5& Training Pass
Fostering engagement and growth through community and goals.
UX Research & Design • Fitness & Dance • SaaS • B2B2C • Product Led Growth (PLG) • Mobile
Team
Just Me!
(Personal Project)
My Roles
UX/UI & Visual Designer
User Researcher
Tools
Timeline
April 10, 2024 -
May 10, 2024
Overview
The Problem
5& Training Pass is a dance studio and class management software company that was having trouble with users converting to a paid plan after utilizing their month-long free trial. The company wanted to increase user engagement by implementing messaging within the app.
The Solution
It was discovered through user research that users did not necessarily need messaging within the app. Rather, users needed features to feel a better sense of progression and seamlessly connect with friends and teammates. By fostering sustained engagement through gamification and peer-to-peer participation, 5& strengthens its Product Led Growth (PLG) model and is able to convert users to their paid plan more consistently.
Jump to the High Fidelity prototypes by clicking here.
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Getting to know the users
User Interviews
5& Training Pass's target demographic includes
Age 18-34
Tech-savvy users who use their smartphones for several hours per day
Budget conscious
Interact with friends and family daily
From these details, 5 users were recruited to semi-structured interviews to discuss their experience with some combination of dance, fitness, and app engagement. These users were also screened to see what kind of apps they used on a daily basis, and all of them used Apple Fitness, ClassPass, or both.
Affinity mapping
After the interviews, I took the important quotes and ideas and sorted them thematically.
Some key findings were:
Users do not need another messaging platform.
Users are motivated with social interaction.
Users dislike the high social and mental cost of planning and reaching out to others.
Users appreciate tangible achievements.
Users find value in things like streaks, but do not want them to feel punishing.
User Personas
Jobs to be done
With the people and pain points in mind, I wanted to distill the information down into an actionable circumstances that users will face.
Based on the business goals and user research, it was clear that there should be a focus on social and emotional jobs to keep users invested in the product and drive the PLG model forward.
User Flows
User Flows were created from the JTBDs and other synthesis data. Utilizing User Flows helped inform the red routes and important screens to design, so that the prototypes can stay focused on the most important needs of the user. The routes that are going to be covered are:
Scheduling a class with a friend
Cancelling a reservation and notifying the relevant friends
Completing a goal and setting a new one
Viewing an activity feed
Inspiration from industry leaders
Competitive Analysis
Looking to existing leaders of highly sustained user engagement was a low-cost way of seeking out features that are tested and can be incorporated into 5& Training Pass. Four apps that were analyzed were Classpass, Duolingo, Nike Run Club, and Apple Fitness.
Likes
Classpass' invitation and class database experience.
Duolingo's family and gamification features.
Apple Fitness' achievements and badges.
Nike Run Club's cleanliness and compelling interface.
Dislikes
Cancelling a class with friends on Classpass takes a large social load.
Duolingo's navigation is too large for the nav bar.
The new user experience for Nike Run Club is overwhelming.
Apple Fitness is not compelling to use outside of the achievements and rings.
Ideating
Red Routes & Sketches
After understanding the needs of the users and knowing what routes I needed to cover, it was time to sketch out some solutions. This is a crucial time-efficient step to quickly ideate and iron out usability issues early-on.
Guerilla Testing
Once the sketches were done, I took them to a fitness event with active members of the dance community to learn what is and isn't working regarding these journeys.
Users liked the efficient interactions with friends without needing to message them.
Users felt that the community feed was not fulfilling.
Having another social media app would deter them from using the app.
Users loved the idea of achievement badges, and emphasized the importance of good execution on this feature.
From this data, I decided to move the activity feed into future iterations of the product, so that I can focus on the execution of the more necessary features. The risk of incorporating a deterrent was too high, especially since the goal was to increase user retention through a PLG model.
Building the interface
Visual Design
Being a fitness and training app at its core, the vibes of the app should be cool and dynamic. Several leaders in the dance and training space were sought out for inspiration, along with Google's Material Design Guidelines for palette and typography inspiration. Eventually, I decided to use Poppins for the app interface and a combination of Interstate and Futura for the logo iconography.
Features & Testing
Combining what I learned from the user research, sketch testing, and style guide, I was able to create and test a high-fidelity prototype on target users. 5 users were recruited to test the prototypes and fill out a System Usability Scale questionnaire.
Streaks
During user testing, I learned that streaks are a powerful social and personal motivator, so I iterated on the home page to put this front and center and make it more clear on what a streak meant for users.
User feedback also suggested that it was unclear on whether or not a streak was fulfilled for the current period. To combat this, I changed the color indicator to gray to indicate that this streak has not been fulfilled yet. Although this looks like a good start, I want to explore adding another indicator in the future for better accessibility and overall a clearer visual message.
Friend & Class Information
I noticed that users sought out more information while completing their tasks. To introduce this information in a non-intrusive way, I added the ability to view information in a popup form when tapping the relevant icons.
I also added class preparation instructions on the journey's success screens. This way, users wouldn't feel like they were performing redundant actions if they went back to view these instructions.
Cancelling a class
Users initially had trouble understanding which friends were being notified, and whether or not they had friends attending the classes they were cancelling. To remedy this I added the profile pictures of the friends they invited, and showed a disabled state to illustrate that no friends were currently signed up for the same class.
Additionally, I added a confirmation page after users initiated a cancellation to give users more of an opportunity to reverse their cancellation if they were on the verge of cancelling.
In the future, I would explore more options for different copy, illustration, or social information to help keep users signed up for class, aligning with the business goals of the app while still keeping users in control of their actions.
Continuing Goals
Upon opening their goals page from completing a goal, users were initially confused with their goal looking incomplete. They were unsatisfied that they were not able to look at their completion and felt like they did not have control over their goal journey. By giving users more control through a "Start level 2 journey" button, users became able to bask in their achievements and be more engaged with their goals.
Final Flows
Flow: Schedule a Class
Testing Feedback:
Animations were smooth and copy was clear.
Success screens made the journey feel enjoyable.
Liked the ability to connect with friends through goals, streaks, and planning classes.
Low mental cost of planning with friends is great.
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Flow: Cancel a Class
Testing Feedback:
Navigation was simple and efficient.
Animations were smooth and copy was clear.
Cancelling did not feel punishing.
Users appreciated being able to cancel with friends without a high social and mental cost.
Being able to cancel through the app, as opposed to having to reach out to friends, significantly reduced this negative feeling and made users feel empowered to continue using 5& Training Pass.
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Flow: View Achievements and Set a New Goal
Testing Feedback:
Achievements felt fun to obtain and was a nice surprise on opening the app.
The motion of the badge makes the success feel tangible.
Giving users control over their goals and the ability to earn something "real" is motivating and makes their dance journey fun.
Users who direct and/or directed dance teams felt that this feature would be beneficial for their teams, making it easier to motivate their members to take more class.
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Outcomes
SUS-tained Engagement
After the usability tests, users were interviewed and prompted to take the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire to provide a usability score. An average SUS score is 68, and 5& Training Pass has a mean score of 89! This highlights good usability for the app and is a sign that the designs are going in the right direction.
Other key outcomes from usability tests were:
100% of users said that using this app would motivate them to both take more class alone and with others.
Users expressed that 5& Training Pass would heavily reduce the mental load of planning to take class with friends, motivating them to utilize the app more.
Users that are team leaders expressed that using this app as a team would increase the motivation and ease for teammates to take class, which is a recurring problem that they encounter.
(Product Led) Growth
Circling back to PLG model, the goal was to craft a strong, sustainable user experience to convert users from their free trial to the paid plan. With a solid SUS score, the business goals will be positively impacted as users sustain more habits with 5&. Additionally, with a seamless, convenient, and motivating experience, users are likely to spread word and get more users on board. This natural word-of-mouth marketing for 5& is something I actually experienced after the completion of this project!
After testing ended, something else unexpected happened. I was at another dance event where a potential user (a current director of one of San Diego's oldest dance troupes) approached me and was excited about the potential use of 5& Training Pass! I had not mentioned it to him nor recruited him to do any testing, so the fact that it spread to him by word of mouth was a proud moment for me. This also speaks to the potential success of 5& Training Pass with a PLG model. It confirmed for me that users want to take class together and be able to easily schedule it, but are unable to do so right now.
Opportunities for Improvement
There are still many opportunities that I would like to explore with the future of 5& Training Pass. In future version, I want to explore:
An appropriate, low-stakes activity feed to maintain passive connections to your community.
More engaging illustrations and copy to help guide users to the right places and potentially prevent cancellations.
Overall, I want users to feel full control over their dance journey while guiding them to spend more time in the app and booking class.
In Conclusion
I am very grateful for the opportunity to pursue this project. The dance community is something that I hold close to my heart, and I know that there is a lot that the community can implement to help motivate and retain dancers to grow. From the excitement I saw from users who were able to use or hear about 5& Training Pass, I hope to be able to implement this solution in the future.
