Digital Gym Concept

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.�

-John F. Kennedy

The Big Idea The gym of the future should be personalized, seamless, trackable, user linkable and integrated.

___________ I was inspired by my friends' and my current frustrating experiences at the gym to design a conceptual interactive gym experience.

Each gym member has a card which is scanned upon entry. Why not use this card to connect and track the user's workout, live progress and make the results available to them in real time?

Why not connect gym users to each other and allow them to motivate and challenge each other as well as track each other's progress? Let the gym system be intuitive enough to allow users to adjust for goals, injuries and broken machines so that all data is accurate and present.

Allow the machine to connect to the user's home media such as iTunes and Tivo for seamless media integration and a gadget-less workout.

Sketching the Screen personalized workout tracker connected users future/past goals current progress dietary tracker

health monitor

manual data entry

personalized media

Problem Workouts are often compartmentalized, untracked, impersonal and de-motivational.

They aren't saved in real time or aggregated as data that can show issues and actual gym progress. Gym equipment such as cardio machines and treadmills are poorly designed, require a user to constantly re-enter their information. Gym TV and music are not personalized or motivational, or even good. Members often do not interact with one another and have no means to challenge themselves or encourage each other and share their fitness information, goals or setbacks.

Fitness and health data lives in various apps or journals and requires significant time to update and that also happens after the fact. The very place responsible for fitness isn't tracking it. Machines are underutilized and once upgraded, have the potential to do more for people and benefit the gym while improving the user experience and most importantly, health.

Solution Digitize the gym member pass to be usable in all gym machines by inserting it into a card slot much like a USB or a memory card. The pass is recording live data as the person is working out and then pushing the data to the user's personal gym site. All this is seamless and effortless, requiring little time or action from the already busy user.

Make the data shareable with other gym members and friends to track progress and most importantly, challenge and motivate each other. Allow for a function to track users with a similar workout schedule and goals and do optional live challenges (even anonymously), much like in gaming. Allow the users to link to their own personal digital libraries for movies, music and reading so there are no extra gadgets to bring and the entertainment is exactly as the user wants.

Scenario - Mike Mike joined the gym to get healthy and possibly train for a marathon. When he joined, he was given a card with a magnetic strip and a barcode that gets scanned every time he enters the gym. Each time he uses any machine at the gym, he plugs the card into a slot and lets it seamlessly record everything he is doing.

When he steps on the treadmill, he is automatically greeted with his name, his past performance, and his future goals. If he needs to make any adjustments, he uses the keypad. Any changes he enters into the machine along with new goals he hits or misses, are recoded unto the card and emailed to him when his workout has ended.

Even if Mike forgets his card, a temporary card can be linked to his existing account.

Any other workouts where data cannot be recoded can be added at the data stations at the gym or skipped all together.

Scenario - Patty Patty also happens to be training for the same marathon. She does not know Mike, but using the new machine and the all data her key card has been collecting, she can see that someone with the same goals is plugged in. As Mike made his profile public, Patty can track him and see how she is doing on her goals compared to his. They can also directly connect to discuss the marathon and training, if need be.

Patty has now joined a network of marathon trainers across the nation and they can all work out simultaneously while observing each others progress on their own machine's screens and sharing data afterwards.

Patty also has a bad knee, so the machines never suggest any exercise with too much knee strain. Any other new injuries or changes, Patty can adjust her info and let the gym do all the data work while she works to meet her goals. To stay motivated, she also logs into her Pandora radio account and listens to the music that she wants without having to bring any gadgets.

“Great idea! But make sure it adjusts for injuries so you do not hurt yourself while healing.”

“Lets face it, the gym isn't fun and if I am going to be in pain, at least the entertainment could be fun!”

-Wendy R., my physical therapist

-Tamik J., former Pace classmate

Wireframe Mockup

Wireframe created with Omnigraffle