Mindset During Home Exercise

This project was part of my UX Research class where we were given a broad topic and which each of us had to narrow down to a focus for our individual research projects. This included creating stakeholder maps, concept maps and conducting surveys, interviews and co-design sessions that would then help us identify Product Opportunity Gaps

Tools - Figma, Canva, Survey Monkey, Miro

Areas - UX Research

Problem

Exercising is an everyday activity done by individuals to help keep their minds and body healthy. While exercising, your body releases chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins in your brain that make you feel happy. It also helps your brain dump chemicals that make you feel stressed and anxious. Like any part of the human body, the mind can be tricky; for some individuals, it helps them push past their limitations and thrive, while in others, it can act as a hindrance and prevent them from reaching their exercising goals.

To help understand this problem in detail, I conducted a study on “exploring the mindset of people when they exercise at home.”

Research -

Hypothesis - Individuals tend to exercise longer when the activity they do, is fun.

To help validate my hypothesis and understand the problem, I used various research methods such as literature review, role play, concept maps, stakeholder maps, interviews, surveys and co-design sessions.

Upon synthesizing the research, it was evident that individuals' type and form of exercise vary from profession to profession as well as the objective of the individual. While most individuals exercise between 45-60 minutes, some have other parameters to help determine if they have exercised. They tend to silence the world while exercising to focus on their thoughts and life goals.

Research methods

Domain Survey

Exercise can be broadly classified into two main categories physical exercise and exercise for the mind. The main objective of exercising is to keep both the mind and body healthy. The author talks about the how physical exercise helps improve the mental health of a person. He also talks about the duration of the exercise and what exercise has to be done based on the mental health issue a person is facing. Finally, he also talks about the difference between physical activity and fitness. He believes that although fitness gains don’t do much in terms of helping the mental health of a person. It does make the body more attractive and helps a person’s self-confidence.

Role Play

Spent a week doing both mental and physical exercises, understanding my thought process and mindset while doing them. Mindset differed with different activities. I didn’t feel the strain of exercising with exercises I enjoyed doing, compared to activities I did not enjoy. I realized that when I exercise my mind, I tend to time myself to know when to stop. Despite doing many chores at home, I realized that I had also to do some form of traditional exercise for me to feel like I had exercised that day

Online Survey & Data VISUALISATION

An online survey was conducted via Survey Monkey. The survey was sent out to student groups via Facebook and Whatsapp. Flyers having a QR code of the survey were also put up in gyms to be able to reach people who exercise at both gyms and homes. The survey got a total of 30 responses. The survey questions were based around trying to understand what “exercise” meant for various people. What was the age demographic of people who worked out at home were. Also, what did people consider to be home exercise? The survey ended with a possible reach out for a further interview.

Interview

Interviews were conducted to understand the mindset and thoughts while exercising.

Four of the interviews were done in person, while the other two were virtual. The people chosen to interview were primarily from three different backgrounds students, athletes, and professions that require a ﬁt body. They were all in their 20s to 30s as this was the target age.

These six people were chosen based on their answers in the survey. Each of the six had a different lifestyle and a different reason as to why they would exercise. They also classiﬁed exercises differently. This helped broaden the spectrum of what the mind went through while they exercised. They also had to be able to open up and speak about what their feelings and thought processes were when they exercised. So I could ﬁnd the correct information and see if it would validate my hypothesis.

INterview Insights

1) Each individual had a different lifestyle and a different reason to exercise this in turn affected their mindset and what they would then classify as exercise.

2) They each went into a bubble in their mind while exercising and either thought about their life goals or chose to silence the world

3) Exercises was means to both channelize their anger as well as increase dopamine levels

4) Music helped reduce the strain of exercising

CO-DESIGN Session

Learnings

Based on the co–design session, it is evident that even when individuals have similar surroundings the way they each set up their space to exercise changes. They do have certain common factors that are necessary for them to exercise in.

It was also interesting to see how various individuals had similar descriptions of how their minds worked when they exercised. The common external element that they chose to take into their mental bubble was music.

Overview

This research topic helps to understand what are the thoughts and mindset of individuals while they exercise. Through various surveys and interviews it was identified that various people exercised for various reasons which in turn affected their thoughts.

In the co design session, the objective was to find out how the surroundings affected the thoughts of individuals while they exercised and also what various individuals thought about while they were exercising. All participants in this co-design session led different lifestyles and exercised for different reasons.

Conclusion

Product OPPORTUNITY

Based on all the research, it is evident that many individuals cannot achieve their exercising goals because they have been exercising the wrong way. Due to this, they tend to give up halfway into their journey as they don’t see desired results and don’t understand their body types. Their mind tricks them into making exercise feel like a burden.

Using all of the information i came up with a potential “Product Opportunity Gap”.

From the Product Opportunity Gap identified I was able to find potential product/service solution ideas some of which are listed below.

Potential Solutions

Based on their body type they must have a set of parameters to help identify that they have exercised.
They could have a product that tells them that they have achieved their goal of exercising based on those parameters.
They should have a support system that helps keep them motivated while they achieve their goals.