Improving Discoverability on the Alo Moves Fitness Platform (2022)
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This is a three-person group-initiated usability testing challenge. I chose this app based on my personal experience as a user. I wanted to get to the root of the information architecture problem, hence this project. I contacted the company last April 28 to share my findings. They forwarded my request to the product team.
Simply put, I am a user of the app and I was fed up with my poor user experience, confusion, and frustration. I want to find out the root cause of the problem and if others shared my situation.
Client
Alo Moves is an upscale mobile and desktop fitness platform that offers over 2,500 yoga, pilates, fitness, and meditation classes for USD 199 a year or a monthly option of USD 20.
In 2017/2018, Alo acquired digital yoga and wellness company Cody to add to its content library and instructors.
Project Summary
The project aimed to identify what, why, and where the critical problem areas of the Alo Moves app are. In particular, this project sought to identify ways to improve the information architecture and navigation on the site to motivate users to build their regular workout routines. By using four different methods, I sought to counter my own personal biases as a user.
Research Impact on Future Product Iteration
Refined questions from general to user-specific to design next-stage information architecture revisions
Identified design guidelines for average and super athletes
Identified three product and business opportunities to add value for the average and super athletes
Timeline and Team Composition
March - April 2022, three weeks of rapid research to present the findings to the Senior UX Designer
After the feedback, I worked for three more weeks to revise the presentation
I consulted with a small team of Senior and Junior UX Designers for feedback
Role and Responsibilities
End-to-end research, analysis, and wireframing
The rest of the team gave feedback for revisions and suggestions
Process Summary
This is a process of insight triangulation across four different methods to reduce personal bias.
Conducted an analysis of 50 publicly available Google Play and Apple Reviews of the app
Conducted heuristic analyses based on tasks on the mobile and desktop applications
Built two pilot personas - average and super athletes
Conducted two unmoderated user-led interviews and three task exercises
Triangulation of final results and insights across three methods
Prototyping an updated search experience (in consultation with UX designers)
I used four types of investigation to triangulate my findings: desk research, heuristic analysis, persona creation, and live unmoderated usability testing with two participants, to reduce my personal bias as an app user.
The process of triangulation is critical when publicly available data sets on the product are limited:
(Desk Research) The Google Play and Apple product reviews broaden the audience sample despite the restricted number of publicly available comments.
(Tandem Execution: Pilot Profile Building) I recruited two active individuals later described as average and competitive, to identify critical tasks, main problem areas, and opportunities found in the app.
(Tandem Execution: Unmoderated Usability Testing) I organized the data points from the interview into three perspectives: as a potential, new, and long-time subscriber.
The first two projects served to map out the common problem areas and prepare tasks for the live tests and interviews. The three-week timeline was dictated by the availability of the Senior UX Designer for the presentation of the findings.
The insights help build knowledge internally, clarify who we are designing for, and align the design and product teams toward user needs.
Critical User Needs
The next round of re-design and testing should focus on improving:
Finding the desired class quickly
Save, store, and find their classes later quickly
Targeted thumbnail and description content that facilitates class readiness
Redesign Guidelines
Balance - competition mode vs. zen; limits of social engagement and privacy
Ease - improve subscriber dashboard view and recommendations to quickly play classes, see next classes, and see saved playlists
Control - the ability to choose customizable options such as folders
Project Gaps and Business Opportunities
Maximizing existing Alo Moves features
Alo Moves has an undeveloped class/community feature
Users can see upcoming and join classes organized by other members
Users can see and chat in real-time with other classmates before and after the scheduled class
Athletic users can organize competitive classes or events with fellow advanced users
Alo Moves has an undeveloped calendar and scheduling feature
Ability to set a selected class for a future date or sync a playlist to a time
Notifications feature and social nudge based on set schedule
Alo Moves has no automated progress tracking
Automatically record the progress of the user
Ability to display the progress of the user
Automatically indicate done classes
Ability to sync with other tracking devices?
Research Roadmap
How can the findings of this research help re-align the redesign process?
Refine the research questions
POV Subscriber - How can Alo Moves redesign the subscriber view for the range of average and super athletes and maintain the minimalist aesthetic?
POV New Subscriber - How can Alo Moves redesign for the new subscribers, ranging from average to super athletes, while maintaining the minimalist aesthetic?
Some suggested user design metrics
Reduce the time (15 mins.) that people find their desired classes
Reduce the number of steps (4 - 6 steps) in saving a class
Reduce the time and steps to retrieve saved classes and jump into a class (15 - 30 mins.)
UX re-design next steps
Expand and refine the persona of Alo Moves users
Execute an information architecture and content research, prototyping, and testing
Objectives alignment workshop between product, CX, and UX
Based on the user research insights, I proposed four urgent tasks for re-design to:
reduce cognitive and task load by streamlining the user flow
reduce time in searching the platform for the feature
maximise the calendar and social features by making them visible and quicker to interact with to increase user engagement and build an AloMoves community and loyalty
Task user flow: logging your class or saving the class
Solving for: logging your class for the day; quickly scheduling this class for another date; quickly saving this class in your playlist
Task user flow: saving to my playlist
Solving for: quickly finding the playlist and class listing, setting the dates when you want this class on your calendar or schedule; reminder when the class is scheduled
Task user flow: saving to my classes
Solving for: organising your selected videos and quickly scheduling them; expanding the filter parameters in your list by instructor, duration, intensity, or level
Task user flow: real-time chatting with AloMoves members before or after class
Solving for: quick look-up of class equipment; a quick indicator of the class level and intensity; where to go to find your playlist or saved classes; visibility of the number of people currently doing the exercise; motivating users to join the class or set up their own class on-demand
Proposed Product Growth and Test Metrics:
With changes similar to these, several rounds of usability tests can use these task-based metrics to evaluate the success of the research and design teams:
reduction in search time (from 15 minutes or more to less than 5 minutes)
increase in class participation
increase in social interaction
increase in exercise consistency especially from little to average exercise users
numbers of exercise rooms opened
identification of relevant filter features
regularity in the scheduling of class (e.g. from once a week to every day of the week)
increase in the use of calendar features and calendar views
the ability of the users to track their fitness consistency
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