MY TIMELINE
• SECONDARY RESEARCH
• CO-DESIGN WORKSHOP
- AFFINITY DIAGRAM
- BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY
• SERVICE BLUEPRINT
• JOURNEY MAP

The "Future of the Gym" will create a whole immersive experience. The immersive workouts will be conducted through sensors, mobile applications, tablets, and AI. The goal is to enhance the existing equipment with a minimal learning curve for the exerciser. Millions of users are comfortable with the current setting; therefore, the challenge is to add a seamless layer of immersive technology.

As an example, users are always counting their reps and sets. The users may be jotting it down on their phones or notebook or mentally counting. But what happens when you miscount the reps and set? The miscount ends up breaking up the flow of your exercise. There could be many reasons why miscount happens. With the new technology, like the sensors and AI, the equipment will eliminate the mental counting to focus on their workouts.

SECONDARY RESEARCH OVERVIEW
My research began by exploring current exercise equipment that already implemented smart technology. The research goal was to see what kinds of smart gym equipment are in the market today and see how smart equipment shapes the workout experience.  

There has been a rise in technology-driven business diving into the home and fitness sectors. There are many smart gym equipments in the market for home gyms, such as Peloton, Mirror, NordicTrack, etc. “These products utilize apps, touchscreen displays, live and on-demand classes, and remote personal training to help you work out at home with all of the guidance you could ever want” (Wollerton & Mitroff, 2020). So far, the trend of immersive workouts is limited to in-home equipment or boutique franchise, like Orangetheory. These equipment focuses on specific aspects of working out; for example, Peloton is mainly known for cardio and omits strength training. These niche products don’t replicate the traditional fitness club experience, where you can find various equipments.

Here are a few companies that are reshaping the workout experience:

MIRROR is a “nearly invisible interactive home gym. You can enjoy cardio, strength, yoga, boxing, pilates, barre, and more in your own home. It has real-time optimization, to get maximum results with minimal time. It has an embedded camera and speaker so that a certified trainer can provide motivation and live feedback (MIRROR).

CO-DESIGN WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
I created a Co-Design workshop that included two activities. The co-design goal is to observe the participants within the two activities, Affinity Diagram and Brainstorming. I recruited three active gym users to participant in the co-design session. The three participants are members of the Purdue University CoRec and workout 3-4 times a week. The activities gave insights on pain points, "solutions" and innovation that helped create the final outcome. The theme given to the three participates for both of the activities was Envisioning Future of the Gym.

AFFINITY DIAGRAM
The affinity diagram activity allowed the participants to brainstorm everything a user could think of doing or wanting in the theme given. At the end of the exercise, eight themes emerged. I will go into details on the top four themes that the participants ideated most on.

Safety In Equipment: Users want to practice exercise safely, whether it means to take it slowly or find another buddy to help spot you. The participants mentioned their concerns about the idea of having safety implemented in the equipment. One of the participants suggested having an injury tracker during an exercise to stop themselves before hurting themselves further.

Different Ways To Track: This means tracking the progression of a workout without using many apps, notebooks, or mentally counting for varied workouts. The participants mentioned their concerns about a tracker that keeps a log of your stats so that next time you go into the gym, it tells you about the weight you should do.

Personal Experiences: Users want to have a customized experience unique to them and their needs. One of the participants expressed concern around the idea that there are many resources; researching takes a lot of time and effort. 

External Tracking: Users understand that other factors exist outside of working out to maintain a healthy lifestyle. One of the participants showed concern about being calorie counting being shown while doing strength training. 

Other themes:
AI/AR/VR 
Connecting With Communities
Hygiene/Self-Care
Nice Things To Have

BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY
The brainstorming activity involved a given scenario to two actors who would develop a situation to act out. There are three roles; two actors and one observer. The observer's job was to take notes of interesting things that happen during the acting. The inspiration for the Virtual Assistance Scenario came from the Mirror fitness system. Since the Mirror is an on-demand workout done in the comfort of your home with a virtual assistant, my goal was to see how the virtual assistant affects the exerciser's ability to work out if someone is constantly speaking to the exerciser about suggestions in a public setting.

Observation Notes:
• Exerciser spoke to the virtual assistant when asked how they were feeling
• Exerciser seemed annoyed at tone of the virtual assistances
• Exerciser became confused at times when too many instructions were given
•  Exerciser was responsive to encouragements to fix form
• Exerciser wants to prove that they could do what the virtual assistants asked them
• Exerciser accepted all of the prompts to try harder and the tips that were given to them

SERVICE DESIGN OVERVIEW
The concept of the blueprint, below, visualizes the relationship between the different touch points throughout the service. The arrows indicate the dependencies of the touch points with the actions. The blueprint's goal is to capture the entire gym experience from the exerciser's point of view. The service design had five actions: physical evidence, customer action, onstage contact actions, backstage contact action, and support process.

Let's use Jake’s journey map to step through a few of their touchpoints to see how the added layer of immersive technology is utilized. Let's expand on the bench press exercise from the image below to understand the experience better. 

First, you will notice that the bench press is equipped with sensors, indicated with blue dots, that record the weight, reps, and exercise sets. The bench seat sensors will calculate User A's balance and convert the data to haptic feedback to inform them about poor form/technique. 

Second, the data is getting collected from their workout. This will translate into a visual that the exerciser will view in real-time at the equipment. The visual is composed of calories burned, personal records, reps and sets, equipment weight, visual graphics, adjustment for future workouts, etc. 

Lastly, User A will have a comprehensive workout history on their mobile application to view at any time. The application will include all the data collected from their workout. 

As you can see, this allows User A to be engaged and present for their exercise. From these technological changes, User A now has a history of reviewing their progress and coaching support. 

The digital screens will be in the form of a tablet placed on each equipment. When the exerciser arrives at the equipment, they are greeted and asked for a face scan. This will reduce the interaction of mobile applications in the fitness club. Next, the exerciser is presented with their WOD (work out of the day). Then they will see a breakdown of each workout with reps, sets, weights, and goals. This omits the exerciser from guessing how many reps, sets, and weight they need to do for the workout. While they are working out, real-time data is shown on the screen. For example, a countdown for their reps will be presented so that the exerciser does not have to do mental counting. They will also be shown an image of their workout so that the exerciser can their improve form if necessary. Lastly, they will see a completion page with a quick overview of their workout and directed to their next exercise.