UX Case Study: Codename — The Friendship Factory. A Mobile App for a Gym Community.
RMA Brief: Define the process of bringing new people into the business and have them engage with the community through a buddy system which is facilitated by technology.
Key Roles: UX Researcher, UI Designer, Ix Designer, Usability Test Facilitator, Presenter.
Total Project Duration: 5 Days.
RMAUXT (RMA UX Team) Members: Will Lin, Craig Boustred, Stev Mak, Rina Vongthongsri.
RMA Stakeholders: Kaveh, Carla.
Project Summary
Revolute Movement Academy (RMA) is Australia’s first Movement Academy, located in Rockdale, a southern suburb of Sydney, NSW. With roots in CrossFit, the gym has been operating since 2009, member number boasts in excess of 100. Surrounded by 37 gyms within a 3km radius, RMA has a problem with new customer attrition.
RMA has previously consulted with a Service Design team, their recommendation for RMA was a buddy app. Continuing from the Service Design research, our Problem Statement:
RMAUXT approached this problem with Lean UX thinking:
Problem Statement -> User Research -> Assumptions -> Hypothesis -> MVP -> Testing.
The project was completed within the agreed one-week timeframe. The team delivered a smartphone app product. Codename: The Friendship Factory. Validation of the product as a solution to the problem, lies in the ease and desire to use the product. Results from testing The Friendship Factory app indicated, a majority of testers felt comfortable and confident using the product, finding it attractive as a window into the community.
In additional to a mobile app, the team provided other digital opportunities as well as physical changes RMA might consider further exploring.
The client was very happy with our findings and recommendations. While the Brief stated the client wanted a buddy app, by applying Lean UX thinking, the team was able to demonstrate and convince the RMA stakeholders, using the Friendship Factory, will enable new members opportunities to access members of the existing community, with the added option of developing one on one relationships.
Client
RMA is a niche, health, wellness and movement academy that focuses on the progressive development of individuals physical and mental capacity. RMA runs classes in a small group setting with a heavy emphasis on community, camaraderie and compassion.
RMA offers multi-discipline movement practices including individual and group coaching in CrossFit, Olympic Weightlifting, MMA, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Kickboxing, Yoga, Multi-purpose Conditioning and team and sport specific training.
The vision is to make high quality physical and mental coaching accessible to the general public (as oppose to only elite athletes)
Challenge
When RMA opened in Rockdale, it was in the top 5 in New South Wales to have a CrossFit certification. Fast forward to today, there are 37 gyms within a 3km radius. Due to the high number of gyms available, RMA needs to have an edge, a point of difference from the other gyms to reduce customer attrition,
RMA has undergone a Service Design review, recommendations of the review were documented in a Service Design Blueprint. A recommendation from the Service Design consultation involved the development of a buddy app.
Our challenge was to use the Service Design Blueprint and solve the UX Design problem for the recommended buddy app to reduce new customer attrition.
Assumptions
We obtained access to the Service Design presentation, from there, we used whatever artefacts we could; including the Research, Personas and Blueprint, itself.
Assuming the Research, Personas and Blueprint were valid and correct, the team moved onto the next step, defining the Problem Statement.
Approach
After the Client Briefing, we only had three full days effort to define the Problem Statement, conduct User Research (assumed done at this stage), Analyse data, Design a Product Prototype ready for Usability Testing.
Problem Statement -> User Research -> Assumptions -> Hypothesis -> MVP -> Testing.
This engagement with RMA concludes on Day 4, after walking RMA through the Lean UX Design process, sharing our findings and recommendations.
Day 0 — Monday Afternoon: Client Briefing
Kaveh, a stakeholder from RMA, advised us during the Client Briefing, RMA has recently reviewed their Service Design, the team provided recommendations for the development of a buddy app, to reduce new customer attrition.
In bringing the team up to speed, Kaveh shared some Words of Wisdom:
Business Problems we also heard include:
After a quick debrief, Rina suggested we use a Lean Canvas to document what we know so far.
Having experience with facilitating workshops and working collaboratively through canvas’, I put my hand up to walk the team through the canvas. I lead the team to brainstorm all the ideas for our solution but because the Client Briefing didn’t start until late on Day 0, we didn’t finish completing the Canvas.
Day 1 — Tuesday Morning: Research/ Analysis
After reviewing where we left off on the Canvas, Stev and I agreed the Canvas was a good tool but not in this scenario. I found the intention of the Canvas is to force you to hone in on a problem and try to resolve that, whereas, at this stage, we needed to allow for discovery.
Stev and I parked the Canvas and started working on forming the Problem Statement. To help us form the Problem Statement faster, I suggested we answer Who, What, When/Why as seen below.
We didn’t conduct a lot of our own research, being a Lean thinking project, we didn’t want to spent effort reinventing the wheel. Instead we inherited a lot of previously collected data, as well as the Service Design recommendations.
Craig and Rina worked through the Blueprint with UX lenses on and highlight all touch points that refer to ‘buddies’ or ‘apps’ or a combination of both.
Assumptions at this stage were still:
Using 6up, 1 up, the team ideated solution options, voting on conceptual components we each felt would contribute to resolving the problem:
The “buddy system” kept coming up in our conversations, the team was feeling frustrated and uncertain a buddy system was the best option, given we weren’t feeling confident about the problem statement.
It was somewhere around here that Craig dropped the Codename:
Without knowing the right problem to solve, the solution felt funny, clunky almost. Like fitting a square peg into a round hole. Once ‘The Friendship Factory’ was coined, working towards this as a solution, felt more inline with what the team felt as a hunch.
Day 1 — Tuesday Afternoon: Research
The team, determined to validate whether the Service Design problem was true or not wanted to schedule a meeting with the Service Design Lead. He confirmed the Problem based on an assumption and had not been validated.
I felt this confirmation, even though we knew it was plausible, threw the team off balance a little.
We debated, listened and shared in everyone’s perspective but in the interest of time, and with my ‘Lean Thinking’ hat on, my recommendation was we split the team, I was happy to continue on with the current direction and if others are happy to peel off and pursue the research, that could work to our advantage too.
We all agreed to split the team’s efforts for now. Craig and Rina would start working on research questions for a survey and interviews, while Stev and I continue working on the existing problem.
Research — Survey
The survey was sent out in the afternoon over social media, to gain as much notice and responses as quickly as possible. Our target audience were people who had joined and left CrossFit/ F45/ class fitness based gyms.
In total, we received 22 responses by end of Day 2.
Research — Contextual Inquiry
Rina visited RMA to casually interview members, observe interactions of people there and validate whether people were leaving after 3 months due to a lack of connection with the community.
Objectives
Continuing with our problem in mind, Stev and I developed User Objectives for a digital experience.
I recommended we keep the Objectives and User Stories technology agnostic. From a Product Design perspective, while we had been informed our Persona is comfortable using mobile apps, one of Rina’s earlier ideas was for a display board, keeping solutions technology agnostic will enable our ideas to be flexible across both physical and digital spaces.
Stev and I further refined the User Objectives with User Stories and mapped each feature Value against Ease on an MVP chart.
Day 2 — Wednesday: Analysis and Design
With the Features prioritised, Stev and I started converting the User Stories into User Flows.
Meanwhile…
Craig put together an awesome visual data model (see below) of the survey results, talking the team through the insights he’d discovered.
A few surprising things we learned from the survey:
From what we are seeing from the data, it is likely to be easier to retain people who have an intention to commit to longer than 3 months, than those intending on only committing for 3 months.
Elsewhere…
Teammate, Rina, debriefed the team of her Contextual Inquiry to RMA, some interesting observations and insights from there too:
During classes
After class
Another key insight was the physical layout, a stretching area that members congregated in before or after a class; and a cafe; natural locations for people to gravitate towards and where conversations occur.
Back at the Ranch…
Stev and I used the User Flows to create Wireframes and page interaction.
With the Wireframes on the wall, we were ready to start building the UI and pages. In keeping Lean, we decided not to produce a hi-fi prototype but needed more detail than lo-fi, we settled for somewhere in between.
We decided to use Adobe XD for UI and IxD, where we could, we used existing UI kits for icons. The layout and structure of the app was designed based on existing patterns we have seen and used in other apps.
Craig started creating Usability Test Scripts.
Day 3 — Thursday: Design Cont. and Evaluation
Rina, Stev and I added the finishing touches and the mobile app, The Friendship Factory, was created! Craig finished off the Test Script and checked it matched the anticipated user navigation flow.
We tested with 6 people with the criteria being, you must have had experience at a CrossFit/ F45/ class fitness or club sport.
Having learnt my lesson (you can read up on it here) on another project, I checked that I had prototype screens printed to stick Post Its on while scribing and an A3 copy for faster notes transference.
Overall, there weren’t any alarm bells. A majority of the Testers felt comfortable and confident using the product.
Insightful feedback we did receive:
Ready for tomorrow: Client Presentation Day.
Day 4 — Recommendations
We arrived early and started preparing the room for an AM client presentation. We wrote on the walls.
We drew on the walls.
We stuck on the wall. And on the wall. And on the wall.
We presented our findings, insights from testing and recommendations moving forward to RMA stakeholders, Kaveh and Carla. They were both receptive of our mobile app idea from customer research and insights.
Now, for the bonus round, maintaining a technology agnostic approach to Product Design, the team replicated the objectives but designed for a physical experience. Ideas in the physical space include a profile wall for members, monitors displaying which team member has checked-in for the next class, among other ideas.
I sourced the Floor Plan from an older Development Application lodged with the local council, this visual gave Kaveh and Carla, a spatial idea of where to implement. Kaveh was very surprised to see the gym’s floor plan stuck on our wall.
“What can I say, I’m resourceful.”
Advocate for the customer
My experiences have taught me a lot about good and bad Product Design. Refining my understanding of the UX discipline has given me an opportunity to flex my muscles in a space I am naturally passionate about. Working on complex problems, sometimes I forget who the solution is for.
I have found these sentences to be very powerful, they give me a moment to reflect who’s voice I speaking from. Is it my own bias? Is it the client’s voice? Or is it the customer’s?
If customer sentiment is king, then research is definitely queen
Anyone who has an understanding of project, should understand the golden triangle; Time, Cost and Quality. At best, you can have 2 out of 3, at best. This project reminded me, even though we were adopting a Lean-esque approach, to get the best quality product for the customer, you’ll need to sacrifice time for research and validation. Cost was not a consideration, we could not outsource any work. We were fortunate, however, to have a great combination of skilled resources to handle the deviated approach and it was for the better in the end.
Thank You
Rina, thank you for making the effort to visit RMA at short notice. The information you shared back to the team definitely helped shape our recommendations in both the digital and physical recommendations.
Craig Boustred, thanks for continuing to keep things interesting. It’s awesome to work with someone that’s in the same head space and argue so passionately because we both agree.
Stev Mak, thanks for your energy and keeping things light. You definitely keep the vibes up, regardless of if we’re in the middle of a deep dive or just chatting, it’s always nice to come up for air.
Thank you Kaveh and Carla from RMA for giving us your time and being patient while we go on this journey with you and your customers.
UX Case Study: Codename — The Friendship Factory. A Mobile App for a Gym Community.
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