Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe AfterEffects
UI / UX Design Case Study
I created a kiosk experience that improves a gym user’s motivation to consistently work out.
Process Doc*
*Adobe Acrobat PDF VIewer - no download required
What is it?
Default Screen
The design utilizes a subtly darkened, looped background video featuring exercises and scenes from the actual gym. This is not merely an aesthetic choice; it serves a crucial psychological and functional role:
Reducing Anxiety and Driving Familiarity: The video acts as a visual warm-up, immediately making the user feel comfortable and familiar with the movements and the environment. This is especially vital for new or returning users who may experience gym anxiety, helping them acclimate to the space and their routine.
Contextual Branding: By showcasing the actual gym, the background video reinforces the brand identity and establishes a seamless connection between the digital routine and the physical workout space.
Minimizing Distraction: The video is intentionally darkened and muted, ensuring it adds ambient context without compromising the readability and clarity of the primary data displayed on the kiosk screen. This maintains the functional integrity of the interface while boosting user motivation.
Data-Driven Onboarding: The Capability and Preference Quiz
Reduces Cognitive Load: By showing the questions upfront, we eliminate the user's anxiety about the time commitment or the depth of the data being requested, managing their expectations from the start.
Increases Buy-In: It clearly communicates that the personalization is relevant and necessary for generating a useful routine, increasing the user's willingness to complete the flow and leverage the data already attached to their membership (like their name).
Standardized Input for Predictability
The date of birth capture uses a three-part drop-down menu (Month, Day, Year). This standardized interaction pattern was selected to promote consistency and accessibility, as drop-down menus are highly familiar across mobile and kiosk interfaces. By making the completion of this field mandatory before proceeding, we manage the user's progress and ensure the foundational data required for routine personalization is reliably captured.
Gesture-Based Input for Physical Measurements
To enhance the user experience and reduce input friction, the height capture utilizes a gesture-based vertical scroll mechanism instead of a standard numerical keypad.
Improves Input Speed: It is significantly faster and more satisfying than repeatedly tapping buttons.
Reduces Error: It minimizes the cognitive load and error rate associated with typing precise numerical data on a digital screen, ensuring the generated routine is based on accurate foundational information.
Explicit Feedback for Seamless Interaction
To ensure the user instantly understands the state of their selection in this multiple-choice format, the interface provides two distinct feedback signals:
Visual Change (Highlighting): The selected state element is immediately highlighted with a white color fill.
Textual Confirmation: The accompanying text label changes from "Select" to "Selected".
Action-Focused Routine Display: Minimizing Cognitive Load
To enhance the user experience and reduce input friction, the height capture utilizes a gesture-based vertical scroll mechanism instead of a standard numerical keypad.
Improves Input Speed: It is significantly faster and more satisfying than repeatedly tapping buttons.
Reduces Error: It minimizes the cognitive load and error rate associated with typing precise numerical data on a digital screen, ensuring the generated routine is based on accurate foundational information.
Minimizing Activation Energy for Immediate Adoption
This screen is the critical transition point designed to drive immediate action and adherence. By breaking down the complex idea of a "workout" into simple, actionable steps, we eliminate the user's initial hesitation.
Immediate Contextual Prompt: The user is instantly prompted with the exact routine needed to be completed on that specific day. This immediacy combats procrastination and capitalizes on their motivation right when they scan in.
Clear Chunking and Hierarchy: The routine is presented as a digestible list, where each exercise is accompanied by:
Exercise Identification: (e.g., "Leg Press," "Squat"). This provides contextual relevance and helps the user quickly locate the necessary area in the gym.
Actionable Short Description: This serves as a quick, at-a-glance reminder of the movement, reducing the need for the user to pull out their phone for details.
Goal: This focused display minimizes cognitive load and ensures the user has a clear, unambiguous path for their session, thereby increasing the likelihood they will successfully start and complete their workout.
Service Flow: Guiding the User Through the Workout
The design of the small, machine-side kiosks are dedicated to minimizing distraction and maximizing adherence by providing only the most critical information at the exact moment it's needed.
The Default/Scan Screen
The screen must balance being a welcoming ambient display with being a ready-to-use tool.
Point-of-Action Interface: Controlling the Workout Flow
Flow Control: Prominent Start, Pause, and Stop controls allow the user to manage their workout pacing. This acknowledges real-world interruptions and gives the user agency over their time, rather than dictating the flow.
Safety and Support: Direct access to "Help" (likely linking to advanced form tutorials or gym staff contact) reduces user anxiety and promotes safe, effective use of the equipment.
Intelligent Weight Guidance: Displaying the recommended starting weight and the user's last weight used removes the mental friction of tracking. This feature leverages historical performance data to guide the user toward progressive overload, which is the key driver of physical results and long-term motivation.
Real-Time Progress: Clearly displaying the current set number and required repetitions provides instant, tangible feedback. This visual tracking acts as a powerful micro-reward, encouraging the user to push through the final reps and complete the task.
Integrated Form Video: A playing video of the exercise is placed in a non-intrusive zone. This provides immediate form reference right at the machine, drastically reducing the risk of injury and improving exercise efficacy.
Contextual Tips: Access to quick "Tips" (e.g., proper foot placement, breathing technique) offers coaching that refines the user's form without requiring them to leave the workout flow.
Pause State: Supporting Flow Management and Recovery
Acknowledge Real-World Needs: Pausing the workout grants the user the necessary time for hydration, restroom breaks, or brief interruptions, acknowledging that the workout environment is not always linear.
Ensure Seamless Return: The paused screen strategically retains key information to reduce cognitive load when the user returns. It clearly displays:
Current Exercise: Immediately shows the user exactly which set and rep they were about to complete, eliminating guesswork and making the transition back to the physical task instantaneous.
Upcoming Exercises: A dedicated "Next Up" section provides a preview of the workout flow. This serves as a motivational guide, helping the user mentally prepare for the remainder of their session.
Prevent Drop-Off: By providing a clear, simple mechanism to pause and immediately view their status, the design significantly reduces the likelihood that a user will simply quit the app and exit the gym. It acts as a digital anchor to their committed routine.
Gesture-Based Input for Physical Measurements
To enhance the user experience and reduce input friction, the height capture utilizes a gesture-based vertical scroll mechanism instead of a standard numerical keypad.
Improves Input Speed: It is significantly faster and more satisfying than repeatedly tapping buttons.
Reduces Error: It minimizes the cognitive load and error rate associated with typing precise numerical data on a digital screen, ensuring the generated routine is based on accurate foundational information.
CONCLUSION AND REFLECTION
User Expectation Management: I designed the system assuming users expect technology to be a seamless, cognitive extension. The kiosk's core function is to guide the user effortlessly through the process (routine generation, tracking, transition), allowing them to direct their limited energy toward the workout itself.
Trust, Efficiency, and Goal Attainment
The kiosk establishes itself as a trusted and efficient partner in the user's fitness journey. By eliminating common friction points and providing real-time guidance, the system ensures the path to achieving fitness goals is clear and well-supported, maximizing the user's return on time investment.
The core loop of the system is designed to create strong habit reinforcement. By providing immediate, positive feedback (progress tracking, streak data, directional guidance), the kiosk consistently fuels the user's motivation to return, directly supporting long-term workout consistency and reducing member churn.
What are some setbacks?
Lack of User Validation
While the design rationales were based on established behavioral psychology and best practices in Service Design, the project's primary limitation is the lack of empirical user validation. If given the opportunity to iterate, the immediate next step would be comprehensive usability testing to validate the core assumptions regarding:
Adherence Rate: Measuring how much the kiosk actually drives workout completion.
Friction Points: Identifying hidden challenges in the Point-of-Action UX
The 15-week timeline required aggressive prioritization, limiting the execution of several features planned during the ideation and wireframing phases. This limitation reinforced the importance of agile prioritization. Features that were deprioritized but remain vital include:
Personalized Coaching Feedback: Integrating machine learning to adjust the routine dynamically based on real-time performance data.
Social/Competitive Features: Adding opt-in challenges or leaderboards to further leverage gamification and boost motivation.
Final Animated Prototype
Corina Lougie
corina.lougie@gmail.com
