“Being able to find safe places to run, and a running buddy, would make me feel safer.”
The Challenge
Design a Running Companion App that empowers women to run alone, with the app as a ‘safety-buddy’, or find a buddy to run with based on running preferences, location, and availability.
Women who like to run outdoors find it difficult to run with their schedules, before or after work, and feel safe.
The solution is to run with Stride.
My Role: UX/UI, Interaction, & Visual Designer
Timeframe: 1 week sprint
Project Type: iOS app (on-spec)
Tools: Sketch, InVision, Photoshop
research
Process
As mentioned, the Stride app came about from ‘interviews’ conducted while on dates and identifying a pain point that most women who run will encounter.
“I don’t feel safe running alone at night.”
“I want someone to push me.”
“I don’t want to talk with someone, but want a friend to run with.”
My research process was casual and informal as far as the interview process i.e. only mental notes were taken in-situ. However, I performed a competitor analysis of the app market and a heuristic evaluation of Dashr, an app for finding running buddies.
Insights
Women want to feel safe when running
Women and safety in general with wearables is a growing market
There are apps for finding running buddies, but not safety-focused
Dashr App - Heuristic Evaluation (clickable)
“the create a run feature is creepy and scarier than running alone.”
“I downloaded the app but couldn’t find many runners of interest and didn’t get much activity.”
Design
Ideation
Using the user research, competitor analysis, and dating apps like Bumble and Hinge as inspiration, I jumped into hi-fi mockups in Sketch. After designing the Stride App, I uploaded it into InVision for a clickable prototype and performed usability tests.
InVision Prototype (clickable)
Iteration
After user-testing the clickable prototype and getting feedback, I realized there were many opportunities to be developed further.
opportunities
After testing the clickable prototype with users, I quickly realized this app is not just for runners. Many wanted to be able to use it for hiking, cycling, mountain biking, really anything where safety is of concern.
Many of the test users requested larger text. With additional iterations, I would adjust the design to enhance accessibility.