Overview
Embedded Files
HelloGym is a Business-to-Business company that serves small to medium-sized gyms. Think along the lines of an Anytime Fitness or Snap franchise location, or a small-scale independent, with one or a small handful of locations. As previous gym owners for 10 years, HelloGym acutely understands the difficulties arising from understaffed hours of operation and missed calls from potential customers. HelloGym provides these gyms with a complete communication hub and staffing solution to ensure no lead is lost while their gym owners and staff are busy doing the heavy lifting of running a gym.
Goal
The goal of the project was to conduct a contextual inquiry to locate key findings on how we can enhance the usability of HelloGym's current software. We gained insight into the main features users utilized daily along with key features that were flawed or missing essential information.
Methods/Tools Used
Cognitive Walkthrough
Test Script
Contextual Inquiry
Affinity Diagram
Findings & Prototype Plan
User Stories
Scenarios
Site Map
User Flow
Sketching
Figma
Interactive Prototyping
Users
Through contextual inquiry, we observed four total participants who all used HelloGym in their daily work lives. The goal of the users was to enhance the usability of HelloGym’s current software to create a smoother experience for them along with requesting additional features that were not active before.
2 Gym Owners
2 Gym Managers
Research
Cognitive Walkthrough
We conducted a cognitive walkthrough of HelloGym’s software to test each task provided to us by HelloGym. We created a detailed step-by-step process for completing each task and had a participant complete the tasks with a few questions we answered throughout the test. Executing this walkthrough helped us understand the software more and get a better understanding of key areas to observe whilst performing our contextual inquiry.
Test Script
Our team created a test script to guide our moderator and the user through each task. We created a vast amount of introductory questions included in our script to help us get to know the user more along with how they use HelloGym daily. We repeated certain questions such as “How would you rate this?” and “How can this process be enhanced” for each task to help us gain insight into what features needed work and could be improved.
Contextual Inquiry
Utilizing a remote call through Zoom, we conducted our contextual inquiry on each participant. After concluding our tests with each user, we gained the following insights:
How a gym owner uses HelloGym daily and what features do they use the most
How a manager maintains their staff and manages calls
Features that open external tabs outside of the software that cause user confusion
Key interactions that could be improved for a smoother user experience
Non-functioning interactions that could prove useful for the user if functional
Synthesizing
With the several participants who used HelloGym on a daily basis, we gained insight into key findings to note throughout each task. All the information gained through our research was then synthesized using affinity diagramming, organized by task to determine what could be enhanced for each one. On top of this, each participant was listed under a different color so we kept track of what each user stated for each task.
Findings & Prototype Plan
I selected key findings and began planning my prototype. From all of our research, I picked out the following key changes:
Users experienced evident issues with knowing which prior call conversation they were currently viewing and had to take external notes to avoid confusion
When playing voicemails, users felt frustrated due to the recordings opening up in new tabs with no information to follow which number the voicemail belonged to
Users wished that the call history overview would show them the duration of each call so that they could have more information, and keep better track of which call they are or have viewed
Users felt that when managing access for employees for multiple gym locations, it was frustrating and way too many clicks to do so due to after editing an employee, they must go back and change the location before being able to go and edit their employees again
When viewing actions that could be done with previous calls/voicemails, users were confused about how the archive feature works and where anything archived would be placed
User Stories
In addition, creating user stories to help step into the user's shoes when prototyping gave insight into how it would perform being used daily.
Scenarios
Creating scenarios on top of user stories assisted in understanding the users more. The purpose of the scenarios created was to have the users be in a situation where the current software is experiencing issues. However, in the scenario, after the planned changes are made through prototyping, the user's experience is consistent and enhanced.
Site Map
Developed a site map so I knew what steps and features I would be focusing on throughout my prototype. With this information, I was able to gain insight into the pages I would work on along with the number of screens needed to be made.
User Flow
Created 2 distinct user flows that I would be utilizing in the process of my prototype to ensure I created all the correct interactions and didn’t miss any essential material.
Sketching
I sketched out basic wire framing of the current HelloGym screens and used my prototype planning, site map, and user flows to add the changes or improvements that would be prototyped out on each screen.
Prototyping
There were 2 main screens that I would make changes or improvements on in my prototyping process. This includes the “Call History” and “Contacts” pages currently active on HelloGym. On top of this, there is an entirely new screen that was prototyped that does not exist on the current software, which is the archive page.
Screens Briefing
Screen 1: The prototype starting screen is the Call History page. The purpose of this page is to show the newly added highlight feature of each call selected and show the newly added audio player by clicking the Play button. Along with this, the now functioning Archive button removes the call at the top of the list, and the delete button provides users with a warning before permanently deleting it which is the next call at the top of the list after archiving.
Screen 2: Next, users stated they were frustrated with managing staff with access to multiple locations. When making an edit to a staff member on one location, they would have to go all the way back to the main page to change the location so they may edit that member again under that different location. To solve this issue, I’ve created a select box under each staff member where they can select the locations they’d like each member to have access to all without having to leave the current screen.
Screen 3: The last screen is the newly created Archives page. Users can see any call that has been archived with the now functional blue archive button. Users now have the option to playback the call audio again, move the call back to history with a confirm pop-up, and as before permanently delete the call.
The Outcome
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to assist HelloGym with improving its software to create a better user experience for the existing gyms that use it. The overall research process with the participants who use HelloGym daily was extremely helpful in gaining insight into what could be improved. With this in mind, I can foresee the enhancements made in my prototype will drastically improve HelloGym and the user experience for their current clients.
Next Steps
Refine the layout and organization of the “Employees” screen
Create a more well-refined audio player system on the “Call History” page for a smoother experience
Creating a confirmation button before finalizing edits on existing employees to avoid giving unintentional access
Adding further interactions on the “Archive” page to make the added page more usable
Changing the overall size of the interactions and frames made to better fit being used in the future
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