Runn creates virtual opportunities for enthusiasts to come together, connect, and motivate one another through running.
Team
Academic project
(4 students)
My Role
Product Designer
(Watch App Design)
Timeline
Oct ~ Dec, 2022
Overview
Runn is an app that creates virtual opportunities for enthusiasts to come together, connect, and motivate one another through running. The app runs on mobiles and smartwatches and functions differently on each device. Therefore, users have to have both devices in order to interact and communicate with others while running.
Context
Background
The majority of people in their 20s and 30s run outdoors to stay healthy. However, doing it regularly doing it regularly without any form of interaction or encouragement can sometimes feel repetitive and boring, which could reduce the enjoyment of exercise and disturb staying consistent.
Problem Space
Many runners often face difficulties finding companions in their neighborhood due to differences in pace, schedule, or location. Without social support or shared goals, runners may lose motivation and struggle to stay committed to their fitness routines.
The Solution
To address these issues, we designed a runner-friendly app that enables users to join virtual running crews. By combining real-time tracking with light social interaction, the app helps users stay motivated, feel engaged, and achieve their goals—no matter where they are.
Key Design Features
1. JOIN EVENTS VIA MOBILE
Browse and join virtual running events
Users can register virtual running events via the mobile app. They can browse and get to know what events that they are interested in.
2. RUN VIRTUALLY VIA WATCH
Let’s start the virtual running event!
Users can register virtual running events via the mobile app. They can browse and get to know what events that they are interested in.
3. LIVE TRACK & PERSONAL STATUS
Get motivated by other runners or keep your pace
Runn also offers an alternative way to view others’ statuses through the Live Track page, which displays the four users closest to the runner's current rank in real-time. Users can also monitor their own metrics—such as heart rate, distance, and more—on the Personal Status page.
4. EXPRESS FEELINGS
Send emojis to express how you feel
Apart from interactive gestures, users can also select and send emojis to the group. The emojis are to express their feelings more instantly.
5. DO GESTURES
Interact with others with gestures
Runn allows users to send virtual fist bumps or high-fives to their group to celebrate running achievements. When a gesture is sent, the group is notified and can respond with the same gesture.
Send fist bump or high-five gestures to celebrate achievements!
Respond to mates by making
the same gesture!
7. AFTER RUNNING
See how you and your group did after the event
After the running event ends, the summary of the event can be checked in the Runn Mobile app. Running achievements, group ranking, the number of interactions the group made, and details of personal running status can be found here.
So, How We Got to This Solution?
We started off with this question...
How might we create a socially engaging running experience?
Define
To narrow down the scope, we conducted a series of research studies. Through them, we learned about the factors that influence group running activities, the reasons people choose to run in groups, and the interactions or feelings they experience while running with others.
Survey
30 responses
Interview
10 target users
Observation
2 group running events
FINDING 01
People like running with others mostly because of motivation and support for each other.
FINDING 02
Differences in running styles and paces are among the main challenges that prevent people from running with others.
FINDING 03
Difficulty in coordinating time and schedule with people is one of the pain points.
FINDING 04
Group runners occasionally engage in light conversation with their running mates, but tend to avoid using phones or other devices during runs, as they feel it disrupts their focus and flow.
Who Are Users?
We defined our users as:
Runners who wish to find fellows to achieve their running goals more easily
“I want to find fellow runners,
who have a similar pace and goal”
Ethan (27)
Office worker
Others who want to make friends with the same hobby and are more likely to discover the socialization potential of our service to interact with new people
“I want to run with a group to make new friends!”
Jessica (18)
College student
So then, how might we create a virtual experience without distracting runners during the run?
Strategy
Based on l what we found from potential users, we’ve set these design principles.
Connecting Runners
Provide virtual group running environments with no limitations on location, pace, and distance
Motivation
Provide group runners’ running status for motivation
Fun Interaction
Support communication between users while running together
Building the foundation...
The overall flow of the Runn is divided into three parts: before, during, and after virtual running. Runn Mobile will be used before and after running and Runn Watch will be used during running. Based on these flows, we created a more detailed user flow to clearly map out the overall experience of using Runn.
Concept & Usability Testing
Using the low-fidelity prototype, we ran testing with five participants aged 23~30. We wanted to test out if this concept would be welcomed by potential runners.
KEY ITERATION 01
Break room feature is confusing
All participants won’t search for breakout rooms while running and do not want to figure out each breakout room because they were cofused and disturbed by this feature while running. We decided to eliminate this feature as all participants didn’t need breakout rooms at all as conversations in running are usually low-stacked and casual.
KEY ITERATION 02
Would like to customize the order of 3 home screens
We adjusted the order of home screens (running list, live track, and personal status) placement. Instead of making two swipes to get to screen 3 from the Landing page, users can make only one swipe (either to the left or to right) to access other two screens from the Landing page.
KEY ITERATION 03
Didn’t know when to initiate gestures
Most participants were not sure when to use or send gestures to others. In order to improve their participation, we added a new flow which users will encounter running achievement pop-up screen (i.e. You ran 10K! You ran ahead of Josh!) with a button, which suggests them to send gestures to celebrate together.
Reflections
It was a great journey as a team project to work on Runn! With the evidence of the average SUS score of 71, I believe we’ve made this project successful. However, there were some challenges that I would like to revisit for future improvement.
Remember targeted users
We thought our design hypothesis would work. However, when the usability testing showed that it didn’t work out for the potential users, I learned that testing was an important step in the design process to validate the concept/idea and better to do it as soon as possible. It reminded me again that we are creating for users, so testing and getting feedback is really crucial to meet their needs.
Keep the interaction minimal
During the design process, we learned that runners’ primary goal of running with others was still their own running activity. Thus, it was essential to try to minimize the direct interaction between users and the watch device as much as possible in order for them to not feel disturbed when they run. However, we still needed to make them ‘feel’ running with others through communicative interaction. We brainstormed and thought of implementing hand gestures, which watch could sensor particular movements. We also minimized the number of swiping and scrolling screens.
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