TOUGH MUDDER

PROJECT SUMMARY

As part of a team in a two week design sprint, we were tasked with creating an app that encourages repeat participation and fosters team building and camaraderie for Tough Mudder.

MY ROLE

Competitive Analysis  |  User Research  |  Ideation  |  Sketching  |  Storyboards  |  Style Guide  |  Presentation

THE CHALLENGE

Many have heard of Tough Mudder, and some have participated...once.

Our challenge for this class project at General Assembly was to devise an app that would motivate users to return to Tough Mudder for a second try of running through fire, and swimming in ice-water.

...AND ANOTHER CHALLENGE, OUR USER FINDINGS

Of the six users we interviewed, all had either experienced Tough Mudder, or a similar obstacle course.

The key findings did not entirely comply with what we had initially envisioned as a social app with a competitive edge...because:

• They did not like to train as a group, they preferred to train individually
• They did not want to compete against each other; it is not part of the Tough Mudder ethos 

However, these observations:

• They wanted more information on the obstacles and how to train for them
• The sense that some social aspect of an app would increase team bonding

...gave us the direction we needed.

We created an app that would allow users to train for particular course obstacles, on their own, with the ability to share their progress with their team.

COMPETITIVE RESEACH

We looked at several workout apps to study what they provide for the user, their strengths, and weaknesses.

KEY FEATURES:

• Ability to track progress
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Offer ease of use
• Specialized workouts
• Sharing
• Use of video

USER PERSONA

PROBLEM STATEMENT

"As a one time Tough Mudder veteran, I need an easy way to build my team and to help us to train appropriately, so that we can crush the course."

SOLUTION STATEMENT

"The Tough Mudder CRUSH IT! app easily allows you to build a team, train for obstacles with your teammates,and share your results."

STORYBOARDS

IDEATION

The main design concepts that came to light during the ideation process were:

• The use of videos as a training guide
• Workouts based on obstacles
• A visual representation of the user's chosen event course

The two flows we focused on were: 

• Creating a team from the team-leader's perspective
• Having a user choose a workout from the event course circuit

USER TESTING

We conducted two rounds of testing with seven users in total.

WIREFRAME ITERATIONS

TEAM BUILDING FLOW

Significant changes:

• We removed the "people you may know" autofill field; users found it unnecessary
• An optional "add a photo field" was removed; the users felt it complicated the process

WORKOUT FLOW

Significant changes:

• Event circuit workouts were locked until all team members completed it; users felt this was punitive
• Enabled full access to all workouts
• Added icons of which team members have already completed a workout
• Added a welcome message and event details to introduce the course

NEXT STEPS

As we consider this prototype, created in a two week sprint, to be an MVP, we see the following steps as the next logical progression in its development:

• Event registration fee payment through the app
• Developing the app from the perspective of a user invited to join a team
• Further research of the Tough Mudder business model
• Developing a statistics screen
• The inclusion of dynamic interactions
• A link to the Tough Mudder Store

SUMMARY

Our users, who were past participants in Tough Mudder and other obstacle course events, indicated their drive to participate, but didn't want to train with others.

Our solution was to build an app that would allow them to do the exercises whenever they wanted, but also support fellow team members with messages and other media.

To fully tackle the stakeholders needs, a better understanding of their business model would be useful. A much larger research pool would be required to determine if our research is true of most Tough Mudder participants, but for our particular group, the app was developed according to their needs.