Missing Piece

Turning invisible expertise into an adaptive system instructors can trust

Field Studies | User Interviews | Concept TestingWellness studios

How might we turn 2.5 hours of class planning into a system instructors can trust and adopt to reduce administrative time?

Summary

Actionable next steps became a second concept design and a clear callout for more research around information density relative to each industry.

Knowing where to expand and when to consolidate information is influenced by additional variables beyond the identified decision points within a class. Some instructors have creative control over how they build a class, the organization of the information needs to match how they already think and so does the content.
There are challenges to adopt a generalized class planning system. Adoption challenges could be influenced by unstandardized curriculums and unregulated implementation standards.
Personalization and customization are the top product design priorities. Personalization and customization are heavily influenced by the instructors' or trainers' learning style, as well as who and where they learned their curriculum from.
A generalized-planning system did not appear to be the optimal solution. There's opportunity for instructors and trainers to invest in a consultant (product designer) to help them create their own tool. Some instructors and trainers mentioned subscription-fatigue and their avoidance.
New Hypothesis: Designing individualized planning systems based on each instructor's and trainer's mental model can result in higher adoption than a generalized system and a new learning curve.

What Changed?

Movement Planning Portal version 1 concept: Class Library view with folders, sequence details and movement table — **Version 1** for concept testing, more information upfront with less clicks per flow.

Movement Planning Portal version 2 concept: library cards with a selected class panel and movement preview — **Version 2** after concept testing, less information upfront with more clicks per flow.

Movement Planning Portal version 1 home: Your week with day tiles plus Review a saved sequence and Create a new sequence — Some instructors and trainers prefer to access their sequences vertically like a task list for completion. Some instructors and trainers prefer to access their sequences horizontally like days of the week in a calendar to compare sessions.

Movement Planning Portal version 2 mid-fi wireframes: home calendar week view

Movement Planning Portal version 2 teaching calendar week view

Movement library before: planning selections in the top bar and movement names without thumbnails — Some instructors and trainers want visual aids in the form of pictures or thumbnails from movement videos to help them recall a move. They want the visual aid to be near the movement name in the movement library. Pilates instructors also want their “user profile” for planning context as a more prominent first step, so the planning context was moved from the top menu bar to a left sidebar.

Movement library after: planning context in a left sidebar and movement thumbnails alongside names — Some instructors and trainers want visual aids in the form of pictures or thumbnails from movement videos to help them recall a move. They want the visual aid to be near the movement name in the movement library. Pilates instructors also want their “user profile” for planning context as a more prominent first step, so the planning context was moved from the top menu bar to a left sidebar.

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 and they wear many coordination hats including hours of study, contraindications and planning. This is time a client doesn't see during their 50-50 minute session, but the trust is established through the 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

User Interviews & Concept Tests

75%

Planning time reduction targeted

50+ hrs

Field Studies - Personal Trainers

Problem Space

Based on contextual inquiries and site-visits, 250+ hours of ethnographic observations over the course of 8 months (approx. 7 hrs 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

Class plans or session plans are spread across phone notes, saved videos, written in paper notebooks or improvised.
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

Auto-generated planning, requires subject matter expertise to maintain client-safety and client personalization.

Fitness Service Providers (FSP) refers to Pilates Instructors and Personal Trainers collectively.

There is a shared administrative problem space between FSPs and the foundation of a concept can be a breakthrough for both.

Objective

Explore how Pilates Instructors and Personal Trainers engage and adopt a digital workflow into an otherwise improvised or manual paper notes-based habit.

Ideation in this problem space led to a Movement Planning Portal (MPP) for concept testing. The goal is to reduce the time it takes to plan a class or client session and improve disorganization.

Research Plan

Desired Insights:

How a digital planning tool could effectively be integrated into an instructor's workflow routine
Which features are a design match and which features need further development
Directional signals and validation whether the concept can be tailored to add value for Personal Trainers

What's Next?

New Hypothesis: Designing individualized planning systems based on each instructors' mental model can result in higher adoption than a generalized system and a new learning curve.

All Cases