BLAINE BARKEY
graphic design
CASE STUDY
Hexis Performance
UX Academy | 8-week beginner UX Design course
The Hexis Performance app is a mobile nutrition application that helps athletes of all levels and backgrounds enhance their performance, recovery, and body composition. Hexis customizes a nutrition plan based on daily carbohydrate consumption through the input of the athlete’s lifestyle, workout schedule, and fitness goals.
In the first week of our class, I was placed on 'Team Hexis' with three of my classmates. We were tasked with helping the Hexis Performance app improve the way in which users onboarded, added workouts, viewed recipes, and understood the Carb Coding system. We were spread across the globe and worked together remotely using Miro, Zoom, and Figma to brainstorm, interview, ideate and test throughout the course.
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Due to the compressed schedule of the class, we were only able to focus on the onboarding and workout input procedures. However, we were able to suggest ways in which the Carb Coding system could be easier to understand but didn’t have the time to test our ideas. With more time, I’m sure we could have developed a clearer and more efficient layout for the recipe pages as well.
Through our initial user interviews, we verified the clients’ original problem statement that the onboarding process was cumbersome and left the user feeling overwhelmed. We also discovered that it felt very cold and impersonal to many of our users. We were also able to ascertain that creating a workout schedule was very tedious and time-consuming. Some users also suggested that the red in the Carb Coding color scheme meant ‘stop’ or ‘avoid.’
With these issues in mind, we created empathy and journey maps for the users and generated “How might we…?” questions focused on our research findings. We then began sketching ideas and sharing our thoughts on various approaches to solving these problems.
We decided to spread out both the onboarding tasks and the workout questions into separate screens to make the information more digestible and help give the user a sense of control of the information they were submitting to the app. We also tried to make the questions more friendly and conversational to help with the overall tone of the experience. Finally, we attempted to address the Carb Coding issue by introducing a different color palette that didn’t suggest traffic lights.
We were then introduced to Figma and began creating a basic working prototype based on our sketches.
Although barely more than a wireframe needing much more UI design, our usability tests with this prototype indicated that users generally liked the more personalized tone of the onboarding process and navigating through the questions was relatively easy. Completing tasks was also relatively pain free when asked to input and add workouts to the schedule.
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There was still some confusion surrounding the Carb Coding system, and the color scheme we proposed didn't seem to solve the problem. More iteration and testing are needed to help define a solution for this issue. We also discovered there was a need for clarification of the term ‘key performance workout,’ which was one of the options users encountered when inputting a workout.
As our course came to a finale, we presented our findings to the client. Despite not solving all of the pain points with the app, they were pleased with our results and suggestions for next steps. It gave them plenty of food for thought as they move forward in the development of the app.
In our brief time together, Team Hexis learned a lot about the entire UX design process, which we hope to use as a starting point for a career in UX design or to enhance our existing careers. We were successful in discovering issues and testing solutions, and given more time, I feel we could have delivered even more creative and effective results for the Hexis Performance user experience.
