Need

In the US, 3 in 4 adults and 4 in 5 high school students do not meet the recommended “physical activity guidelines”.

Approximately 31 million aged 50 or older do not perform any exercises.

This induces health conditions such “heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and obesity”. The annual health costs of such conditions are estimated at $117 billion.

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)

Goal of the formative study is to identify the causes of lack of exercise.

Approach

• Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 2014)
• Inductive approach (Thomas, 2006)

Purposive sampling to identify the potential participants.

Six diverse participants aged 21 to 34 were recruited.

Data Collection Process

• Recruiting
• Interviewing
• Recording and Transcribing

Data Analysis Process

• The data was coded and categorized (Rossman & Rallis, 2012).
• The codes were clustered onto themes (Rossman & Rallis, 2012).
• Inductive approach to Data Analysis (Thomas, 2006).
• Interviewees Data was made anonymous (Creswell, 2016, pp. 169–170)

Findings & Conclusion

Theme #1: People like cardio, or fitting workouts into normal daily activities.

Theme #2: People are failing to meet their own goals.

Theme #3: Getting help making a routine would be nice.

Theme #4: Struggling to find time to fit in workouts.

Theme #5: People who don’t already have equipment don’t want to make the investment.

Ideation

75 Brainstormed ideas, using IDEO style ideation method.

Implemented an

idea selection process .

Concluded the best way to address what causes the lack of exercise is a social media fitness app.

Goals

Formative __: __

Identifying common usability issues.

Identifying the potential usefulness of the app.

Summative __: __

Measuring user satisfaction.

For future testing, measuring the time it takes to complete tasks.

Purposive sampling to identify the potential participants.

Participants

Twelve diverse participants aged 21 to 34 were recruited.

Approach

• Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 2014)
• Inductive approach (Thomas, 2006)
• Data Driven Approach

Data Collection

The researcher introduced himself, gathered consent, and described the goals of the study.

The participant conducted two tasks with the app, and their times were measured.

The participant were inquired on how the system worked and if they liked the app by using System Usability Scale (SUS) questions.

The participant were inquired for general feedback on the app.

Data Analysis Processes

• Quantitative :
• The mean and standard deviation were calculated for the 2 tasks durations, and SUS.
• The SUS findings were compared with SUS scale (GSA, 2021).
• Qualitative __: __
  • The data was coded and categorized (Rossman & Rallis, 2012).
  • The codes were clustered onto themes (Rossman & Rallis, 2012).
  • Inductive approach to Data Analysis (Thomas, 2006).
  • Interviewees Data was made anonymous (Creswell, 2016, pp. 169–170)

Quantitative Analysis Findings

Boxplot for time taken to complete Task 1 :

System Usability Scale:

(answers recorded from 1 to 5, then converted and rescaled to 100)

M = 86.5, SD = 16.84

Considered “above average” based on SUS Scale. (GSA, 2021)

Tasks Duration :

Task 1: Leave a Comment :

M = 54 sec, SD = 17 sec

Task 2: Create a Workout :

M = 53 sec, SD = 15 sec

Boxplot for time taken to complete Task 2 :

SUS Questions

Note: the “negative” scores were converted into positive ones and vice versa, so that a higher score means a better result for all questions.

Errors reported during testing

Many subjects wrote down the workout title in the wrong section on the Create Workout page.

A few subjects clicked the comment box instead of clicking the add comment button to try and add a comment.

A few subjects had trouble finding the log workout button.

Formative Qualitative Analysis

Clustering of Open-ended Questions Response

Theme 1, the app is simple to use, and generally works how you would expect it to.

Theme 2, create a workout page is confusing.

Theme 3,additional social features are needed.

Theme 4, the app visual design needs polishing.

Theme 5, the app may reach those who already don’t workout to start working out solely through our app.

Creating a Workout

Improve text size to make it bigger.

Differentiate the hierarchy of the text.

Make it clearer where the workout and exercise titles should go.

Make the comment box editable, get rid of clicking an extra button.

Add a scrollable option to add the rep count.

Add a scrollable option that has a list of common workouts.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019). Lack of Physical Activity. https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/factsheets/physical-activity.htm

Creswell, J. W. (2016). 30 essential skills for the qualitative researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Rossman, G.B. and Rallis, S.F. (2012) Learning in the Field: An Introduction to Qualitative Research. 3rd Edition, Sage, Los Angeles.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (2014). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques (4th ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) (2021). System Usability Scale (SUS). https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/system-usability-scale.html