Lilymae Prescott

Key Insights

The data was synthesised through a variety of methods, including thematic analysis, affinity mapping, persona creation, journey mapping and compelling experience mapping, deriving five key insights. Interestingly, there was a strong paradox between a desire to exercise with others for both enjoyment and accountability, whilst also being paired with a lack of desire to exercise with others out of fear of judgement and self-consciousness. These negative attitudes, however, are underpinned by entrenched perceptions of sport from childhood experiences, which then manifests itself into the idea of 'exercise as punishment' into early adulthood.
It became clear that there was an opportunity to design a service for young women with this distorted view of sport, who want to become more active and enjoy the benefits of physical activity without the fear of judgement for their lack of ability and/or fitness.

Ideation

The decision was made to diverge away from solutions that provide a direct pathway into sport, as it was clear from the research findings that sport itself is not the categorical goal for the target user. Several ideation methods were implemented to identify opportunities for innovation, such as mash-up, how might we, crazy eights, and concept mapping, so as to tackle this unique set of user needs.
A five-stage agile design process was adopted to develop the concept, utilising methods such as concept narratives, experience prototyping, wireframing and usability testing to gain feedback on progressive improvements and identify problematic areas. The complexity of the concept progressed with each design sprint, integrating strategies for behaviour change, capabilities of the technology and features to drive individual & social value.

Altrivity - Concept

Altrivity is an active volunteering service that bundles community action with exercise to enable young women to associate exercise with positive outcomes. By signing up for one of the 12-week programmes, participants can engage in a variety of team-based activities which are geared towards helping the local community whilst also getting their heart rate up. Users can work towards badges and medals which are contingent on effort and consistency, as opposed to the comparative aspects relating to ability and fitness that sports and similar activities are so reliant upon.
The app elevates positive affordances and personalised support to help drive motivation in the short term, whilst also utilising self-reflection practices and goal setting to assert positive associations to physical activity and enable sustainable, intrinsically-driven engagement in the long term.
Reframing the narrative to promote exercise as a way of helping others as well as the individual harnesses the aspects of accountability and extrinsic motivation that is longed for by the target user, whilst also reducing fear of judgement by using consistency and community value as the measure of success.

Altrivity - Key Features

Altrivity programmes are complemented by a mobile app, utilising machine learning and gamification to elevate the holistic user experience in the short and long term.
AI capabilities allow the user to receive curated activity suggestions based on their goals, lifestyle and external factors (such as the weather) and also elicits the characteristics of Ali (the Altrivity coach) through portraying a genial, yet motivating personality. Users fill out a log before and after an activity to teach the AI which aspects of that particular activity they enjoyed. In turn, this information allows Ali to be more personable when communicating insights and helps to tailor suggestions for future activities.
Further, the ability for users to earn digital badges and physical medals makes progress and achievement tangible and measurable, acting not only as a form of motivation but also as a way to track engagement and patterns of behaviour, feeding back into the AI functionalities of the app to improve the user experience.