Design an app for a gym.

Mobile or web app? Mobile
Is this gym physically located in places already? Does it have existing customers? Yes
Who are we? The gym company? We are a gym based in multiple cities across a state in USA.
Are there any resource constraints? We want to launch the app soon.
Where do we want to launch this app? Any geolocation preferences? We are a gym based in multiple cities across a state in the USA.

The Goal As a well-established gym company, we want to create a new mobile app for our existing customers and new members to enhance their user experience.

User Personas

Existing members
New or prospective customers
Staff members

Let's focus on existing members as we are thinking about enhancing the user experience.

User pain points/ use cases

Wait times to use weights and machines during rush hours.
Cannot pay for membership fees from home or other places.
Inability to know the latest promotions and offers at the gym.
Want to know beforehand which equipments are unavailable to use.
Inability to store body metrics calculated in the gym. eg: body fat content, weight.
Chat with a trainer/dietician from home or while traveling about exercises and food intake.

I will focus on this point because if the user is in some way able to track their positive progress then it increases their trust with the gym and enhances their user experience.

Possible solutions

1. App used to record customers’ body metrics daily/weekly manually and log them in.

2. QR code scan for a machine like weighing scale, fat calculator etc. To log its values automatically in the system.

3. IoT device installed at the entrance of gym, synced with the mobile app to track body metrics daily and tracking progress.

I choose the second option because it is easy to make, the technology is readily available. A user will enter the gym goto the machines which calculate their body fat, weight, and other metrics. The user scans the machine and the data gets saved to that user's app. As days go by the user is able to track their progress over weeks/months. Our app can certainly use this data to reduce/increase exercises to the members and give personalized food recommendations.
We do not do the first one is because it is very simple and requires the user to manually input information which may not be the best way to track actual metrics. The last option requires IoT devices and creating such devices will take a long time and change of equipment. This could be a plan for the future but for now, is not readily feasible.

Tradeoff

The tradeoff of this idea is that the user might have to scan this to multiple devices to log its measurements in the app. Instead, we can think of a way to make the user scan only once and log all the desired metrics.

Metrics

NSM: Avg number of scans (metrics logged) per week.

# of customers using the app per week.

# of downloads of the app.

Kaustubh Pawar · Answer 2 · 2021-11-08T15:46:27+0000

Clarification Questions:

What do you mean by app for the gym? - App to improve gym's user experience
What kind of gym are we concerned about? - Where there are machines and weights and people go there for general fitness
For whom are we making this app? - Gym members (primary) and gym administration (secondary)

Let's have a look at gym member's gym journey:

Pay for the gym subscription
Go to the gym
Check in (verify identity) into the gym
Workout
Leave the gym

What are the hurdles gym members might face while completing this user journey?

Lack of motivation to workout on some days
Sometimes forgeting gym identity card
Sometimes, gym is overly crowded
Machines they want to use are occupied all the times
Don't like the songs played by the gym
For Beginners: (Don't know how to use a particular machine, Don't know much about gym exercises)

Possible solutions to above pain points:

Lack of motivation to workout on some days - Daily motivational blog/video/podcast. Notification to be sent to the member one hour before the gym time
Sometimes forgeting gym identity card - Option to pay gym subscription via the app itself by integrating e-wallets or credit/debit cards. Option to mark attendance on the app itself
Sometimes, gym is overly crowded - Letting all the gym members know, how many people are there in the gym at any given time. However, this will require strict accounting of attendance marked using location data.
Machines they want to use are occupied all the times - Mechanical sensors placed on machines, getting triggered when it's in use. All the gym members who have marked attendance can see in map view or list view, which machine is occupied
Don't like the songs played by the gym - A poll to be created on the app prompting gym members inside the gym to vote which song to play next. The song with maximum votes to be played.
Don't like the songs played by the gym - Integrating spotify with the app, so that members can listen to their own song via headphones (just like google maps)
For Beginners: (Don't know how to use a particular machine, Don't know much about gym exercises) - The app will have all the gym exercises along with instructions about how to use a particular machine

Prioritiation of solutions:

PrioritizationSolution NumberValueEffortRanking

1	high	med	good to have (3)
2			must-have
3	high	low	good to have (1)
4	high	high	good to have (4)
5	med	med	discarded
6	med	low	good to have (2)
7			must-have

Feature 6 is discarded since gym members won't be using phone every 5 mins just to vote the song.

Metrics:

PIRATE METRIC

Acquisition - #app downloads/week
Activation - #users who used app within 15 days after signing up
Retention - Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly Retention of users
Referal - NPS

BUSINESS METRIC

PS - Didn't think about monetizing the app hence no business metric

Summary:

The app for the gym, would have following features as must haves [features] and folllowing features as good to have [features]

It would be really helpful if would give me the feedback!!

Hi Bijan! It would really help if you can give feedback