The Challenge
Many young adults lose motivation with fitness goals due to a lack of consistent support. My task was to design a feature that would help users stay accountable by connecting with friends—starting with a messaging system, and expanding into scalable motivation mechanics.
Discovery & Insights
During user interviews, 75% of users reported that communication with others significantly enhanced their enjoyment of the app, highlighting the value of social connection in maintaining user engagement. Additionally, 83% of users said they'd be more likely to use the app if their friends and family were also using it, validating the importance of peer influence for long-term commitment.
Through the affinity mapping exercise, I identified key user themes—accountability, competitions, social interactions, and health tracking motivation.
Users expressed a strong desire to:
Track fitness progress towards a larger goal
Engage in group workouts for better accountability, a competitive drive, and social encouragement
These findings led me to expand the initial messaging feature into a comprehensive social system designed to increase engagement through friendly competition and group workout scheduling.
My Approach
As the sole designer, I owned the end-to-end process, from research and feature prioritization to visual design and testing. Building on the user insights, I identified two key opportunities:
Friendly Competition: Designed a low-pressure challenge system to encourage consistency without overwhelming users.
Workout Scheduling: Created a simple calendar tool that allowed friends to coordinate sessions, reducing friction and boosting accountability.
These features transformed messaging into actionable, peer-driven engagement, supporting users in both tracking and achieving their fitness goals.
Design Process
User Flows
Wireframes
To align with user behaviors, I designed the Inbox and Messaging pages similar to popular social media platforms, since many users mentioned relying on social media to stay connected and spending significant time on these platforms. This helped create an intuitive and familiar interface, reducing friction and improving user engagement.
The Feed and Notification pages were also modeled after social media, promoting quick updates and interaction. The Home screen was designed with widgets to display key fitness data, allowing users to track their progress at a glance.
Note: While customization of the Home screen was out of scope, it's an area that could be enhanced in future iterations to allow users more control over what’s displayed.
Final Design Solution & Usability Testing
The high-fidelity designs brought the product vision to life by combining familiar social media-style interaction patterns with lightweight fitness tracking and scheduling tools. Emphasis was placed on intuitive UX to support behavior change through peer motivation.
I tested the core flows with 20 users and iterated based on their feedback. 80% found the friendly challenge system motivating, and 75% felt that communicating with friends made the app more enjoyable. These findings validated our hypothesis: that social features could significantly drive retention and commitment.
The usability feedback also sparked ideas for future enhancements rooted in AI and personalization.
Future AI/ML Enhancements
While this phase focused on core UX, I also outlined a future vision for data-driven motivation systems that respect user privacy and enhance engagement:
Opt-in Sentiment Tracking via reaction buttons or post-workout check-ins to gauge motivation and offer encouragement.
Smart Reminders tailored to user behavior patterns, nudging them when they’re most likely to act.
A Matchmaking Engine to connect users with similar friends and goals.
These concepts lay the groundwork for scalable, emotionally intelligent engagement that builds trust and supports accountability.
Outcomes
85% of users expressed interest in using the messaging feature weekly or more
Successfully expanded the scope from basic messaging to a full motivation system
Proposed a forward-looking roadmap of AI-enhanced, scalable features—such as smart reminders and goal-based matchmaking—based on user research and emerging engagement patterns
Project Reflections
This project demonstrated my ability to:
Own the full product design lifecycle for a feature—from discovery to ideation, prototyping, testing, and iteration
Translate qualitative research into strategic product opportunities by identifying unspoken needs like social accountability and peer motivation
Design for emotional connection and user behavior, not just functionality—focusing on motivation, not just activity tracking
Think beyond the immediate scope by proposing ethically grounded, AI-informed concepts to support long-term engagement and scalability