Confirming visualisation presentation method

In order to display my final mobile app idea, I plan to visually present it through the use of photoshop composition. I would ideally like to create mock up screen grabs of the app, which I will then composit into iPhone templates.

I would like to show at least 3 screen grabs of my app, with each one composited onto separate horizontally placed iPhone templates against a coloured circle background. I think this use of thirds and bold colours will allow a simple but eye-catching look which will engage viewers as their attention will be drawn straight too the app screenshots.

1. The first screen grab will display the home page
2. The second screen grab will display the 3D model with highlighted areas
3. The third screen grab will be a zoomed in section of the 3D model with information displayed

Project Direction

In response to the brief for this project I set myself the proposal of ‘How can we engage students at the University of Lincoln on exercise and encourage them to participate in it’. From carrying out a variety of primary and secondary research I have decided that the solution to my proposal will the form of a mobile app. 

An overview of the app:

• An individual will input their numerical body data, allowing the app to create an accurate 3D model of them
• Whenever the individual input’s the exercise they have done, the app uses this information to highlight area’s of the body that have been impacted
• The user can tap on these highlighted area’s to learn more specifically of the long term/short term benefits that the exercise has had
• Data is tracked, stored and users can see how their model has changed over time
• Users can save their own customised workouts to save them typing data out each time – the app also automatically downloads data that phones track e.g. step count

Why I think this is an effective response:

I believe this is an effective response as my primary research showed that the root cause of students not participating in exercise is lack of motivation. I think by being able to physically see the areas of the body being impacted by exercise and having the ability to see the subtle immediate effects as well as long term effects is going to provide that motivation. Students will be able to see that exercise is helping them, and meanwhile they are educating themselves in an engaging and personal way as they learn how exercise helps the body. I also think by taking an app-based approach it will easily become incorporated into their daily lives and also comes across as an audience-related approach to teaching as opposed to be seen as a condensing way of educating them.

Rough sketch up:

What I will do next: I will be continuing to fully develop my app concept, alongside this I will be looking at crowdfunding paged in order to give me some inspiration for my own crowdfunding page that I will be creating on adobe spark. I will post my research on this topic in the next blog post. 

Primary Research Feedback

In order to expand my knowledge on my target audience, I sent out a questionnaire to undergraduate students at the University of Lincoln. The purpose of this questionnaire was to help me find out more about this demographic’s habits and thoughts in regards to exercise, as this was an area I did not know anything about and needed information from in order to help my final product. Here is an analysis of my findings. 

20 people participated in my questionnaire, there was an even distribute of people from each year – 40% Level 1, 30% Level 2 and 30% were level 3 – having an even mix makes the research seem fairer and less bias as it is targeted at all undergraduates. Of these 20, more than half said they do not exercise outside of University (55%) with majority of these people being first and second years – backing up my secondary research.

The main reason people gave for not exercising was ‘lack of motivation’ which gained an overwhelming 63% response – from this I have gathered that it should be an aspect that I target in this project as it seems to be one of the core reasons that students at the University of Lincoln are not exercising. Other reasons for not exercising include ‘Do not have the time’ (9%), ‘Not interested’ (27%) and ‘Do not fully understand the benefits’ (18%) – I think these are all core principles that I need to target in my approach as despite motivation being the main instigator, there are other underlying causes that should be addressed.

1. Location Reasons
2. Dont have the time
3. Lack of motivation
4. Not interested in it
5. Do not fully understand the long term benefits

For those who do exercise I wanted to learn what habits they already have in their approach, so asked what types of exercise they do – the responses were a variety of going to the gym, exercising at home and doing regular walking/running. Although this may not effect the immediate outcome of the app, it does develop my understanding of the target audience.

As seen in the image below, there was a huge variety in the results regarding why people exercise – however, health benefits did come out as the leading reason with physical benefits being a close second. My target audience are at their prime development stage, and as a result of this they often want to try and improve their physical and mental well being, I think using this as a target topic in my final response will prove to be effective as it is clearly the leading reason for people wanting to engage in exercise so if this is played upon then they are more likely to respond positively.

As can be seen in the image below, when asked how much exercise individuals participate in per week (outside of university) there was again quite a spread result. However, 75% of respondents do come under the lower half of the provided hours (0-6 Hours) and no one does more than 8+ hours. It is important to take university lifestyle into consideration in terms or rationing time, however with the weekly recommended guidelines being 2 and a half hours a week plus 2+ days a week doing strength exercises (NHS, 2015) it is concerning that 50% of people questioned are not meeting these standards. I think it is going to be important to highlight the long and short term benefits of meeting these recommended amounts as it might give people more motivation to participate.

The next question that I asked was whether or not the audience have a way of monitoring their exercise progress, to which 100% responded ‘No’ – even those who do the highest level of exercise. This proves that there is a gap in the market for a tool which can actively record and monitor data from exercise – 80% of respondents said it would be something they would be interested in. From this it can be concluded that people want to be able to physically monitor and have a visualisation of the progress they make.

My final question asked ‘What would encourage you to do more exercise?’ – again, the response to this was varied with all the options having been expressed as a reasons from the target audience. As seen in the graph below, ‘Being able to see both the short term and long term benefits’ came out as the number one reason – this reinforces my initial idea’s of creating an app/final response that is going to allow people to see the impact of their activity as it is going to motivate them to carry on. Coinciding with this, ‘Having the motivation’ was the second most chosen answer; from this it is clear to see that the reason students from Lincoln are having trouble engaging in exercise is because they are lacking in the push and encouragement to participate, and ultimately some way of showing the benefits and creating motivation will be stimulating.

1. Having more free time
2. Having friends to go with
3.Having the Motivation
4. Being able to see the long term/short term benefits
5. Being closer to a gym/exercise groups

Conclusion

In conclusion,from my questionnaire I feel I have gained a clearer insight to my audience and their attitudes/habits regarding exercise.Just under half of my audience do actively participate in exercise outside of university, with the main activity being going to the gym – they are mainly doing this because for the health and physical benefits that physical activity provides. However, majority of my audience are shown to not be doing the recommended daily amount of exercise (whether this is intentional or not), showing that their does seem to be a breakdown in communicating the importance of physical activity and lack of education on the matter.

Over half of my respondents claimed they do not exercise out of University, justifying my proposal of needing to encourage students to do more exercise. Alongside this, a high percentage of respondents said they would be interested in something that can effectively track their exercise and they want to see the benefits of activity – justifying my second aim of wanting to educate students on the impact of exercise. Another recurrence throughout this research is that students from the University of Lincoln seem to be lacking in motivation to do exercise – This is something I would like to focus on during my final piece as I believe it is the core reason as to why people are not participating in exercise as well as why they are seemingly unwilling to educate themselves more. Backing this up, 70% of respondents said that being able to see the short term/long term benefits would encourage them to do more exercise.

Sources:

National Health Service (2015) Physical Activity Guidelines for adults. National Health Service. Available from https://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/physical-activity-guidelines-for-adults.aspx [accessed 23 February 2018].

What I will do next: Now I have gathered all of my primary and secondary research, I am going to gather up all the information and devise my final concept for this project. My thoughts and idea’s will be displayed in a blog post. 

Influences Research 

This part of my secondary research is dedicated to looking at a variety of sources and platforms that may influence my final product in regards to functionality, aesthetics, layout and emotional attributes.

1. Instagram

App: Instagram

URL: https://www.apple.com/us/search/instagram?src=globalnav

Context: Instagram is a social media site used primarily to upload pictures; people can then interact with one another through liking and commenting on one another’s photos – and can also direct message each other. The instagram app is layed out into 5 main segments: the ‘home screen’, the explore page, the upload page, a notifications area and a personal profile. The layout is simplistic and straight to the point, allowing easy and fluid use of the app.

The reason I have decided to include Instagram within my research is due to its layout and functionality as an application.

Positive Learning:

• Simplistic colour scheme: off-white coloured background, bold gradient-colour framing around subjects; the framing links to its branding and logo design.
• Simplistic navigation system – use of icons makes it very easy to navigate the app and instantly know what each button does
• Very visual app; lack of writing makes it more appealing and engaging

As a whole, the Instagram app is a subject that I believe will highly influence me; the app is very simplistic in design and its use of icons makes it look vastly more appealing – I hope to incorporate this into my design as I think it will be far more engaging for my target audience. I also really like the use of an off-white background alongside a bold framing around specific area’s as I think this is an effective way of highlighting important information – it immediatly alerts a viewer due to the contrast.

Negative Learning:

• Notifications area is very clustered with information and can be confusing – no set structure
• Profile area could possibly be more personal in regards to information input

As mentioned, the Instagram app layout is very fluid and concise throughout – however, I do believe it has some flaws. The notifications area is very clustered and it is often hard to see who has liked your photo and what they have commented as all the notifications are addressed in one long list which is very unattractive to the viewers eye. Within my own design, should i chose to include a notifications area, I would want to do it in a very clear way that allows the audience to distinguish what notifications they have already read, which ones are unread and what individual interactions have taken place. As mentioned, the profile area also feels like a slight negative as it isn’t very personal: all that can be written is your name and a short bio. In my own design I would want the user to make it feel slightly more personal: obviously due to it being targeted at health this information would probably include weight and height etc. I think this would allow the app to feel more immersive and personal.

2. Human Anatomy Atlas – 3D Anatomical Model of the Human Body

App: Human Anatomy Atlas – 3D Anatomical Model of the Human Body

URL: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/human-anatomy-atlas-3d-anatomical-model-of-the-human-body/id446207961?mt=8

Context: This app allows users to rotate, pan and zoom in/out of 3D models of the human body. Mainly used by students and people training within the field, the app allows a complex view of the whole body structure from the skeleton right down to the finer details of veins. The app allows the user to look at every part of the body and gives an insight to the subject matter they are looking at e.g. its name and function.

This app interests me as I want to take an application-based approach whereby users can track and monitor the effects of their activity; and one idea of mine was to do this through the use of a 3D model. By looking at this app I hope to measure the success of using such a model.

Positive learning:

• Very in-depth with regards to information
• Gender neutral
• Able to access information layer by layer of the body e.g. skin, bones, nervous systems etc.
• Very easy and simplistic to navigate – zoom, tap and scroll

I really like the use of 3D models within this app, I think it allows a successful way to teach and engage an audience about the functions of the body as it is both highly interactive and informative. I really like that the app allows you to see the body by layers allowing it to be very specific in detail. I would like to use a 3D model in my own app to show users the effect that exercise is having on them, and therefore think it would be really useful to have this level of detail as it is going to show them both the noticeable and unnoticeable implications. I also really like the simplistic navigation, it is something well-known to mobile users and therefore will allow them to use the app without disruption.

Negative Learning:

In terms of the research I have done into this app (the functionality) I personally do not see many flaws. The only thing I would perhaps change within my own design is making written information slightly clearer and not as clustered – I want it to be simplistic and engaging to my audience – where this app gives a vast amount of icon options, I would much rather display clear and concise information that is going to instantly grab the users attention and keep them motivated and willing to engage.

3. Map My Fitness Workout Trainer

App: Map My Fitness Workout Trainer

URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mapmyfitness.android2

Context: ‘Map My Fitness Workput’ is an app on the lifestyle market – it allows users to track the locations and distances that they run/walk every day and stores this data in a graph system that the user can access and review. This app interests me in terms of research and development as I really like it’s simplistic use of community – users can add friends and look at what activity they have done that day and it gives them a sense of motivation.

Positive Learning:

As mentioned, the main reason I have took an interest in this app is its community function. I think despite not being able to directly interact with friends, it is motivational to be able to see what they have achieved that day and what routes they have taken. This use of incorporating a friends function into the app gives the user an incentive and reason to stay active – if they see the progress that their friend makes then they will feed off this positive energy.

I could potentially use what I have learned from this feature by using it within my own app – I could create a function whereby users can add their friends and see what exercise they have done that day, and if users choose to publicise statistics such as weight loss then this could also be data that friends could see. I think it will motivate users as it will create friendly competition and create motivation to impress one another and to participate within exercise.

Negative Learning:

As i was mainly looking into this app for one function, I have not taken in any negative learning as I think everything I have learned reflects positively on the app and will also help me with my own development.

What I will do next: This completes my secondary research, so my next step is to go back to primary research and review the responses on the questionnaires. I will then analyse and display this information within a blog post. 

Competitors research

Research regarding competitors within the healthy and active lifestyle market who have tried to create solutions to the same problem that I have proposed.

1. NHS Fitness Studio

Company: National Health Service (NHS)

URL: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-fitness-studio/?tabname=aerobic-exercise

Context:The National Health Service is the publicly funded health care system in England. They aim to give treatment, care and advice to citizens in regard to all types of health.

I have decided to research into the online website of the NHS and more specifically, the ‘fitness studio’. This online fitness studio contains video tutorials that people can follow along to and covers a huge variety of exercise types from aerobics to general strength and fitness. The videos are live tutorial sessions from professional instructors that have been recorded and uploaded for viewers to access whenever they like, with each video ranging from 10 to 45 minutes. The reason I have decided to look into this product is that video fitness tutorials are a more traditional sense of promoting a healthy lifestyle, and I want to see just how effective and motivational they are and draw upon the positives and negatives of this medium and gain inspiration for my own final product.

Positive learning:

• Website layout is very clear and easy to navigate
• Video tutorials vary in difficulty; take into consideration all abilities
• Videos are easy to follow and accommodate to all ages
• Opening page states how each category will improve physical/mental health

There are a lot of positives regarding the NHS Fitness Studio website, with regards to my own product I would like to incorporate the easy and clear navigation formatting. Alongside this, I like that on the first page the physical/mental health benefits are stated; I think this gives a motivation push to an audience as it focuses on the positives as opposed to the negatives and I would like to incorporate this element into my final idea.

Negative Learning:

• No way to track the impact of the exercises e.g. calorie loss
• Videos are quite simplistic, could lead to disengagement
• Pages with videos on are very simplistic in design; lack in aesthetic and are not visually eye catching

Despite the website having a lot of positives in the educational formatting, there are some negatives in the aesthetics. The website is clear and concise which is appealing, however the video pages themselves are generally quite plain and simplistic which is slightly boring and fails in getting an audience to be interested in reading the text below the video. In my own product I would like the layout to be more engaging and encourage viewers to read any textual information, or find a more interesting way to put this information across. Alongside this, there is no determinant that shows the impact of doing the exercise e.g. average calorie loss, I think this is an important element as it is what would motivate people to do the exercise as they would be able to see the physical impact it is going to have.

2. My Fitness Pal

App name: ‘My Fitness Pal’

URL: https://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Context: My Fitness Pal is a free smartphone app and website that tracks diet and exercise in order to determine the most effective calorie intake for the individual.The company believes that the most effective way to lose weight and stay healthy is to simply track and journal food intake and exercise and base average intake on that data.

I decided to look into this website/app as creating a media product that tracks information is the route I would like to take, so too see how effective this product is will help me in developing my own. Despite having the same basic intention as my proposal but aimed at a larger target audience, this app seems to be more focused on the exercise aspect as opposed to physical activity; so I will take this factor into consideration.

Positive learning:

• Customization – the user inputs all their information, making it specific and personal to them
• Gives advice based on the individuals normal lifestyle – adapts and improvises as opposed to completely changing it
• Recommends other apps in the same category that will help
• Food, exercise, blog, community and shop – engaging amount of variety within the app/website

This product has a large array of positives about it that I hope to incorporate into my own product; I like the personal aspect in that an individual gets to input all their data and have tracking that is very specific to them e.g. before and after weight – if I was to create my own app then I would like to incorporate this idea into my own in order to make it more engaging and motivational to the individual. I also like that the app accommodates to different lifestyles and gives its advice based on that, I could incorporate this into my own app e.g. offering advice on student friendly activities and exercise suggestions. The overall notion of having an app that constantly tracks data is something that appeals to me as a whole as I think it is an effective way of engaging an individual as well as educating them on the benefits of the lifestyle and activities that they are carrying out as they can monitor their progress.

Negative learning

• The formatting of the app seems quite cluttering and overwhelming; a huge amount of text regarding different subjects
• The colour scheme is not the most aesthetically pleasing

Overall, there was a huge amount of positives from the My Fitness Pal website and app in terms of functionality and how it goes about achieving its aims, however – I personally find their are some flaws in the overall layout of this product visually. There is a huge amount of information needing to be delivered from this app, and the way it is laid out in copious amounts of text does not look appealing – in my own product I would try to avoid doing this and take a more visual approach with the aid of diagrams and graphics in order to get more information across as I believe this would be more engaging to a user – especially within my target audience of students. I also would choose to incorporate a brighter and bolder colour scheme into my design as I think the colours in this product are slightly dull and not as visually pleasing, which can disengage an audience as they want something that stands out and gives the connotations of positive energy and power.

3.Wii Fit

Brand/Name: Nintendo: Nintendo Wii Fit

Context: Nintendo platform created the Wii Fit in order to encourage families to engage in more exercise; to do this they created an interactive game where people would participate in a whole variety of engaging activities and sports games on the wii console and consequently their activity levels would allow them to lose weight in a gamified, competitive and fun way. Additional to this, they also developed the ‘Wii Fit Board’ this was essentially a scale that doubled up as an interactive board that individuals could stand on while doing activities to allow the software to monitor their weight (and weight loss) as well as their movement in games. This data would then be uploaded to the system to the individuals avatar where they could track data input overtime and set weight goals.

I have chosen to research into this product as it was a very popular and effective way that people engaged in exercise as a social activity, and at the same time were able to track and monitor their weight loss overtime – so they could see the impact the weight loss was having in a fun way. The gamification element of having competitive games and sports is also really interesting as a research topic as it was a unique style that appealed to all life stages in the family home.

 Positive learning:

• Uses gamification in order to effectively engage audience in doing exercise – it is made as a fun, social activity in the family home
• Effective way of tracking weight gain and loss; accessible graphs and data log
• Individuals can set BMI goals – makes it personal
• Competitive element gives it another level of engagement
• Bright visual graphics alongside audio; immersive

The Wii Fit has many positives that make it an appealing way of engaging in exercise; it includes bright aesthetics and graphics to create an immersive experience and allows individuals to partake in a whole host of activities that will benefit them in a variety of different ways. Giving an audience a variety of suggested ways to engage in exercise is something I would like to apply to my own product as it keeps them engaged for extensive periods of time as opposed to doing the same activity all the time. I also think the Wii Fit has a good way of storing data and makes it easily accessible for users to access, whilst also giving them the option to set goals; I would like to incorporate tdea of accesible data into my own product as it allows people to monitor progress and I like the idea of being able to set weight loss goals as it will give people more motivation to carry on engaging in activities.

Negative Learning:

• Requires a lot of expensive components; Wii console, Wii Fit board and the game itself
• Lack of realism; the avatars are cartoons and therefore disperse the illusion of it being realistic
• The game can be quite harsh in its approach; e.g. if someone is overweight then they make there is an insert of the avatar turning obese – almost humiliating?
• Would be nice to see specific benefits of each activity e.g. running games will help cardio etc.

While the Wii Fit is undeniably successful in meeting its outcomes, I think the presentation style does have some flaws; the avatars are very unrealistic and can compromise how effective people view activities and reflections to be. If i were to include an avatar within my own product I would try to make it more realistic in order to make it more aesthetically pleasing and relatable to users and they can get a firmer idea of the benefits exercise is having. I think the game lacks in showing the specific benefits of each activity, as drawn upon above, I think by doing this individuals could become more educated on what activities are going to be most beneficial to them and make sure to engage in a wide variety – therefore i would incorporate this into my own product when trying to engage users in the benefits of exercise.

What I will do next; The final part of my secondary research is looking into ‘inspirational’ sources that may influence my final product in terms of not only functionality but also aesthetically and emotionally.