Peloton Feature:
Weekly Goals
Bringing the boutique fitness experience to your home at your convenience. Peloton helps you achieve your goals and be the best version of you.
WHO
UX Researcher, UX/UI Designer
WHAT
Feature Addition, Peloton iOS App
Overview
Peloton Fitness popularity has been on the rise for years, but skyrocketed growth due to the pandemic has led the brand to an entirely new audience size. With more time at home and many companies moving to new flex work styles, Peloton hopes to evolve with their customers and continue supporting them through future lifestyle changes.
The Peloton brand is high-energy, inclusive, and motivational. Through their loved instructors and user-friendly product experience, they've built a loyal community, with 1.67 million connected fitness subscribers and an annual retention rate of over 92% (2020).
While they don't lack the audience to support it, Peloton's products have limited social capabilities. Many users have turned to other platforms to fill this void.
The original intent for this project was to build a Groups social feature for the Peloton app. Through this addition, users could connect in a new way, whether by meeting others in their area or through shared interests and goals. Once the research analysis was complete, however, a greater need was identified. This case study tells the story of that shift, and how developing a feature to help Pelotoners meet their personal wellness goals was the real user need.
RESEARCH
Goals
1 Understand general interest and involvement in group fitness.
2 Identify how fitness routines have changed since the pandemic and predict how they may shift again as gyms reopen.
3 Understand the joys and pains of virtual group fitness classes.
4 Gauge level of interest in social opportunities within virtual fitness (Peloton interest specifically for members and general interest for others).
Topic Research
When conducting topic research on the fitness industry, I dove into pre-pandemic and current fitness trends in the United States, as well as projections for the industry's future.
Takeaways (Mid-Pandemic, 2020)
$32B industry
20% cost increase for in-person boutique fitness classes
20% cost decrease for virtual fitness classes
40% prefer new at-home gym setup vs. previous gym
Customer Interviews
With an initial focus on social opportunities for the Peloton app, the goal of customer interviews was to validate the importance of community in fitness. Specifically, in understanding how workout routines have changed due to the pandemic, the intent was to confirm that the social aspect of group fitness was important and greatly missed.
Interview Results
While the interviews provided meaningful insight and verbatims, they did not result in a strong case for the hypothesis, which assumed a strong need for more social opportunities in the virtual workout experience. Though a couple of the participants expressed excitement about a Peloton "Groups" feature, the majority were neutral or uninterested. Rather, interview insights revealed that fitness routines and goals are incredibly personal. All participants shared what they've found works best for them, determined most often by their own unique motivators, goals, and current season of life.
Rather, interview results revealed that fitness routines and goals are incredibly personal.
Survey
Based on the research findings thus far, a survey was distributed with the intent of validating the importance of personalization within one's fitness routine. With a larger pool of participants and a quantitative testing method, results confirmed that when it pertains to at-home virtual workouts, individuality overrides socialization.
When it pertains to at-home virtual workouts, individuality overrides socialization
Results
1 While 100% of respondents felt being part of a community is generally important, 65% felt community was not important when it pertains to their virtual fitness experience.
2 When asked to select the statement that best aligns with their virtual workout preferences, 64% of respondents selected "I prefer to do it alone. My workouts are time for me."
3 While 27% stated they will return to in-person classes once gyms reopen, the majority of respondents said they plan to incorporate at-home fitness into their routines long-term.
DEFINE
Introducing Kendall
Our primary persona, inspired by the range of target customers I learned from during interviews.
"I'm a list person. I love the satisfaction of crossing something off, like when we were kids with stickers."
POV: Kendall needs a better way to make a plan and track her progress so she can hold herself accountable and meet her personal goals.
How Might We help Kendall track her fitness progress so she can reach her goals?
Through research validation and defining the primary persona, it was determined that a Weekly Goals tracking feature would provide a great deal of value to Pelotoners and further support their wellness journey.
DESIGN
As the Peloton app is already a live product, time was spent deliberating the best location for this addition. Originally, the feature appeared to fit best within the Schedule tab, but after deeper reflection on the "Why" behind its purpose, this location wasn't entirely aligned with user intention. Reaching goals and creating new habits is hard. That's why we need so much structure and support in place to achieve them. Because of this, the feature made most sense within the Challenges tab. Content in this section of the app provided structure, status tracking, and motivation for users - well aligned with the Weekly Goals tracker.
Task Flow
UI Components
TEST
RESULTS
The first round of testing included 27 participants. The high level summary of task completion results were the following:
1 Out of the 5 task flows tested, 4 had 100% completion rates. The final task had a success rate of 96.2%.
2 Misclick rates were high during 2 of the tasks. This could be explained in part by limitations in Maze. The other learning was that some tasks within the user flow are possible to complete more than one way. An example of this is adding a workout class to one's weekly schedule. The test was only set up to support 1 path for this task, but some users attempted to complete the mission differently. Though all users eventually got there, it was important to learn for future protype setup and testing.
Next Steps
Based on user testing and feedback, there are a couple of priority UX/UI iterations:
1 The process for assigning certain days of the week to a goal needs to be assesed. This step was the #1 error made by testers. The current design requests that a user choose a number of days for their goal in order to quantify it. Next, they have the option to select specific days of the week to coincide with this number. Many testers shared they found these separate steps confusing. Based on previously identified user stories for this feature, supporting both options still appears to be the right decision. A/B testing design iterations would likely provide more clarity.
2 A feature addition to prioritize during the iteration process is a "Repeat Weekly" option. Another nice-to-have would be if users could access a "Recents" list of their previously created goals and assign them to a new week. I imagine user annoyance would grow quickly if one always had to manually recreate a goal.
Reflection
As a Peloton member myself, I enjoyed working on this project. The journey from the initial argument for the need to socialize within the virtual workout experience, to understanding the total opposite preference for solo, self-focused fitness, was unexpected and therefore brought many learning opportunities.