trainON
designed to help users build sustainable workout habits through guidance, motivation, and routine-building
Role:
Sole Product Designer | Product Strategist
Duration:
8 Months
Summary
trainON is a fitness application designed to help users build consistent workout habits by combining guided exercise education with motivational tools. Research revealed that many individuals struggle to achieve their fitness goals due to a lack of knowledge around exercise technique, difficulty staying motivated, and challenges maintaining a consistent routine. trainON addresses these barriers by visualizing muscle activation during exercises, rewarding progress through a lightweight motivation system, and enabling users to plan workouts through an integrated calendar. The goal of the product is to make workouts easier to understand, more engaging, and easier to maintain over time.
Problem
Many fitness apps focus on tracking or intensity but fail to support beginners who need foundational guidance and motivation. A lack of clear guidance on proper form and technique leads to frustration, low confidence, and decreased motivation, making it difficult to maintain a regular fitness routine. As a result, users struggle to build consistent routines and abandon their fitness goals early.
Research
I conducted both secondary and primary research to understand user needs and gaps in existing fitness solutions. Analysis of current apps and online content revealed common pain points, including difficulty following workouts, unclear guidance on proper form, and lack of strong motivation systems. I then recruited participants through screener surveys and conducted 1:1 interviews, synthesizing insights into affinity maps and personas. Key themes emerged around lack of motivation, limited foundational knowledge, and uncertainty in starting or maintaining a routine. These findings shaped trainON’s focus on delivering a more guided, structured, and motivating fitness experience.
Research Synthesis & Key Insights
After analyzing the survey, the issues were categorized into four main issues: variety workout, technique and form, staying motivated and routine building. This provided insight and highlighted the main issues that will need to be addressed when designing the app.
Ideation & Direction
How might we help encourage users to work out when they are not feeling motivated?
How might we give users enough knowledge and information to perform the exercise confidently in the proper technique and form to not hurt their body?
How might we help track and show progress for users to feel that they are making progress towards their goal everyday?
Site Map
User Flow
Design Rationale
The design of trainON focused on addressing three key user challenges identified during research: lack of exercise knowledge, difficulty maintaining motivation, and inconsistency in building workout routines. To support users with limited fitness knowledge, the app highlights targeted muscle groups during exercises, helping users better understand proper form and the purpose of each movement. To address motivation, a lightweight rewards system was introduced to reinforce progress and encourage consistency without overwhelming the core workout experience. Finally, a simple calendar-based planning system was designed to help users schedule workouts and build sustainable routines. These decisions prioritized clarity, guidance, and habit-building to support users at different stages of their fitness journey.
Sketches
Wireframes V1
Style Guide
Fleshing it all out
The goal of the app was to create a simple and effective app for users working towards a fitness goal. With multiple iterations, I made sure to reference my mood board and style guide to make sure my design aligned with the brand.
Prototype
I developed a high-fidelity prototype to bring key features and user flows to life, focusing on workout selection, guided exercise experience, and progress tracking. This allowed for realistic user interactions during testing and helped validate core design decisions.
Usability Testing
I conducted usability testing to evaluate how users interacted with the app and identify areas for improvement. I recruited five participants through Slack and my personal network and conducted sessions via Zoom. Participants were asked to complete three key tasks while I observed their behavior and gathered feedback. The main usability challenges identified are summarized above.
What Needed to be Changed
I conducted a usability test to observe how users would approach and interact with my app and uncover issues that would need to be adjusted. I recruited five participants through Slack and my friends. While conducting the test through Zoom, participants were asked to complete 3 tasks and the main findings are listed below:
Findings #1: Navigation Bar
Task: Start a workout
80% of users attempted to select the workout icon in the navigation bar at the start of the first task. After clicking, participants realized it is not usable and selected what was shown instead.
Findings #2: User Interface
Task: Claim the reward from the completed goal
3 of 5 users found the goals task to be confusing and dull. The pop up of completing the goal was underwhelming and the colors did not match the impression the page was supposed to give off.
Findings #3: Information Architecture
Task: Create a recurring event in Calendar
Several participants were confused and stuck when the task ended abruptly with no clear indication of where to go next. All users clicked around until the button was revealed of where they could go next.
This project strengthened my understanding of the end-to-end UX process, from research to design and iteration. I found the most value in usability testing, which revealed both strengths and gaps in my design while reinforcing the importance of continuous user feedback. Designing the solution was both the most challenging and rewarding part, requiring constant iteration and user-centered thinking. This experience emphasized that strong products come from deeply understanding users and evolving through testing. Moving forward, I see this as a foundation to continue refining and improving the product through further iteration.
Impact and Reflection