy balance for gaming enthusiasts and professionals, preventing long-term health issues.

Duration

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6 weeks 

Team

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4 Designers

Tools

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Figma, Adobe XD, Miro 

Canva

My Contribution

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Formative Research, Design System, Storyboard, Wireframing Prototyping, Visual Design and Usability Testing

Problem Statement 

Our main goal is to suggest replacement activities for gaming professionals and casual gamers who are playing for long hours and prevent them from getting long-term physical health implications.

Project Background

The most widespread form of entertainment in modern societies is computer games, which people of all ages enjoy. Due to their addictive nature, these games have become today's youth's most popular recreational activity. Games can be an escape from reality, but they can also cause anxiety, depression, wrist neck and elbow pain, obesity, peripheral neuropathy, blood clots and sleeping disorders.

Pain Points

01 

Lack of awareness among people. Even if people are aware, they aren't motivated enough to take action.

02 

They get too engrossed in the game they are playing that they neglect their health or take breaks.

03

Non availability of the right resources

Solution

FitGamer is a mobile app that suggests replacement activities for gaming professionals and casual gamers who play video games for long hours to encourage physical activities and prevent them from getting long-term health implications

Key Features

01

Suggest events based on gaming activity

The overall goal of this feature is to address the problem of gaming addiction by providing alternatives of things to do than play games and creating a community of people who are attending these events or participating in these activities. The application would track gaming activity; provide recommendations for physical activities.

02

Introducing Buddy 

We provide an option to attend the event with a buddy (who is equivalent to a sponsor) they’ve been where you are, they’re an example of success, they can provide you with hope and strength and who keeps the user accountable.

03

Notifications to take frequent breaks

Screenshot of a notification interface notifying you to take frequent breaks

Achievements to track progress

Video of the Fitgamer app interface showcasing Achievements feature for tracking progress

Tips to take care of physical health

Diving deeper into the process

Formative Research

During the research phase, we carried out a thorough evaluation of the literature that included journal papers, web articles, interviews, fieldwork, and market research.

Interviews

Took interviews of an employed adult who was 25 years old and a graduate student who was 23 years old. People don't always understand the true repercussions of gaming addiction but when I was conducting interviews I realized that both my interviewees knew the extent of damage that would cause in their personal and professional life but still they conducted to carry on playing for hours together.

Observations

We carried out a field study at various sites that helped us understand the user's behavior in natural surroundings. To capture our observations, we jotted down the notes and created rough sketches. These insights aided in our analysis of the user behavior patterns. 

Image of a kid playing games on the ipad and a student playing chess on his laptop in the library
Notes of my observations

Analyzing Data

In the affinity diagram we jotted down our insights from the interviews we conducted and grouped them into different categories. We used an empathy map to synthesize our observations to get a better understanding of the user's behaviors, emotions and attitudes.

Affinity diagram of how games can affect us
Empathy mapping of what gamers think and feel, see, hear, say and do?

User Patterns and Theme

2016

Word Health Organization recognized gaming addiction as a disorder for the first time

7.71 hrs

The average time spent playing video games is 7.71 hours per week in the US

8.5%

Children and teenagers under 18 around the addicted to gaming

40%

40% of the players do not participate in any kind of physical activity

Key User Requirements

01

Increasing Social Interactions

Although playing video games requires interaction with others in virtual spaces, they don't necessarily prepare one for the reality of peer socialization. We would want to encourage and incentivize learning how to communicate with other individuals in a real-world setting, which is a crucial social skill.

02
Building Awareness About Game Addiction

We observed that addiction to video games was a significant problem in modern society. This problem affected far too many individuals, particularly kids, and needed to be brought to people's attention.We believe that it is necessary to raise awareness of the problem, which is evident in today's society on an ever-growing scale.

03
Mental reminder on the time spent on playing video games:

Games are fun and can be extremely immersive to a point that the player can lose track of the time they end up spending on video games. Notifications about the time they are spending on a particular game can help them manage their time better and prioritize their activities.

Persona

Persona of lucus phillips who is a enthusiatic gamer
Persona of katy jenner who is gamer guys mom

Ideation

To explore the maximum number of opportunities, we conducted three brainstorming sessions generating at least 80 ideas with this issue in mind: to get the best ideas from our team members and ensure we had enough information for our user's needs.

Image depicting three whiteboards filled with brainstorming sessions and a total of 80 ideas written on them

Rationale behind the design

Requirements

It's necessary to engage in regular physical activity, take frequent breaks during gaming sessions, and be mindful of the duration and impact of gaming on your health.

The solution must be developed within the constraints of not forcing users to perform tasks and respecting their privacy, while still effectively promoting physical activity and healthy gaming habits.

Constraints

Features

Some features that can be included in a solution to promote physical activity and healthy gaming habits are recommending replacement activities based on gaming activity, an option to have a buddy/sponsor for support, alerts and break reminders, tips for maintaining physical fitness, and achievements to track progress.

Storyboarding

I wanted to ensure that I considered all the significant aspects of our problem statement when choosing solutions. Suggesting events based on gaming activity solutions appeared to be the most appropriate for addressing the problem space as it addressed all the problems that primary and secondary research suggested the target users are encountering while also being economically, socially, and technically feasible.

Storyboard illustrating John's transition from playing computer games to real-life games after receiving a suggestion from the app. Panels show John initially engaged in computer gaming, receiving a recommendation from the app, and then participating in real-life activities, symbolizing his shift in focus

Design 

With Figma, we could collaborate efficiently with other team members, making adjustments without sending files back and forth. This made the flow of the design process more intuitive and streamlined.

Wireframe

Our team created wireframes as a low-fidelity prototype using Adobe XD. The wireframes represented the skeleton of our application and helped conduct usability evaluations. Moreover, these wireframes allowed us to experiment with additional features which were unsure of adding to the final application.

Initial wireframes of the Fitgamer app interface, showing basic layouts for key screens
Initial wireframes of the Fitgamer app interface, showing basic layouts for key screens

Prototyping

We created the high fidelity in Figma to accurately represent the final application. This allowed us to ensure that our design met the users' needs and that the users could use the design effectively. 

Montserrat

Primary

Aa

Regular

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Semi Bold

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Medium

#1BCF9A

Secondary

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Bold

#68C4F8

#05070A

#C3C3C3

#FFFFFF

#ECAD33

Event suggestion card in the Fitgamer app displaying details such as event title, date and location

Suggesting Events

Health Tip card in the Fitgamer app featuring a concise health-related tip or advice. The card includes a title and a brief description of the tip. Users can swipe or tap to view additional tips, promoting health awareness and education

Health Tips

Activity Tracking card in the Fitgamer app displaying user's fitness activities for the day

Activity Tracking

Players Attending Event section in the Fitgamer app, showing a list of users who have RSVP'd or expressed interest in attending a specific event

Players Attending Event

Bottom navigation bar in the Fitgamer app featuring tabs for 'Events,' 'Activity,' 'Discover,' and 'Profile.' The bar provides easy access to key sections of the app, allowing users to navigate between event listings, activity tracking, discovery features, and their profile settings

Navigation Bar

Search bar in the Fitgamer app interface, allowing users to search for specific content, events, activities, or other users within the app.

Search Bar

Age slider control in the Fitgamer app interface, enabling users to adjust their age by sliding a handle along a horizontal track

Age Slider

Primary and secondary app buttons in the Fitgamer interface, with the primary button styled in green color and the secondary button styled in black

Primary

Secondary

App Buttons

Journey tabs in the Fitgamer app interface, providing access to users' fitness progress on a monthly and daily basis

Journey Tabs

We created the high fidelity in Figma to accurately represent the final application. This allowed us to ensure that our design met the users' needs and that the users could use the design effectively. We used a dark theme user interface since dark UI is gentler for the eyes than blue light.

Explore it on your own 

Evaluation and Testing

In order to evaluate the design choices and overall effectiveness of the product, we conducted a series of assessments including expert reviews, heuristic evaluations, and usability testing with potential consumers. Our evaluations yielded several key findings and insights.

What worked well?

The combination of offering customization options and providing helpful tips for managing gaming addiction worked well in satisfying users' needs and interests.

What could have been done better?

The application could have benefited from an introductory, interactive tutorial that guided users through the categories, achievements, and buddy options, improving overall user comprehension.