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Alternate Reality Integration App

February 2022

Overview

The fictional app I created is called the Gym Buddy

The overview of this app is that it is designed to help gyms goers have a different way of going to the gym.  People can go online and look up different exercise routines or hire a personal trainer, but what if they want to train better or practice more efficiently all from their phones.

The Gym Buddy, the Alternate Reality Integration app, will show users what machines they can use for certain exercises, how to use them, and here to find the machines. This app is designed to help everyone from gym newcomers to veterans alike. The hope is with this app gyms will have better retention of their clients as well as be able to offer gym-goers a new and helpful experience. 

Problem Statement

"A gym-goer who wants to enhance their fitness journey needs a way to better understand what all the equipment does because teaching themselves how the equipment works isn't helping them meet their fitness goals."

Users and Audience

The users and audience of The Gym Buddy are first-time gym goers and gym veterans alike.
If you are new to the gym, The Gym Buddy will help you in learning what machines are good for certain exercises and what muscle group they work on.
If you are a gym Veteran, The Gym Buddy will help you maximize your workout and help you get the results you want.

Roles and Responsibilities

For this project, I worked on it alone for our Emerging Technology Class at Conestoga College.
For this project, I did everything myself from research, design, and mockups. 

Scope and Constraints

-Creating a new AR app
-Functionality of the app - will people use it?
-Trying to come up with an AR App that is valuable.
-Coming up with ways my app could make profit, safety concerns, and selling my AR app.

The Process - Idea

First the idea Stage:
I had to come up with an idea that could use AR technology to help us in our everyday lives. My first thought was immediately the gym.

Some questions I asked myself are: How does the equipment work? What muscle group am I using? Am I using as efficiently as I could be? What else could this app do?

I then created some questions I could ask my interviewees to see what they would like a Gym AR app to provide.
Added rough sketches of what the Mockup could be.

The Process - Research

Second the research stage:

I began by interviewing people who go to the gym and people who don't to learn more insight about what they would like in an app that would help them with their gym experience. I created 2 personas based on real data to help give an understanding.

3 Key features interviewees wanted:
- Easy to use, friendly interface
- Informative on exercises and equipment
- Not pushy, too many notifications
 

The Process - Mockup

The third stage the Mockup:
After the interviews, I created a mockup of what the app could look like when in use. 

Once you scan a QR code through the app, the app will provide you with: How the machine works, what muscle group it works on and some exercises you can do on the machine.

I also created what it would look like when you are searching around the gym for certain equipment. 
As well as a rough floor plan that shows the traffic of the gym for safety reasons.

The Process - Floor Plan Mockup

- During the process I created a floorplan to walk through safety concerns and a vision of how the AR would work.
- In this floor plan it shows High Traffic areas, where the machines are, and where the app should be used.

Outcomes and Results

In the end what I learned is that there are a lot of moving pieces to make this app a reality such as:

- You would need to create the app, and have gyms give you access to their facility and equipment so that you could input the data into the app.

- Enter all the gym equipment and multiple exercises into the app.

- Financing the app would be difficult - Would the Gyms pay to be a part of the Gym Buddy system or would users pay to use the app? What's the best approach.

- What are some safety results when using the app in the gym such as looking around on your phone.

- What are some ethics around using your phone in a very public place how can you monitor that people are actually using the app.


 

Conclusion

If this app was in full-on development with a team working on it, it would be easier to answer some questions about finance, ethics, marketing, and usability.
Overall there are a lot more steps to creating a full-fledged app. And of course, the design process never ends! Repeat until MVP

 If you would like to see the full project, please download the PDF!

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