Overview

StepUp is a fitness brand ecosystem specially catered to the elderly that provides personalized suggestions, feedback for improvement and fitness programs based on their age, fitness level and medical conditions.

My Inspiration for StepUp was born after living with my grandparents during the beginning of COVID . I observed how they and their friends use to try keep themselves fit and healthy from home and how it affected their physical and mental health. They often assumed what kind of exercises were right for them, thus out of fear of falling sick they tried to find ways to keep themselves fit.

This made me think of coming with a better solution to help elderly stay fit and healthy.

UI/UX Design, User Research, System Design, Storyboarding, Branding, User Testing, Wire Framing, User Journey

Softwares Used

Figma, Photoshop

After effects

Rhino

Keyshot

Timeline

14 Weeks

Jan - April (2021)

Since Covid hit most elderly population have been confined to home which limited their physical activities.

In the Post Covid world there has been a growing trend among elder population to be physically fit and healthy from the comfort of their home and surroundings.

Trend

Working out from anywhere

Market Research

I started the project the looking into what is currently going on and what is lacking in the current market, by analyzing trends in the fitness industry and how competitors are tackling some of these issues.

I did this mainly via interviewing three groups of people — Elderly wish to stay fit and take care of their health (Target Market), Elderly who do physiotherapy exercise for medical reasons ( Target Market ) and Trainers (experts in the field).

Competitive Analysis and Positioning Matrix

Key Learnings

Most of the apps that are currently out there in the market target young users and do not tackle the needs and technical requirements that elderly need in order to stay fit and healthy.

Also elderly feel uncomfortable using those apps as it is complicated for them to navigate and do not trust the exercises offered since the exercises are unknown to them and are anxious regarding how it would affect their body without professional advice.

Ethnographic Research

Expert Interviews

Personal Trainer

Gym Instructor

Physiotherapist

" We specially curate exercises for the elderly based on their lifestyle, habits, needs, age, weight and medical conditions. We change exercises as per need by regulating how their bodies are reacting to it. "

" We advice personal training for the elderly as everyone's stamina, energy and goals are different. "

" We normally do not recommend elderly to do exercises without our supervision as most of them have incorrect posture while exercising, so we need to constantly keep an eye and assist them accordingly ."

User Interviews

Rajiv Shah
73 years old

"I do not follow any exercises from app or social media since I am afraid I might select the exercise that are not right for me as they are catered to younger population and might lead to injuries. So, I stick to the ones i know or take advise from friends and family "

Karen Williams
68 years old

" I like to do exercise on my own since its hard to match up timing with friends and everyones stamina and pace is different. Although I prefer to have a personal trainer but they are expensive and hard to follow through. "

Jody Holt
62 years old

" I was asked to come to the hospital everyday for the physiotherapy exercises for recovery due to my operation. However the hospital is too far off from my place, so I used to work out at by myself, hoping i was doing them correctly and connect with doctor every other month to review my progress. "

James Backstrom
78 years old

" I like to do exercises only that my body can handle. However, I often don't know if i am doing the exercises correctly and so sometimes over exercise and injure myself. So, someone in my family checks up on me every now and then "

# Insight 1

Afraid to try unfamiliar exercises since there is no app/ system out there specially catered to elderly.

# Insight 2

Prefers to exercise individually but lacks motivation at times.

Finds it expensive to afford personal trainers. however, prefers to have flexibility while doing so.

# Insight 3

Wishes to connect to physiotherapist right from the comfort of her home without a large learning curve.

# Insight 4

Often assumes exercises and is not sure if he is doing it correctly.

Defining the problem

elderly-senior-friends-talking-while-sitting-at-dining-table-in-nursing-home-MASF16247_edi

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Currently there are no apps, services or products specially catered to them, so they rely on wisdom from their friends/ family or social media.

Don't like the commitment of going to the gym or having personal trainers as they find it to be really expensive.

Only 24.5% of seniors exercise daily.

Most of them don't know what kind of exercises are right for them

They stay in the comfort zone since they are worried about injuring themselves.

About 75% of the elderly often assume diet/ exercises that could be good for them.

Often exercising incorrectly or over exercising causes muscle/ joint pain which affects their health and mobility.

Most of the apps or video classes held digitally do not tell users where and how to improve upon during the workout sessions or provide any feedback or any curated information specially catered to individuals needs.

Challenge

How might we help guide elderly based on individual needs, age and medical conditions to stay physically fit and healthy right from the comfort of their home ?

Solution

StepUp is a fitness system specially catered to the elderly that provides personalized suggestions, fitness programs based on their age, fitness level and medical conditions.

It also helps connect them to personal trainers, live/ recorded classes, games and physiotherapists from all around the world.

It also provides live accurate feedback with the help of body tracker to improve their movements and make sure that they are exercising correctly.

System StakeHolders

Elderly Users

Personal Trainers

Physiotherapists

Ecosystem Of Products

Mobile App

The Mobile App provides personalized suggestions for browse, scheduling , playing and connecting with trainers, physiotherapist, peers from all round the world.

Wearable

The Watch helps to track the day to day movements and activities. It calibrated with Josh to provide accurate and personalized information.

Josh

Josh is a personal fitness and wellness coach for the elderly.

It has the feature of....

Body Tracking to provide live accurate feedback on how to improve and do the exercises correctly,
It also helps with Virtual Scanning and presence for immersive workout experience
A Camera for Virtual Communication with trainers/ Physiotherapist whenever required and assist with gestures functionality.

User Scenario

Key Features

Using the App

Personalized to every Individual users need

Our elderly users can get personalized suggestion for exercises based on their age, fitness level and medical conditions depending on the information they inputted during the quick onboarding process.

Features:

Quick on boarding process
Personalized suggestion based on needs.
Easy scheduling and discovery of different exercises.

Challenge : During interviews elderly users weren't sure what kind of exercises were right for them based on their age and medical conditions and so would exercise based on what they already know or suggested by friends. Thus would often end up injuring themselves.

Connect with Trainers and Physiotherapists

Elderly can now easy discover, analyze and connect with trainers and physiotherapists from all round the world at a much reasonable rate and get the flexibility of working out with them right from the comfort of their home.

Challenge : Most of the elderly wished to get trained by personal trainers and get access to daily physiotherapy sessions. However, they find them really expensive and its hard for them to commute to far off places everyday for them and commit to it. They prefer to have some sort of flexibility around it which is currently very hard

AI Trainer Generated Scheduling

This feature helps give suggestions to the elderly what kind of exercises to do and when during the day to help them pace out and do the right exercises at right time.

Features:

Can easily browse and find videos of differnt trainers teaching similar excerise
Have the option to create their own schedule or follow suggested by our AI trainer.

Challenge : Most of the elderly don't feel comfortable exercising remotely since they don't know what kind of exercise to do, how it affects them and when.

Using the TV

Body tracking & AI Coaching

Elderly can easily get feedback and suggestions from the videos from "Josh" who understands their body movement and habits, also from trainers and physiotherapists as to how to improve upon while exercising right there and then so that they can get assurance that they are doing the exercises correctly and would not harm them.

Challenge : During research and interviews conducted elderly often complained about over exercising or not doing the exercises correctly which often lead to injuries and pain and thus they would often get discouraged to exercise without any professional assistance.

Performance Feedback

Elderly can now easily see how they are performing and what areas of body they need to improve upon which exercising in the future.

Challenge : Most elderly found it hard to understand the graphs and data shown on the fitness apps and preferred to have visual feedback as to how they can improve upon or areas of body they need to work on.

Physical Wellbeing - Fall Prevention

With this feature "Josh" their fitness coach tracks and connects to 911 or their near and dear ones incase if the elderly user has fallen down while exercising or is severely injured or in danger.

Challenge : Most elderly didn't feel comfortable exercising alone and preferred to do so in presence of a professional since they are often worried of doing the exercises incorrectly or injuring themselves in the process