UC Fit, Inc. Personal Lead
November 12, 2003 HCI 445: Final Deliverable
Personal Lead
by
UC Fit, Inc.
Marta Walkuska
Judy Chin
Nalee Anantarattana
Neha Pathak
Jessica Jackson
HCI 445: Analysis and Design of HCI
Final Deliverable
November 12, 2003
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UC Fit, Inc. Personal Lead
November 12, 2003 HCI 445: Final Deliverable
Product name: Personal Lead
Group Name: UC Fit, Inc.
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UC Fit, Inc. Personal Lead
November 12, 2003 HCI 445: Final Deliverable
Team Members and Roles
Marta Walkuska – Content Generation and Research
Judy Chin – Graphic Design
Nalee Anantarattana – Business Analysis
Neha Pathak – Project Management
Jessica Jackson – Information Architecture
System Description
Personal Lead is a software application for health clubs, and health club members, that acts as a personal training assistant. This product will be launched on the clubs’ main computers when a member swipes their membership card for entry to the club, and it will generate an exercise plan for the member. Using an individualized approach to fitness, our product provides members of all fitness levels with time-efficient, safe and highly effective exercise programs. This product generates one’s exercise plan for a daily, weekly or monthly schedule depending upon the individual member’s need.
Initial information for the system will come from an initial fitness assessment with a personal trainer. Information will potentially include:
· Daily calorie ranges
· Workout types
· Common pre-selected diet types i.e. the Zone or Atkins
· Workout goals i.e. weight maintenance, loss, gain, muscle building or toning.
The deployment of the application will be dependent upon the individual health club’s needs, such as existing equipment, space and traffic flow. Two alternatives for presenting and updating plans for the member will be:
· kiosks or computer consoles located in the gyms lowest areas of traffic. The kiosk will allow members to make changes and updates to their profiles.
· a paper printout which is given to the member at the time of entering the club. The plans will be printed at the gym reception.
Following the entry of personal data such as physical attributes, preferences, goals, etc. by the member into the computer, a suitable exercise plan will be generated and distributed to participating members.
Business case
The Market
Leading a healthy lifestyle has become of utmost importance for Americans, as can be seen by the growth of health clubs and fitness centers. The number has increased from 16,938 clubs in January 2001 to nearly 18,000 facilities by January 2002, a total of 5.1 percent.[1] And the number of health club members in the United States has climbed to a record 36.3 million people.[2]
While individuals have many reasons to become health club members, personal training is not just a “‘feature’ in clubs, but the vehicles most likely to bring new and existing members the results they seek.”3 As such, it is both a popular draw and a reason to remain a health club member.
Marketing plan
UC Fit, Inc.’s initial sales will focus on distributing Personal Lead software throughout two major health club chains in the Chicagoland area where the average number of members per club is over 300. Future plans include utilizing existing contact with chain clubs and expanding our customer base to other areas of the United States.
An experienced sales team will generate consumer awareness of Personal Lead by demonstration, free trial, and special promotion through designated health clubs. The major benefits of Personal Lead that will be emphasized for the club are increased membership and branding loyalty, increasing numbers of customers who look to club programs to help attain their goals, and increased membership retention.
Currently, 91% of health clubs offer personal training, and 89% offer fitness evaluations; these numbers are the highest of any program offered by clubs[5]. Here is where UC Fit, Inc. plans to position itself and lend our first customers an edge over the competition. Clubs who invest in Personal Lead will offer a much-desired service at a comparative steal. The initial assessment can be easily incorporated into the free fitness evaluations offered by most major clubs (see below), and the first workout plan may be free as well. Thereafter, health clubs may offer Personal Lead to members for a weekly fee of five dollars, three of which will go to UC Fit, Inc., with package discounts available to club members. This is a vastly reduced rate compared to personal training.
Our pricing strategy for clubs is low as well. It includes free Personal Lead software training for personal trainers (at least one per club), offering a one-month-free trial to clubs, and offering discounts to clubs who enroll large numbers of people or who have a high ratio of enrolled/non-enrolled members. Clubs may lease Personal Lead on a quarterly basis, with the dollars lost from the initial free trial prorated into later payments. The starting price point per club location is $1500 per quarter. Incorporated as a benefit to leasing the software will be updates that include the latest research on fitness and health trends. Even without promotional discounts, clubs will recoup their costs if 63 people are enrolled per week, and membership numbers beyond that are profitable.
Benefits for staff
Personal trainers are positioned as a secondary user of the product (see users demographics below). In the past, personal trainers may have performed a similar function to Personal Lead. Nevertheless, according to Richard Body, president of Personal Training on the Net, “reportedly the world’s largest educational resource for personal trainers,” few personal trainers are providing individualized workout plans for clients, and thus are not fulfilling their position.[5] UC Fit, Inc. sees the purpose of a trainer as more specialized than that of a workout planner. The true benefit of a personal trainer is their fulfillment of the roles of consultant, coach, and teacher.
Personal Lead can remove unnecessary overhead for the trainer, and give members exposure to personal training. In a club that implements Personal Lead, personal trainers are a complement to the system. While members may not be aware of the value personal training and are thus unwilling to put their dollars into this expensive venture, Personal Lead offers a low cost glimpse at these benefits with an eye to graduating the consumer to the more attentive level of personal training in the future. Personal Lead allows for the customer to consult and confide in a personal trainer at any point of the weight program, without completely relying on them.
Finally, Personal Lead may help reduce the cost that health clubs incur related to hiring, maintaining, and possibly educating personal trainers. The use of UC Fit, Inc. software may also offer clubs more flexibility through the reduction of overhead incurred by retaining a number of personal trainers on staff.
Competitive analysis
Strengths
· Low cost to the consumer when compared with personal trainer
· Flexible hours - a customer may utilize the product without being tied to personal training appointments
· Easily accessible for modification and update
· Tailored to the individual’s daily goals and desires
Weakness
· Does not provide motivation, a customer may stop anytime they want
Competitor Descriptions
Direct Competitor: eDiets
eDiets[6] is an online service that advertises that it is “like having a nutritionist, a psychologist, a personal trainer, and a coach rolled into one.” eDiets offers diet plans, weekly meal plans and shopping lists, around-the-clock access, invaluable advice and encouragement, optional custom workouts, and tools and tips for $5.00 a week. For those who have further concerns, they may consult a nutritionist for $90/hr, a fitness expert $50/hr, a group therapist $60/hr, a psychologist $120/hr and a psychiatrist $180/hr.
When clients sign up for Personal Lead, they meet with a live, trained professional. The assessment is more thorough, personal, and accurate. While eDiets focuses on nutrition, the program is not highly tailored. Rather, it is based upon mathematical weight calculations such body mass index, without consideration to personal lifestyle and needs. Weight loss, gain or maintenance is the main goal of the program; fitness is not as well addressed. Sculpting, building muscle, increasing muscle tone, and endurance are only some of the goals that Personal Lead caters to and that eDiets is not concerned with.
In addition, as an online service, eDiets may potentially be unable to offer customers the level of security and credibility required, as is sometimes the case with online services. There may also be an issue with the validity of information being returned to the consumer from the site. Since an individual’s information is initially inputted via an online form, there is no way to ensure that information, such as the customer goal, is within healthy or realistic limits.
Risk
Risks associated with the development and implementation of personal training software application includes cost and the motivation of the target market. Assuming that health clubs will become interested in offering Personal Lead, the consumer cost of personal training software application is low when compared with the cost of personal training per session. But the customer may have difficulties trusting the efficiency and effectiveness of this application; in other words, the consumer may be skeptical about whether the product will work for them. The club risks not making back its leasing fee, and increasing paper clutter.
Development costs include hiring sales people (highest cost, in the tens of thousands for professionals, or hundreds to thousands for amateurs), the time involved to develop the software and marketing strategy, the cost to consult and test designs with users throughout the development cycle, the price of consulting with experts on proper fitness programs to be implemented, and user testing. Ideally, UC Fit, Inc. would convince a single location of one club chain to accept our product for free, and allow us to use their site as testing ground for usability, marketing, and determining primary user acceptance. This delays the point at which income will be coming into UC Fit, Inc., however, we believe having a proven product will increase the likelihood of Personal Lead to be incorporated into other clubs and locations.
Intended User Constituents
Our user constituents will be self-motivated and looking to fulfill specific training goals. They may have general or specific knowledge of particular diet plans. Some will have familiarity with exercise equipment, although this is not necessary. Furthermore, our users will be looking to spend anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours in the gym and would like to have an exercise program tailored to their needs. The user is looking for a simple way to obtain this tailored exercise program without the expense of a personal trainer.
Primary Users
The primary users of Personal Lead are club members who pay a monthly fee to use the product at the gym.
Assumptions about primary users:
· Male or female: Gym membership has been shown to be 53%/47% female/male, and both of these groups are targeted5.
· Between the ages of 18-34: This market tends to have less disposable income and time
· Novice to Advanced Beginners for equipment usage and fitness routines
· Highly motivated: Users are able to sustain motivation with progress towards goals without constant encouragement
· High frequency of use (daily)
· Comfortable using computers and IT
Assumptions about primary users’ characteristics
UC Fit, Inc. has identified 4 main user groups that are wanting to:
· Lose weight
· Improve strength
· Improve muscle tone
· Increase endurance
Users from these groups tend to have the following characteristics:
Lose Weight
· Sedentary lifestyle
· Need help setting up a routine
· Unwilling to devote much time to exercise
· Low tolerance for difficult tasks or exercises, but willing to try for limited amounts of time
· Need help setting measurable goals
· Needs to spend time on cardiovascular activities and lifting weights
· Interested in but have trouble sticking to trendy diet plans
Improve Strength
· Tend to be used to physical activity
· Willing to learn new machines and exercises
· Considers themselves knowledgeable
· More experienced with equipment
· Unwilling to devote much time to learning software
· Spends a fair amount of time and is more interested in lifting weights than cardio
Improve Muscle Tone
· May have been an athlete at one time, but whose lifestyle has become more sedentary
· Understand routine and willing to follow one
· Willing to spend time learning software
· Willing to learn new machines and exercises
· More experienced with equipment
· May be interested in newer diet plans
Increase Endurance
· Tend to enjoy cardiovascular activities
· May be training for amateur sports events
· Highly motivated and used to routine
· Unwilling to devote much time to weights or new machines.
· Willing to follow a lead and change routines on familiar equipment
· Engages the use of time-honored fitness plans over fad diets
Secondary Users
There are 2 secondary user groups: UC Fit, Inc. training staff and personal trainers.
Assumptions about Secondary Users Characteristics:
UC, Fit, Inc. Training staff:
· Advanced user of Personal Lead
· Highly experienced with software in general
· Have acquired a bit of domain knowledge about fitness, but not nearly as knowledgeable as personal trainers
· Interested in training and database management
Personal Trainers
· May not be entirely comfortable with computers
· Schooled knowledge of the fitness field
· Willing to learn about new routines and tasks if they see the benefit to themselves and their clients
· Trust in their own ability to advice clients
· Interested in earning more income by simplifying their job and taking on more clients
· Enjoy the personal interaction of coaching
Intended Tasks
The system will allow users to perform the following intended tasks:
· Allow users to update their personal profile
· Allow users to update their goals of achievement
· Allow users to control the progress by expediting or slowing the plan per set goal