DYNAMOVE: Reintroduce yourself to Fitness

Reintroduce yourself to fitness - now as a holistic and personalized experience of body, mind, and cultural explorations, as a community. Made possible by curiosity and empathetic design.

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Inspiration

The intent of the Global Design Challenge- increasing participation in sport and physical activity- is one that is shared by a legendary icon from a small town in South India. Meenakshi Amma is a 76-year-old practitioner of Kalaripayattu, a traditional martial art form from Kerala. In addition to demanding physical activity and complex body movements, this art form also entails medicinal practices and body-mind alignment. Meenakshi Amma, along with her family, set up Kalari centres in the state, and made them accessible by opening them to people from all sections of society though the art form was historically practiced only by the “elite” few. Meenakshi Amma’s story inspired us to delve into the lesser known cultural artforms from across the world that are intrinsically holistic. We were left with the dilemma of how best to then present these precious practices. It was then that we drew inspiration from Google Arts & Culture. While the platform does a fantastic job of curating and showcasing eclectic options, we found it to be limited in stimulating conversation and discourse, and representing grassroots diversity. Using our inspirations as a jump-off point, we designed Dynamove.

What it does

Dynamove – Reintroduce yourself to fitness, is an app that truly cares for its users and their fitness. It gives people who want to start getting fit, folks who have tried getting it and then lost interest, and fitness buffs who have just lost their motivation, another way to approach health. It starts by asking users to identity their wants, or their goals. It uses this input to recommend cultural art forms from across the world that align with their goals and with peers who want the same things they do. It makes sure that all users, in their explorations, are part of a community that supports each other and reflects on their journey together. Moreover, it helps the community stay on their individual paths by enabling them to understand the why’s and how’s of their fitness and goals. It put the user at the focal point of its design.

How we built it

To create a solution for increasing participation in sport and physical activity, we first had to gain an understanding of fitness and health. We began by reading ethnographic research papers on these subjects. We then began one-on-one interviews with participants with varying degrees of physical activity and fitness inclination. We collated perceptions and myths regarding fitness and exercise, as well as identified the incognizance of mental and emotional fitness as a key focus area. We employed tools such as affinity mapping, empathy mapping, as-is scenario mapping, and value proposition matrix to synthesise our findings. It was at this stage that we decided that our solution shall be an app, in accordance with our insights. We then conducted competitor analysis and started collaborating with various stakeholders who were both on the side of service receivers as well as providers. We designed out app with the pertinent design principles: smart and personalised service, simple UI and instinctual navigation, platform agnostic, unified and efficient system, and constant collaboration for continuous improvement.

Challenges we ran into

The entire exercise of identifying an area of improvement and designing the relevant solution has been an incredible experience, but not one without its own challenges. While we feel strongly about including art forms from across the world, it has been difficult to connect with subject matter experts in the specific cultures. Although we’re still largely in the brainstorming phase, we’re aware of the trials of API testing. We will need to make sure that the technology is accurate in its suggestions and tracking. While defining the scope of this project, we have identified that partnerships with organizations like UNESCO would provide us with the infrastructure to extend globally. However, making preliminary contact and then setting up a sustained collaboration is quite an undertaking.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This project, especially the designed solution, has been a joy to create. It gave us the opportunity to inform ourselves on fitness and health. We’re especially proud to have been part of the effort to redefine fitness to include wellness and emotional fitness as well. Our idea of focusing on art forms like Kalari, Jiujitsu, Capoeira, Tai Chi, etc. has enable value creation for both service providers and receivers. Additionally, both groups are our primary stakeholders, and the absence of any hierarchy holds great potential for systemic efficiency. We’re also thrilled that all our interviewees, especially our target users i.e., those with low motivation, reacted positively during the usability testing.

What we learned

With Dynamove, we were able to draw attention to various art forms from diverse cultures. They are part of a legacy that has undergone so many changes with development and globalization. We have learnt to be sensitive to the cultures that we are appreciating with our work, and we are also mindful of the significance of cultural wealth. This same development has rapidly altered our lifestyle in ways that we are still trying to fully comprehend. There is much wisdom and gains we can accrue by reconnecting with our roots. This project has also allowed us to collaborate with talented people from a variety of disciplines, which has been very exciting. However, the presence of multiple stakeholders and decision-makers inevitably results in a slower design process, since every creation or edit requires everyone’s review and approval. Hence, we have learned to be more communicative and flexible in our teamwork. Converge, diverge, converge- this way of working has proved to be incredibly effective for our team.

What's next for DYNAMOVES - Reintroduce yourself to Fitness

The next step of our implementation plan would be to identify partners that share our ideals of fitness and grants that would enable us to expand. These sources would support us in our conscious fitness outreach.

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