OVERVIEW

The Nike+ Training system consists of a mobile app that pairs with Bluetooth sensor-enabled Nike sneakers to guide you through rigorous training routines and improve key skills for athletes.  Users can select individual drills or choose from a variety of celebrity athlete inspired workouts and hear guided audio feedback based off the sensor data generated by your shoes. Daily programs can be created based on how hard the user wants to train, and the app provides a digital community to share each day's workouts and challenges with.

ROLE

I was one of two senior UX designers working closely within a small multi-disciplinary team. I focused mainly on the user experience and interactions for the Guided Training and Challenges features of the app.

My responsibilities included:

• Presenting to stakeholders at Nike to get buy-in on design and creative direction.
• Working with technology teams to influence the development of the hardware API to suit our user needs.
• Devising methods to understand the highly specialized audience for our app.
• Conducting user research and testing to inform and refine our designs. 
• Assisting in the creation of audio content to ensure that our guided audio feature felt authentic and meaningful to users, and the voice of the brand was preserved. 
• Conducting user research, sketching, wireframing, and user testing, while working closely with the visual and development teams on final UI and implementation through product launch.

PROBLEM

Nike had prototyped a special in-sole with sensors that could transmit motion data—pressure, direction, acceleration—in real-time via Bluetooth. They were looking to design a consumer offering that leveraged this new technology to introduce a new line of products. 

SOLUTION

Insights gleaned during the research phase suggested that users were looking for more challenging, robust workout solutions that could be performed outside the confines of a gym. Our solution was a Training app and online experience with celebrity-inspired, high intensity drills that empowered users to push their training to the next level and could be performed anywhere. The app scores users based on how closely their movements match to the drills they perform, and works in conjunction with specially designed training shoes, the first in a fleet of sensor-enabled footwear.   

CHALLENGES

Incorporating live sensory data from the user's shoes to generate meaningful, auditory feedback for a user was a constant challenge. Users had expressed that they wanted the app to deliver feedback on form and technique. With the user's best interest in mind, I spent countless hours with the development team to find alternate solutions to deliver more accurate auditory feedback that mapped directly to the live sensor data coming from the shoes, such as how much pressure was being applied to the user's heels or toes. This greatly enhanced the experience by allowing us to provide more targeted auditory feedback on the user's form and technique.    

DESIGN PROCESS

A significant amount of time was devoted to sketching and wireframing various layouts and approaches for the guided workout feature. To perfect the flow of the experience for users, we spent many hours with the developers creating high fidelity, tappable prototypes that potential users tested out weekly in our lab. This process gleaned some valuable insights, one being that most of the users preferred that the app be locked in landscape mode, since they often wore their phones on their arm within an armband, or laid them on the floor in front of them during a workout. We used these and other insights to guide and inform our designs. We were mindful that the user would be doing intense exercise while using the app, therefore we made sure our designs were optimized for legibility from a distance, and that our app flowed seamlessly from one exercise to the next without requiring much input from the user. After several more rounds of iterations and user testing, our designs were implemented into the final product.  

RESULTS

The overall impact of this work resulted in the Guided Training Feature scoring the highest of any feature in the app for user engagement and retention and was showcased in Nike's 2012 "Game On, World" global challenge, which challenged users around the world to beat their personal best NikeFuel score.