The workout industry is booming as people, particularly millennials, become more health conscious. However, due to their busy activities, taking a class in a gym sometimes out of the question. Today, you don’t have to attend a gym class to get health or maintain your ideal body shape. Workout applications provide solutions for busy people whose time is very limited for workouts and is a solution also for people who feel that gym costs are expensive, or the gym locations are too far away and don't want to leave home just to workout.
Therefore the workout application has become a necessity for people who undergo a healthier lifestyle to support their workout activities because the workout application can help people exercise wherever and whenever, with step-by-step instructions, to track training data, so that people no longer need to leave home and spend expensive fees to go to the gym and other sports venues.
The workout application is one of the solutions for the people who try to get fit. Their functionality gives a lot of opportunities and makes keeping fit easier. As the application becomes more important, the app designer has to try their best to make a proper fitness application by creating an effective UI. In general, the important elements of the UI in the workout application will usually have a dashboard in the form of a graphic to track the workout, which is very useful for users. In some training, categories can use interesting and informative illustrations or photography. But, for important elements in each UI, the workout application will be different and needs to adjust to users’ needs.
The major objective of a workout app is to help users in their self-improvement. That is the reason why profiles should contain not only the personal data but also the user’s achievements such as the number of burnt calories or personal records in their workout activities. It’s also important to not to overload the profile screen with the unnecessary information to avoid cluttered look on user interface. These are some essentials elements that are usually needed in a workout app:
Activity screen
People who want to get fit always have to do various physical activities. Workout apps provide users with the feature which helps to track how active they are during a day. To make a sufficient UI for activity screen, designers need to include different kinds of activities and sports. Usually, workout apps provide tracking time spent on sports as well as measuring the distance which users cover during a day. The distance can be calculated in two ways: walking is measured by the number of steps and running is usually measured in kilometers.
The information about users’ activity is often presented via diagrams of various forms. Such presentation contributes the effective visual perception of the data which includes many numerals. Also, designers often apply custom icons representing each kind of activity to make the screen looks clean even if users have a really active life.
Calories screen
They say that people who love to workout are obsessed with calories. Well, that’s true because if you want to get fit, it’s important to control what and how much you eat. Workout applications show the information on the number of burnt calories based on the activity results. The calories data can be displayed on the activity screen as well as on the personal profile.
Heart rate screen
Many workout apps can be connected to the various devices such as fitness wearables which allow measuring pulse. The applications usually transfer the data gathered with devices on a heart rate screen.
User interface representing the feature should be simple with the minimum of elements so that it could be easily operated. Since the process of pulse measuring takes some time it may be a good idea to supply the UI with sufficient animation which will show the loading process.
Progress & Goals screen
To stay motivated and continue self-improvement, it’s important to know that the hard work gives results. The progress screen shows the statistics about users’ achievements along with failures. If people have the progress, they see that their results are getting better and the scales on the graphs go higher.
Goals screen move people to achieve more and more, especially if we talk about workout. Usually, people start doing work out because they have some goals, such as losing weight or shaping up. In workout applications, users set maybe a bit fewer huge goals but easier to achieve on a regular basis. They often include walking a certain number of steps per day or week along with burning the fixed number of calories.
The screen of goals can be presented as a sheet divided into categories: to do, doing, done. This way users will see how much they have managed to achieve and what they need to strive for. In addition, designers can settle the system of awards which will help users be even more motivated. Awards also effective as gamification tools which contribute increasing user engagement.
However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach in designing a workout application when it comes to an individual’s workout needs and desired experience. They need a personalized experience, thus they will more comfortable using the application. To achieve this need, the application should provide solutions, benefits, and positive impacts for its users, the user experience becomes very important in the use of an application, namely the application must be useful, clear, friendly, intuitive, effective, and fun.
When the workout application can meet people’s expectations, whether to keep their proportional body shape, build up muscle or simply to get fit, the design itself has been successfully activating the problem-solving potential of workout application.
Author: Satria Aditya Wibawa (Mobile Designer)
