Leading up to this we’d done a whole term of user research and concept development, from which my personal outcome was a series of ‘gentle coach’ ideas.

We completed validation survey on concepts then combined key elements from best performing concepts.

The result was a chest mounted laser projector which shows the runner a moving ‘target’ line against which they could adjust their pace. This formed the physical input/output device for an app, a series of health and exercise programs and a community.

My own experience of Couch-to-5k made me feel patronised and demoralised, as the user experience was either cold and medical, over competitive, or somehow about spirituality.

There are plenty of systems that work with natural human competetiveness but uncoached or inexperienced runners are often driven by other needs. Though time-based data was available, I felt strongly that the experience should be positive for users with other motivations. The key consideration was finding a happy medium between numerical and ‘vibes based’ feed back.

From this point forward my key contribution was designing the app and packaging to lean into this human aspect of the product. Making it feel accessible to new runners, and providing options as to how users engage with and receive feedback on their running.