Missing link
Turning hours of invisible expertise into an adaptive system instructors can trust
How might we turn the invisible expertise behind 2.5 hours of session planning and class planning, into an intelligent system that instructors can trust, adapt and personalize while reducing administrative coordination time?
This study is live. Findings, artifacts and design explorations are shared as the work happens. The final write-up will be complete in October.
Overview & Discovery
Pilates instructors and Personal Trainers carry a curriculum in their heads. The sequencing, client history, equipment feasibility, safety-risk evaluation and studio culture, are all influential decision points in a single session. Trust and safety are important elements of their craft as well. A 50-60 minute session with a Pilates Instructor or Personal Trainer may feel effortless, despite the several coordination hats, hours of study, contraindications and planning. Most of which is time a client never sees--invisible work. This study highlights that invisible expertise and tests whether an adaptive planning tool, currently known as a "Movement Planning Portal", can reduce administrative planning time.
200+ hrs
Field Studies - Pilates Instructors
10
User Interviews for Concept Testing
75%
Planning time reduction targeted
50+ hrs
Field Studies - Personal Trainers
Problem Space
Based on a combination of contextual inquiries and site-visits, discovery derived from 250+ hours of ethnographic observations over the course of 6 months (approx. 10hrs a week) revealed:
4–30 hrs
of client sessions or classes a week
2–8
Studios that instructors travel to in a week
50 min
Avg. client session or group class length
- Remaining 10+ hours within a full work week is split between content creation, administrative organization (if a system is created), coordinating wellness pop-up events and class planning.
- For new instructors, many class or session plans are spread across phone notes, written in paper notebooks or improvised on the spot based off memory.
- Most plans and sessions aren't effectively stored, logged or categorized in a way that supports reuse, variations, or review for insights.
Callouts and Assumptions
Any auto-generated planning outputs, requires subject matter expertise because typos can become client-safety issues.
Fitness Service Providers (FSP) refers to Pilates Instructors, Personal Trainers and Yoga Practitioners collectively.
There is a shared administrative problem space between FSPs; the foundation of a single concept can be an administrative breakthrough for each of them.
Objective
Ideation in the problem space has led to a Movement Planning Portal (MPP) for concept testing. The goal is to reduce administrative planning time and improve disorganization.
- Explore how Pilates Instructors and Personal Trainers adopt and adapt a digital workflow into an otherwise improvised or manual paper notes-based habit.
Desired Insights & Emerging Learnings:
- How a digital planning tool could effectively be integrated into a Pilates instructor's workflow routine.
- Which features of a high-fidelity prototype for a Movement Planning Portal (MPP) are a design match.
- Which features from the MPP need further development for Pilates Instructors.
- Directional signals and validation whether a MPP concept could be tailored to add value for Personal Trainers.
Follow Along
Updates from this study are posted as they happen.
What's Next?
To Be Confirmed.