AlphaFit: Creating a more personalized & holistic fitness experience
Alpha Fit is a personalized fitness support service that helps beginners navigate gym environments with confidence through structured onboarding, adaptive workout plans, and accessible trainer support.
CLIENT
SCADFit, Small to medium sized gyms
DURATION
January-March 2025
ROLE
Project Manager, Service Designer
IMPACT AREA
Promoting Sustainable Food Solutions through Technology
Problem Statement
The lack of structured guidance, clear etiquette, and a supportive gym culture creates intimidation and discouragement, especially for beginners. Unclear equipment instructions, fear of judgment, and unwanted attention lead to anxiety, self-consciousness, and gym dropouts.
Key Insight
Confidence is not just about motivation—it’s about clarity, support, and feeling safe in the environment. Gym goers need guidance, reassurance, and human support at the right moments.
Alpha Fit is a personalized fitness support service that reduces gym intimidation through structured onboarding, adaptive workout plans, and real-time trainer feedback—helping users feel confident, supported, and in control of their fitness journey.
Understanding the Fitness Environment
The ecosystem map revealed a fragmented support system surrounding the gym experience—from digital platforms and physical spaces to trainers and peers.
While support exists, it is not easily navigable. Guidance is often invisible, and expectations around gym norms remain unclear—leaving beginners to rely on external sources for confidence and information.
Mapping the First-Time Gym Experience
The journey map highlighted the emotional highs and lows of a beginner’s experience, especially during onboarding and early visits.
Early motivation is fragile—easily disrupted by unclear guidance or lack of support. In contrast, proactive trainer interactions significantly improved confidence.
Customers preferred a hybrid experience: structured digital guidance paired with real-life encouragement, supported by consistent and personalized touchpoints.
Prototyping and Testing
Evaluating the Experience Across Touchpoints
We tested the service across key moments of the gym journey—from sign-up to workout execution—through both digital and physical touchpoints.
By simulating real-world scenarios, we observed how users interacted with onboarding flows, trainers, and workout routines, assessing both usability and desirability.
The goal was to ensure each interaction felt intuitive, supportive, and empowering.
Gathering Insights Through Testing
Using a mix of theatrical, conversational, and hi-fi prototypes, we gathered insights through observation and follow-up interviews.
This helped identify friction points across both digital and in-gym experiences—particularly in how users navigated onboarding, accessed support, and felt during workouts.
These insights guided refinements to ensure the service builds confidence, accessibility, and engagement throughout the journey.
Through our testing, we learned that the gym onboarding and sign-up process can be enhanced by clearly outlining experience levels, offering more gym etiquette tips, and introducing a first-day assistant feature to guide new users.
For the gym workout experience, it became clear that users needed more transparency regarding trainer availability and the ability to adapt trainer assistance to their individual needs.
Additionally, ensuring that workout plans are customizable not only based on fitness goals but also on lifestyle factors, such as time constraints or physical limitations, would significantly improve user satisfaction and engagement.