An easy and spontaneous way for modern women to exercise more

Warm-Up and Hooray
To help physically inactive women to start doing more exercise, we worked to eliminate the obstacles that prevent them from doing so. These interactive tools well blend into home-setting environment. That allows users to exercise more spontaneously while they are doing leisure activities at home. Warm Up and Hooray's bouncy and interactive feedback also entice users to exercise a little bit more each day.

An easy and spontaneous way for modern women to exercise more

Warm-Up and Hooray
To help physically inactive women to start doing more exercise, we worked to eliminate the obstacles that prevent them from doing so. These interactive tools well blend into home-setting environment. That allows users to exercise more spontaneously while they are doing leisure activities at home. Warm Up and Hooray's bouncy and interactive feedback also entice users to exercise a little bit more each day.

Overview
Warm up & Hooray was my final graduation project in Industrial Design at National Cheng Kung University in 2010. The project was subsequently demonstrated at the Taiwan Young Designers Exhibition, an event that saw more than 200,000 attendants. Working through each stage of the project, from initial concept to prototype and final production, my project partner and I worked closely to overcome numerous challenges, ensuring our design was workable and could be manufactured within the budget and on-time. By completing this project we not only learned design process from end-to-end, but also honed our ability to problem solve and optimize resources.

Team Member
Ying Lin

Timeline
May 2016 - Aug 2016

Award
Top 1 finalist at the 2010 Taiwan International Design Competition.

DESIGN PROCESS

01
Discover

How can we help physically inactive young women to exercise more?

People today seem to be both busier and lazier. Physical inactivity is still a common problem, even among those that are aware of the importance of exercising and have a desire to do more. Studies have shown that women between 20-34 years old make up 62% of the total population of physically inactive individuals.Seeing how prevalent the issue was, we developed the problem space

20-34 years old make up 62% of the total population of physically inactive individuals

02
UNDERSTAND

We targeted users who don't have a specific fitness goal and don't enjoy doing exercise.

Who are we designing for ?

Target Users 

  • Don't often exercise
  • Don’t enjoy working out much
  • Don’t have a fitness goal ( eg : lose weight in 2 months )
  • Are aware of the importance of being physically active
  • Have a desire to exercise more
  • Are encouraged by fitness benefits

Survey / Semi-structure Interviews

We learned more about target users’ attitudes and desires through 47 surveys and 8 user interviews. In general, our potential users lack determination and do not find enjoyment in doing exercise. Many of these potential users share a number of characteristics.

What are their frustrations?

Empathy map

Rather than focusing on just the exercise activity itself, we expanded our research to cover users’ feelings and thoughts before and after they exercise. We found that a home base workout would be a good entry point for our target users to exercise more. Also, boredom and seeing no immediate results from working out are their major pain-points.

Frame insights

Analysis and Synthesis

According to the analysis of existing products and user feedbacks, we also learned why users don’t exercise much using fitness equipment. In Taiwan, most people live small houses, and traditional fitness equipment is burdensome and too conspicuous in a home environment. People are inclined to put the equipment in a place that they do not see it that often, which lowers the chance of them using it.Therefore, one of our design goals is to reinvent the image of fitness equipment, making it portable and are able to be blended into home environments. When all findings from research came together, we extracted key insights that directed us to 5 design guides.

03
Design

Create an unconventional fitness tool for users 
to do exercise spontaneously

Ideation

Concept Refinement

Warm-up and Hooray were selected as our final concepts. We thought through the financial and technical aspects, in order to ensure the two concepts could be manufactured in time. When fleshing out the final concepts, we create storyboard and designed the interactions between user, product and the environment For example, how Warm-up and Hooray blended into the home-setting environment and how to show the immediate feedback encouraging users.

How Warm-Up and Hooray fit into the home-setting environment.

So Our Design Must...

  • Incorporate the echoing method into practices 
  • Provide a sense of achievement
  • Design fun activities as the primary motivation beyond language learning
  • Include context in learning material  
  • Generate feedback immediately
04
Build

Make physical mockups real enough to feel and test

3D prototype and Testing

We made 3D models in Solidworks then use magnet and chemical pigment demonstrating interactive features. We tested the effects of color, bounce feedback, motion smoothness, and aesthetics. Through conducting interviews with subject matter experts with specialists in health and fitness at National Cheng Kung University, we verified the usability and effectiveness of Warm-up & Hooray. We also set long-term development goals, including the addition of adjustable features to customize the product’s height, weight, and angles, to better serve a more diverse group of users .

We used magnet to create the bounce feedback in Hooray as shown above.

We came up with engineering drawings in order to manufacture the final products.

05
Deliverable

Add more exercise into daily basis

    How much time you spend relaxing could be how much time you exercise. While seated on any chair or sofa, simply place your feet on Warm-Up. Then let the curve at the stool its slider to guide your legs back and forth in a stretching exercising. It can be used while watching your favorite TV show or playing a game on your smartphone.

    Warm Up

    Interactive Feedback

    As the user’s your body temperature rises during the exercise, Warm-Up turns from green to yellow, helping users witness the results of their workout immediately, even when they can’t be seen.

    Effectiveness verified
    by fitness specialists

      Using Warm-Up contracts muscles in the lower limbs, sculpts legs and promote blood circulation by inducing pressure in the veins. The effectiveness are verified by fitness specialists.

      Hooray

      Interactive Feedback

      Using the Hooray is a little like shaking a champagne bottle as the corked is popped on a night of celebration. The fun, bouncy feedback generated by the magnetic interior encourages users to exercise more.

      Immediate Feedback

        Hooray changes colors of its white segment according to how much energy was expended during the workout. When witness the color changes, you will know that you’ve achieved the work out goal today.

        Effectiveness

          The magnetic interior works with the counterweights to generate force that lets you easily work out your arms and abdomen. Users can use the Hooray to train multiple muscle groups by changing their posture and the direction of motion.