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Method Used: Focus Groups, Surveys.
I had 3 Zoom call sessions with small groups of less than 10 users within the target audience range of 18-24 who had an interest in fitness. It was important to keep this as open-ended as possible. I did not want to lead them to any answers or findings, so I kept my moderation extremely minimal. We discussed fitness, fitness applications, fitness and the pandemic, exercising with groups, what they disliked most about fitness, and many other topics.
We found that a majority of the participants used fitness applications in conjunction with outside workouts. We found that over 50% of the users interviewed used two or more applications for fitness. This could be the result of the global situation at the time, but the sentiment that came up most frequently within these interviews was that people missed the social aspect of fitness classes. That social motivation for fitness was also an important factor in their fitness journeys.
"To have a fun workout. My favorite workout classes are the ones where it doesn't feel like I am actually working out. Who doesn't love that?" -Ellie, 19
"A an opportunity to work out and keep each other motivated. That would be really cool to see especially in the pandemic. It would be cool to have something for all levels from beginning to hardcore." -Parth, 22.
"I really miss team sports since I haven't been able to play them recently! I miss the competition and the feeling of winning with your teammates. I have been using fitness apps at home but it's hard to get a workout like that with them." -Camilla, 20
From this point, I formed the hypothesis that Mulu could own the virtual social fitness category. But in order to be sure I had to do some product landscaping and take a look at the competition.
The problem here is that they look and feel almost the same.
SOLO. SERIOUS. SEXY.
What if fitness was, less, well, scary? Less culty too? Shame doesn't truly motivate like having fun does.
With competition, with teamwork, with community. Mulu makes fitness fun. Mulu isn't serious, sexy, or selling body envy.
Look, there’s no question that fitness is more fun when you’re playing a game. But do you know what’s even more fun? Winning that game.
Mulu is your chance to dive into competition, for anyone from anywhere. All you need is a few friends, a phone, and the competitive drive to take on fellow athletes. Draft your team and get in the game.
MULU. Game On.
Nothing like a solo 5 am run to motivate you, right? We don't think so either. Now what if your friends were sweating and cheering you on, at every stride.
At Mulu, we’re all about together. We believe in teams coming together, making each other better, and competing in the name of fun. Whether we’re in the same room, or on other ends of the world, we all get better together.
MULU. The More the Fitter.
Fitness has long been a taboo subject. But fun? Yeah, everyone’s on board with that. And friends? Even more so. In fact, fun and friends usually go hand in hand. But what if fun, friends AND fitness could all start hanging out together. Well, good news. They can. At Mulu, we believe working out should be a lot closer to hanging out, and that getting in shape can be just as fun as getting drinks. Mulu is the new way for friends to get together, or for new friends to come together. What if there was an entire community of athletes and friends who saw fitness as fun, not as a lifestyle? Welcome to Mulu.
MULU. Join in the Fun.
Whatever your relationship is with fitness, MULU is the right fit for you. With gameified workouts, friendly competition between teams, and a community of people looking to connect, have fun, and stay fit in the process, MULU is the perfect place for athletes of all levels to come together and compete in a new way. Best of all, you don’t need to look like a model, or an upside down tortilla chip to participate. In fact, all you need is a phone. After all, working out should be just as fun as hanging out, and getting fit should be just as fun as getting drinks. So, let’s take the fear out of fitness. For once, let’s have a little fun.
It’s motivating and engaging with team, not a solo workout.
It’s a way to bond with friends, not just about winning.
It’s not a cult. It’s approachable for everyone.
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I began by doing a complete overhaul of the Mulu application. After a few iterations of card-sorting, information taxonomy research, and A/B Testing, I divided the application into four main sections.
The library of AR challenges, and later TikTok challenges. This includes the flows for selecting challenges, calibrating the device, completing challenges, and recording points.
This is the library of upcoming and currently streaming live classes. Classes were to be signed up for and played solo, or with member(s) of the user's workout team.
This tab began as the leaderboard tab but eventually became the social hub as the application evolved.
Mulu is better with teams. The team tab encourages social accountability, and is home to team stats, streaks and bonuses.
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The MULU alphabet is a full set of glyphs to be used as iconography and default user icons corresponding to the letter of their first name. Imagery is fun, dynamic, and social. There is a full range of color used consisting of a core set of 6 colors, their highlights, and shades ranging white and off-black.
A major challenge for not only design but also development was the implementation of AR challenges. We faced a few manjor developmental constraints; the first one being that the user had to basically be 6ft from the camera, the camera had to be placed at an angle, and we used a figure calibration so the full figure needed to be in the frame. This meant that on the design side we had to find a suitable flow for calibration that didn't feel clunky or deter users from actually doing the challenges.
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Originally the user would have to be standing in upright position in order for the calibration to pick up on the figure. But as our challenge library evolved this no longer provided a smooth user experience because the user would read (or skip) the instructions, then place their phone down, and the next natural thing to do is to get into position to start the challenge however, they would have to stand up so the camera could capture them and then get back into position.
When user testing this feature with the updated challenge library 64% of the group complained because they would do this. The development and design team coordinated a new solution which involved new calibration positions and figure overlays to instruct the user that corresponded to starting challenge positions. This way they only had to get into position once.
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With the new frames, once the user positioned themselves within it the dark overlay on the challenge and prompt would disappear, and they would see a countdown and the challenge would start. 89% of the same group of users reported that this solution felt easy in a new test after the modifications were made.
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We built an anti-workout workout community with over 14,000 early adopting users, 5 university partnerships, and even integrated with TikTok so that our users could do TikTok challenges on our app for points. We gave users ways to workout with friends, take fitness classes with friends, send friends fitnesses challenges both from our app and from TikTok, send wagers to each other, and to form teams and compete for points.
