Fitness Content

As the adoption of wearables increases, so does the inclination to engage in deceptive practices. Certain individuals seek to manipulate or fabricate data to lower their health insurance expenses, while others do so solely to enhance their appearance on social media. The main objective was to investigate the underlying issue: why users resort to cheating and why they fail to utilize fitness trackers consistently as intended.

Background

WeRun is a fitness app with a personalized leaderboard, allowing users to track their daily steps and compete with friends. We aim to improve the app's system, promote fitness goals, and address cheating concerns among users, particularly Chinese homemakers using the promotion feature for business advertising.

User Group

We conducted semi-structured interviews with two homemakers aged 21 to 35 with small businesses in China who are also users of WeRun. The interviews were conducted online using WeChat and lasted about 40 minutes on average. The insights from the interviews were processed using online tools such as Figjam and Figma, which were used for brainstorming, sketching, and prototyping. Our study aimed to explore how these users utilized WeRun and their experiences with "faking out" on the application.

Findings

The leaderboard feature in WeRun serves as the main incentive for users to run, with higher step counts translating to higher positions on the leaderboard. The top-ranked user earns the privilege of setting a cover photo for the leaderboard page.

Research and user interviews highlight three reasons why Chinese homemakers engage in fake performances on WeRun: financial pressures leading them to promote their businesses, the need to maintain an active appearance, and the ease of faking performances on the platform.

After giving birth, women in Chinese communities often transition to caregiving roles, resulting in reduced income. WeRun becomes a space for these women to advertise side businesses, supplementing their household income. Incentives like free diapers received for achieving step targets help reduce monthly expenses and reallocate funds.

Ideation

Why use WeRun?

Keeping up with how active people are

Partners want to know about each others day

'Analyzing' what people do

Parent's want to keep up with their children's lives

An opportunity to showcase or advertise their business

Liking someone's progress is a way to show affection for someone

Keeping up with how active people are

Liking someone else's progress is a good way to start a conversation

Connecting with other people

For attention

People want to show off how active their lives are

Why Chinese homemakers fake their performances

Promote their business because of financial hardships

Having a kid/ kids = high expenses

Sometimes there are free incentives e.g free diapers and other items

Can buy a cheap device to increase steps

Can put fitness tracking devices on children

Easy to cheat through other means like putting devices on pets, kids, rocking chairs, etc.

Financial Burden

Easy to cheat and Accessible

How can we stop our user group from "faking out" (potential design concepts)

Greater accountability when doing it with a friend

Challenges are a way to motivate people to work

Removing the leaderboard promotion feature completely

Adding another step to the leaderboard

Official recognition of business to remove stigma

Removing or creating friction for bad incentives

Sense of community

Recognition from work

Solution

Our proposed design for WeRun includes three key enhancements to encourage genuine workouts and discourage cheating. Firstly, we recommend reducing the prominence of the leaderboard feature. Secondly, we acknowledge the presence of business owners on the platform. Lastly, we propose implementing a group feature to enhance the enjoyment of engaging in activities together.

Wireframes

Final Iterations

We added a challenge/group feature in a fitness app brings excitement and motivation to users' fitness journeys by setting goals and fostering friendly competition.

Users have the option to create a business profile to promote their businesses on WeRun. This feature is exclusively visible to potential customers when the profile is registered as a business, distinguishing it from the original function of WeRun.

In order to discourage cheating and increase user motivation for workouts, the advertisement incentive has been eliminated from the leaderboard feature. This change aims to create a more genuine and engaging fitness experience for users.

Limitations

Identifying unique problem: Initially, finding a distinct problem for our group project was challenging, leading to some initial uncertainty.
Broad target audience: Initially targeting a broad user group engaged in cheating on WeRun, we realized the scope was too extensive for our timeframe after careful evaluation.
Focus on Chinese homemakers: Our focus shifted specifically to Chinese homemakers who exploited WeRun's promotion feature for cheating.
Time constraints for interviews: Conducting interviews took longer than expected due to time zone differences and busy schedules, limiting the number of interviews we could conduct.
Limited research and testing: Due to project constraints, our research and testing efforts were restricted. Nonetheless, we believe our proposed designs can serve as a foundation for further exploration in enhancing WeRun's value for fitness enthusiasts.