A UX research & behavioral science approach to motivating fitness engagement

Increasing Healthy Exercise Habits

Dark gym interior with weightlifting equipment
Dark gym interior with weightlifting equipment

ROLE

UX

Designer

TIMELINE

10 weeks

TEAM

3 UX Designers

Overview

The Challenge

Many students and adults struggle to maintain a consistent exercise routine. While fitness apps, social media, and gym trainers exist to help, long-term motivation remains a significant challenge.

Research Goals

  • Identify barriers that prevent regular exercise.

  • Understand the role of fitness apps, trainers, and social media in motivation.

  • Develop behavior-driven design solutions that encourage consistency.

The Challenge

Many students and adults struggle to maintain a consistent exercise routine. While fitness apps, social media, and gym trainers exist to help, long-term motivation remains a significant challenge.

Research Goals

  • Identify barriers that prevent regular exercise.

  • Understand the role of fitness apps, trainers, and social media in motivation.

  • Develop behavior-driven design solutions that encourage consistency.

The Challenge

Many students and adults struggle to maintain a consistent exercise routine. While fitness apps, social media, and gym trainers exist to help, long-term motivation remains a significant challenge.

Research Goals

  • Identify barriers that prevent regular exercise.

  • Understand the role of fitness apps, trainers, and social media in motivation.

  • Develop behavior-driven design solutions that encourage consistency.

How can we design solutions that effectively sustain exercise habits?

How can we design solutions that effectively sustain exercise habits?

How can we design solutions that effectively sustain exercise habits?

My Role & Impact


I focused on qualitative research synthesis, leading the journey mapping exercise, and translating insights into actionable design recommendations.

Secondary Research

User Testing and Anaysis

Design Strategy

Protoyping

Approach

USER INTERVIEWS

6 Interviews

JOURNEY MAPPING

Active vs Sedentary

BEHAVIORAL ARCHETYPE

2

Journey Mapping



To design personalized solutions, we mapped out two key fitness behavior profile

Active Individual

  • Already engages in exercise regularly.

  • Uses progress tracking tools for accountability.

  • Needs: More variety & structured motivation to avoid burnout.

Sedentary Individual

  • Wants to exercise but struggles with consistency.

  • Feels intimidated by gym culture & trainers.

  • Needs: A low-pressure, judgment-free starting point.

Emerging Themes

Fear of Judgement

Many users feel self-conscious working out in public spaces.

Role of Social Media

Fitness influencers can motivate users to start exercising.

Progress Stracking

Seeing measurable progress boosts commitment.

Barriers to Consistency

Work schedules often limit exercise time.

Gym memberships & trainers are expensive.

Work schedules often limit exercise time.

Gym memberships & trainers are expensive.

Work schedules often limit exercise time.

Gym memberships & trainers are expensive.

These archetypes helped us refine solutions tailored to different motivation levels.

Design Strategy

Based on our research, we developed a set of principles to improve fitness motivation through behavior design.

Judgement free experience

Private Workout Logs: Reduce social comparison
Trainer Personalization: Adaptive coaching based on confidence level & fitness goals.

Social Media as Motivation

Curated Support Groups-Encouragement from peers instead of toxic fitness culture.
Customizable Content Filters

Habit-Building Over Performance

Pre & Post workout rituals

Celebrating habit-building rather than competition

Motivating strategies

Commitment Devices: Lock in workouts with reminders & scheduling tools.
Instant Feedback: Small celebrations & progress badges to boost motivation.

Commitment Devices: Lock in workouts with reminders & scheduling tools.
Instant Feedback: Small celebrations & progress badges to boost motivation.

Commitment Devices: Lock in workouts with reminders & scheduling tools.
Instant Feedback: Small celebrations & progress badges to boost motivation.

Gamified Fitness Tracker

Prototyping & User Feedback

Personalized reminders

Flexible Scheduling

Social Accountability

Habit forming nudges

Key Learnings

Motivation isn’t linear, so habit-building is key.

Social Media can motivate or discourage users, so filtering options matter.

Different users need different engagement strategies.

Next Steps

📌 Develop high-fidelity prototypes for testing.
📌 Explore AI-driven fitness coaching for motivation & guidance.
📌 Integrate custom workout plans based on user behavior & goals.