The first assessment we had to hand in for this class was a report in which a concept was researched to verify and solve some questions. That concept or that topic selected had to make people feel happy.
I started thinking of that thing that I always go to when I’m feeling anxious, overwhelmed, when I’m overthinking or simply when the Aussie lifestyle has its toll on you. My go to thing is exercise, it is something that allows me to feel better, not only in terms of health but also in term of mood.
That was me a few years ago being happy training running back in my hometown.
After putting this concept into paper, research had to be done to review my idea. The result where several studies that stated that people that exercise at least 10 minutes a day, have a better mood than those who don’t.
With that research, it made me realize even more that exercise does have a positive effect in someone’s life, but it did not answer the following questions: How does exercising make people happy? What motivates them to keep going?
The fact that exercise makes people feel better does not prove that it makes them happier. That is why I decided to run a focus group with some friends to see and learn more of how they felt before and after exercising. During the focus groups I asked them 10 questions related to exercise and their feelings. It was something subjectable and it is something that can easily change between one subject and the other. But what I liked of these particular focus group is that one of the subjects made me change my mind completely.
Part of the focus group getting ready to exercise.
I chose friends that would exercise on a regular basis, at least 3 times a week thinking that they had the motivation to do so and that they liked exercising. I came across a subject that does not feel any different when he exercises in terms of mood. He does feel his mind is refreshened, but he does not feel happier or sadder after it.
This subject, my brother, my own blood, made me realize that it doesn’t matter how you feel after exercise, if you don’t like exercise to begin with, you’re not going to feel any different, you’re going to feel like a job well done, a task that had to be done to feel healthier, but not happier. The happiness of the person depends on how much that person likes to exercise or not.
The other subjects all stated that they felt happier after exercising and even some of them would measure their happiness according to what they achieved with exercise, but all of them had a special love and appeal for exercise to begin with.
Part of the assessment also involved a quantitative research with some data analysis. I’m not going to explain the results in this stage because it gets a little bit more boring with all the numbers, but it made me realize the importance of reviews and giving people a good experience.
Nowadays, a bad review can seriously be the difference in a business. Negative reviews are only the result of negative experiences users have. If they have a negative experience, they are not going to go back, and neither are the people that read the review or that hear their experience.
Review for Goodlife gyms from https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/goodlife-health-clubs-qld
It is not only designing something different, but also something different that solves the needs of that specific target group.
In my case, it is designing an app easy to use, with different types of sports and workouts, with different levels and with different locations that allows the user to personalize it and modify it as much as they want. An app catered to people who love exercising, who know what they like, but that do not know what types of workouts they can do, what routes they can take or what other people are out there with the same lack of motivation.
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