Mantra

Mantra is a personal project I came up with from trying to create a workout routine for myself. I've always found it easier to commit to routines or accomplish goals when I have someone to help motivate/ hold me accountable. But, not everyone has someone who can commit to the same schedule as them. I wasn't able to find an app that offered all the functions I was looking for, so I thought it would be a fun and challenging project to design one that does.

Empathize:

My original motivation was to create an app that I would want to use so I referenced myself and my pain points for the user persona, but the app requires a user base beyond just people looking for routines. So I created personas for each perspective and use case, like the trainer.

Define:

There are a lot of apps that offer singular functions like tracking workouts and calories burned, or offering workout routines. But few connect them all in one place. I wanted a place where someone could connect with friends or others with similar goals, post their progress to create some healthy competition, and also a way for personal trainers or coaches to offer memberships to incentivize posting routines.

Ideate:

When thinking about the app and its functions, I started by writing down the core functions and created a user flow for this project to gain a better foundational understanding of how everything would connect. The social aspect follows similar trends to other social platforms to allow for easy adoption and understanding with other aspects added like workout stats or the routine used. Systems like group workouts and fitness rings apply a gamification aspect to working out to boost motivation and retention.

Prototype:

To start I focused on this project being a mobile, but I think there's lots of opportunity for other integrations like casting a workout to a TV. Or adding in smartwatch functionalities like timers, step counting, etc. Additionally, with the launch of the Vision Pro, an augmented reality or virtual reality would be an interesting aspect to account for.

Test:

I created a lot of post options and how they would display. An issue I ran into was having all the information in the viewport at once. Ultimately, it ended with the stats moving up to overlay the photo with gradient backgrounds to ensure contrast with brighter or darker images. I also changed the priority of some screens. Originally, the home screen was a grid view of personal posts. This felt odd since the point of Mantra is to motivate users to be healthier, stick to a routine, and track performance so the home changed to offering quick access to current workouts, milestones, etc.

This project developed a lot throughout the process and I found myself going back to previous steps when I would hit a roadblock for a function I hadn't fully thought through or along the way decided another piece was necessary, So even though I followed a linear progression the process was not and required several testing and iteration phases.