UMD Course Project | Generative AI in UX

GetFit: Track. Achieve. Repeat.

Co-designing a fitness app with ChatGPT to make logging workouts and tracking progress simple, quick, and engaging for users 

About

While many talk about using AI in design, the real challenge lies in finding a shared understanding between human intentions and machine interpretations. This case study reflects the journey of bridging that gap—aligning my vision as a designer with ChatGPT’s capabilities to create a cohesive, human-centered UX solution.

Problem

Fitness apps lacked shared streak tracking and clear progress visualization, leaving users frustrated with tedious manual tracking.

Outcome

Designed GetFit, a fitness tracker app for collaborative streak management and visual progress tracking, ensuring a stress-free experience.

My Role

Product Designer, Research Strategist, Visual Designer, AI Designer

Team

Solo Project

Duration

Aug 2024 till Dec 2024 (4 months)

Tools

Jump to Section
What is GetFit?

GetFit is a fitness tracking app that simplifies workout logging, enhances progress visualization, and fosters motivation through collaborative streaks

Target Users

The target audience includes fitness enthusiasts, health-conscious individuals, beginners, personal trainers, and health coaches seeking an easy way to track and improve fitness.

Main Features

  • Collaborative Progress
  • Personalized Experience
  • Increase User Engagement
  • Ethical Motivation

Fun Fact!

ChatGPT served as a co-designer to refine ideas, speed up ideation, and streamline data gathering and feature development, using generative AI to enhance UX design processes

Why this project mattered to me?

Struggling to find the perfect app for easy progress tracking and streak management with an accountability partner, I’d use the notes app on my phone!

#Problem 1

I used to go to the gym consistently with a friend, and we relied on each other to build discipline and stay motivated.

The lack of an option to track streaks with an “accountability partner”, forcing me to manually mark progress on calendars, which was both tedious and frustrating.

#Problem 2

Most of the apps I looked into had complicated interfaces and limited customization for strength training.

After speaking to a couple friends & fitness enthusiasts, I found that users often abandon apps due to a lack of personalized features that support long-term motivation.

01

Discovering User Needs

What I Found While Researching

How did I refine the problem scope?

I worked with ChatGPT to generate user stories, converted them into user quotes aligning with my core idea, and conducted a competitive analysis to strengthen my product direction

ChatGPT generated 20 distinct user stories but some weren’t relevant to my core idea, so I had to redirect it to my product vision.

Setting the Stage

How might we leverage AI to co-design a fitness app that simplifies progress tracking while fostering accountability and maintaining long-term motivation?

Competitive analysis:

ChatGPT Prompt: Iteration 1

List 10 possible ways to define the product category of [product], and sample competitors in each category.

These are the competitors I’d like to do my analysis with: my competitors = [list around 5 competitors, though there’s no reason to limit yourself]

Key Takeaways:
  • I asked ChatGPT to compare fitness apps like MyFitnessPal, Habitica, Strava, and Hevy –focusing on general information, features, interaction design, accessibility, motivation tools. etc.
  • Further, I asked ChatGPT to explain the terms “high,” “low,” and “moderate” used in the competitive analysis table for better clarity.
  • I wish there was a bookmarking feature in ChatGPT to save and revisit specific chat threads.
Nutrition and fitness tracking app
Gamified task and habit tracker
Social fitness & performance tracking app
Strength training and gym log tracker
General fitness enthusiastsNutrition and fitness tracking app
Gamers and productivity seekers
Runners and cyclists
Gym-goers and weightlifters
Comprehensive nutrition database
Gamification of habits and fitness tracking
Community-driven performance metrics and sharingRunners and cyclists
Simple, focused tracking for gym progress

Nutrition tracking, community features

Gamified habits, task tracking

Performance tracking, social sharing

Gym-focused logs, progress tracking

Professional and inviting

Quirky and colorful

Sleek and performance-oriented

Simple and gym-centric

Friendly, comprehensive

Playful, moderate descriptiveness

Sporty, high descriptiveness

Minimalist, low descriptiveness

Moderate

Limited

Moderate

Low

Polished mobile app, seamless user experience

Quirky, fun gamified interface

Sleek app experience with social emphasis

Minimalist, gym-focused UI

Intuitive navigation

Straightforward gamification

Sport-focused

Simplified for gym-goers

Moderate

Low

High

Low

Goal tracking

Gamification

Social engagement

Simplified logs

Nutrition-based

Limited

Performance-driven

Limited

Who is the app designed for?

To cater to diverse fitness needs across different user segments, particularly active young adults

I focused on active young adults, high-income professionals seeking advanced analytics, and underserved users like older adults and beginners ensuring inclusivity and value.

Persona Attributes:

ChatGPT Prompt:

Create personas for [product] using a concise set of key attributes, to guide design decisions. Include the name as its own attribute, combined demographics (e.g., age, location, profession), a representative quote, pain points, and other distinctions that guide design, including one domain-specific attribute. Keep the list reasonably minimal, without frivolous attributes that are non-actionable. Generate 5 diverse personas in a table with these attributes.

Key Takeaways:

  • ChatGPT noticed the lack of representation but didn’t adjust automatically.
  • It relies heavily on user prompts for diversity.
  • Without explicit guidance, it may overlook complex diversity factors.
  • When prompted, it adapted well to include more inclusive options.

Draw some personas:

ChatGPT Prompt:

Draw photographic depictions of personas 1-3 in Panel A, 1 by 1

Key Takeaways:

  • The images mostly show fit, happy individuals, leaving out disabled users and those not physically fit.
  • There’s limited age diversity, despite my focus on inclusivity in earlier prompts.

02

Defining the Vision

How I Connected the Dots

Illustrate pain points:

ChatGPT Prompt:

Draw images of 4 top pain points my product intends to solve for its users, [with a short label in each case], 1 by 1 (don’t wait for me to respond).  [optional: Use humor. Draw in a cartoon style.]

Key Takeaways:

  • Only males depicted, no female representation.
  • Lack of diversity felt exclusionary.
  • Broader representation needed.
  • I wanted to further explore stick figures for contrasting styles.

Why did I want to focus on personal accountability in this app?

To create a supportive and stress-free fitness experience centered around individual goals & motivation

I chose to avoid leaderboards and collaborative challenges as suggested by ChatGPT, emphasizing personal accountability with a chosen partner to keep the journey simple, encouraging, and free from unnecessary competition.

Key Insights:

ChatGPT Prompt:

Make 3 concept sketches for [my product] based on the product requirements, user stories, competitive analysis, pain points, and personas. Draw the 3 concepts, 1 by 1.

Key Takeaways:

  • I learned the importance of combining feedback tools with progress-sharing features to boost engagement.
  • I realized the value of using concise design elements like badges to effectively motivate users.

Progress Visualization & Motivational Prompts

Stress-Free Streak Tracking

Accountability Partner Feature

03

Shaping the Experience

Emotional Pathway:

ChatGPT Prompt:
For [product], create an ‘Emotion Pathway’ – a sequence of steps in a user journey that evokes and manages nuanced emotions like anticipation, comfort, relief, and motivation. Summarize the emotion pathway recommended changes in a succinct table with the step, description, emoji for the targeted emotions, targeted emotions (starting with an emoji), and concrete specific UI changes.
Key Takeaways:
  • I loved the scenario ChatGPT designed for returning users, balancing emotions like guilt and pride to encourage re-engagement without pressure.
  • I also explored an emotional journey for the accountability partner feature to build trust and foster connection.

User Flow Diagram:

ChatGPT Prompt:
Propose a simple flow diagram to represent the Interaction Model for [product].
Key Takeaways:
  • The flow diagram was practical, but a few flows like were placed as subset features
  • I wanted progress visualization as its own menu, so I modified the diagram while using ChatGPT’s version as a solid base.

User Assumptions:

ChatGPT Prompt:
Based on the designs we have so far for this product, the personas, use cases, and feature list, list assumptions we’ve made about the users that we should validate in user testing, and list the questions we need to ask users.
Key Takeaways:
  • I believe most gym-goers or fitness enthusiasts track their physical activity in some way, but this assumption needs validation during user testing.

Users will consistently track workouts

Users find social features like streaks motivating

Motivation notifications enhance engagement

04

Making It Real

Lo-fi Wireframes Analysis:

ChatGPT Prompt:
[Paste in the screenshot(s)]Do a usability review of the screenshot(s) of the UI. What key usability aspects do you note in the design and how can they be improved? Summarize in a table. Then make a downloadable html file that implements the functionality of this sketch that includes all the components with the appropriate styling.
Key Takeaways:
  • I gave ChatGPT a basic low-fidelity sketch wireframe.
  • It accurately understood my design and suggested improvements for readability and hierarchy. It felt like collaborating with another designer!
  • The HTML code ChatGPT generated was too basic and relied on generic CSS styles, making me question its visual design capabilities.
Sections are clear but lack visual hierarchy; competing elements may overwhelm users.
Sections are clear but lack visual hierarchy; competing elements may overwhelm users.
Visual representation is helpful but lacks interactive elements or detailed data per day.
Allow users to tap on calendar days to view logged activities or notes for that day.
Home Screen feels very empty with very few focussed call-to-action buttons.
Add a prominent “Log Workout” button with a larger size, icon, and contrasting color.

Mood board:

ChatGPT Prompt:
Create 3 mood boards for [product], aligned with its features, UVP, brand message, and industry. Include color palettes, typefaces, textures, UI elements, inspiring imagery, and lifestyle references. Add competitor examples, words/phrases for brand tone, and everyday user quotes reflecting moods, not product-specific.
Key Takeaways:
  • The first & third mood board captured my fitness app’s vibe perfectly.
  • The second, with pastels and minimalism, felt off for a high-intensity app.
  • ChatGPT is great for ideas, but it’s up to us (humans) to decide what fits and what doesn’t.

What was the visual identity I wanted for this fitness app?

A colorful yet subtle design inspired by ChatGPT’s third mood board, embodying the energy and excitement of a users fitness journey!

I aimed to reflect high energy with simple typography and negative space, capturing the simple yet energetic vibe of working out

Here’s what my final mood board looks like:

Visual Branding:

ChatGPT Prompt:
Create 8 color palettes for [product] then draw the palettes and make a downloadable HTML file that compares all of the palettes with just a palette name (conveying the brand impression) and the color chips, no other description, sample, or decoration, with little vertical spacing so I don’t need to scroll.  Motivate each palette by a brand style to fit the product, and show them in rank order of the best recommendation to use for this product.
Key Takeaways:
  • ChatGPT’s palettes felt cohesive but not practical for professional designs.
  • The refined palette was overly bright and lacked sophistication.
  • I expected a monochromatic or balanced color scheme.
  • I liked the font suggestions but but plan to use trial and error to decide the vibe of the app.
  • I don’t fully trust ChatGPT for visual design decisions.

05

Refining the Solution

What Testing Taught Me

Simulate your Interface:

ChatGPT Prompt:
Simulate this [product] for me using the tasks defined, and I’ll act as the user describing my actions. Show each screen’s contents and controls in text format. My first action is to land on [screen, e.g. the homepage]
Key Takeaways:
  • Tried a new approach where I acted as the user, and ChatGPT simulated the fitness tracker step by step.
  • It described each screen’s content in text, allowing me to imagine the interface before deciding the next action, which was pretty cool!

Simulate a User Test:

ChatGPT Prompt:

Pretend to run the usability test we just described with 5 participants, following the research plan you created and simulating how it works. Imagine recruiting a diverse group of participants according to the recruiting criteria. Collect their simulated responses based on each participants role and typical perspectives.

Do NOT describe the simulation. Only report a simulated summary of the participants you recruited and report the simulated results and analysis.

Who are the participants?
  • Participant 1: Beginner, started fitness journey 6 months ago, no prior app experience.
  • Participant 2: Older adult (62), uses walking for fitness, no wearable devices.
  • Participant 3: Socially motivated, participates in group challenges on Strava.
  • Participant 4: Casual user, tracks activity sporadically, values simplicity.
  • Participant 5: Intermediate user, 3 years active, prioritizes streak-based motivation.

4 out of 5

participants found streaks motivating

4 out of 5

participants really liked accountability features

3 out of 5

participants appreciated motivational nudges

What are my next steps for improving this app?

To enhance usability, motivation, and clarity for users within the app interface

  • I redesigned the home screen to emphasize the ‘Log Workout’ flow
  • Added animations and motivational feedback
  • Improved progress visualization with clearer labels

Direct access to logging strength training workouts

  • Create New Workout
  • Add Exercises, Sets, Reps
  • Save & Finish Workout

Home Screen: Provides an overview of recent workouts & quick shortcuts

  • Motivating Welcome Message
  • Quick Add Shortcut
  • Recent Workout Logs

Track and support progress with chosen partners

  • Partner Progress Updates
  • Supportive nudges (send/receive)
  • Add/Remove Partner

View visual summaries of progress trends & streaks

  • Daily, Weekly, Monthly Progress Trends
  • Visual Data Summaries
  • Streak Tracking & History

06

Reflections and Future Visions

What I Learned and What’s Next

Did I achieve what I set out to do in this project?

Yes! I leveraged AI, specifically ChatGPT to design GetFit by refining and fine-tuning my fitness app

GetFit fosters consistency, motivation, and improved fitness habits.

Key Takeaways

My tracker emphasizes personalized fitness, accountability, and simplicity.

Next Steps:

Enhance accessibility, explore wearables, and refine through testing.
All rights reserved for this project, created as part of the UMD HCIM course INST728 – Generative AI in UX, led by Tom Brinck.
This is truly excellent. It’s an amazing portfolio piece, since it reads easily while still going into a lot of detail, and your AI story is very clear and appropriately critical.
~ Course Instructor, HCIM UMD

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Have a Project or Idea? Let’s Talk!

I’d love to hear from you! Whether it’s for a collaboration, brainstorming session, or just a casual chat, I’m always up to connect and explore new opportunities 🙂

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