Project: Add a Sharing Feature
Role: UX Designer | UX Researcher
Time: 75 hours
Garmin Connect is an essential tool for athletes who have a Garmin device for tracking and analyzing workouts and activities. It enables users to create workouts, map out a cycling or running course, and communicate information between a device and a phone. Currently users can only share routes with other Garmin users. They are sent as links to the route and will appear in the web version or the app, depending on what device the recipient is using to open the link. This is frustrating to users who may want to send their route to a friend who doesn’t use Garmin products and/or to loved ones for safety. This is a missed opportunity for Garmin to market to non-users.
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Discover
Garmin Connect is an essential tool for athletes who have a Garmin device for tracking and analyzing workouts and activities. It also enables users to create workouts, map out a cycling or running course, and communicate information between a device and a phone. It also syncs with other apps like Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, and Strava.
I have a Garmin watch that I use to track my runs and other activities, which Connect then syncs with my Strava account (so all my friends can see). There are limited social opportunities via Connect, and most athletes will post and like each other’s activities on Strava. I have also used Connect to design custom running routes, when I was training for a marathon. I could then send that route to my Garmin watch, which would give me turn by turn instructions, so I always felt secure knowing where I was going.
I wondered how other people were using the Garmin app, in particular the course creation and sharing features of the app. I went onto a Facebook group for Garmin users and recruited five participants for user interviews that I did not know personally. All were:
Athletes of varying intensity
A focus on running,
Already Garmin Connect users
4 Females / 1 Male
Ages: 29, 39, 42, 46, & 57
Research Goal: To understand the needs of users who use the Garmin Connect app in conjunction with physical activities such as running and cycling, in particular the course mapping feature.
Objectives:
We need to identify how people are using the Garmin Connect app course mapping feature.
We need to understand why people are using the course mapping feature.
We need to understand the elements people need to help them enjoy using the app.
We need to identify the top desires of users using the course mapping feature of the Garmin Connect app.
What is the potential start and end of the user journey in course mapping.
Users overwhelming stated that they desired Garmin Connect to be more like Strava in ease of use and social connections. Anyone, regardless of device used, can be on Strava. Strava’s stats and trends tracking is, however, a premium feature, so Garmin has a strong market share for athletes who want that, but it’s limited to people who have a Garmin device.
Analyze
Affinity mapping trends
Tracking - Primary use of the app is for tracking stats & trends
Customization - Create maps to stay close to home or feel safe in an unknown area when traveling
Map Sharing - Desire the ability to share a course created as a PDF, image, or GPX document that will communicate directly to the other person’s Garmin device.
Social Capability - Want to be able to better see friend’s activity and give feedback.
“If Garmin was more social like Strava, I could go and grab someone else’s route and synch it right to the Garmin right there”
Problem
After analyzing the key findings and affinity mapping trends, I chose the following problem to focus on for my design:
Garmin Connect users are struggling with the creation and sharing of course maps. The app UI for creating course maps is clunky, so many users end up using the web interface instead. Sharing created maps with friends is limited to a link to Garmin Connect, which is not inclusive of users who don’t have a Garmin device, such as Apple Watch users, or those who depend on competitor apps and pay a premium for them, such as Strava. The user needs a sharing feature for course maps with more options to use it more frequently and enable sharing (and thus peer-to-peer marketing) with non-Garmin users.
Persona
Considering the interview data along with the trends apparent from the affinity map, I developed a persona to help guide the design of the added feature.
Key Findings
All users use Garmin Connect in conjunction with Strava, which is an app that tracks activities, but whose primary function is social connection.
Each of the participants indicated in one way or another that they wish Connect had more similarities with Strava.
Some of the participants wanted more of the social aspects of Strava.
Two participants mentioned that when traveling, it’s nice to see routes that people have run, so you know it’s a safe route, rather than creating a new one of your own.
Users would like to see a list of their contacts pop up when sharing a route
They would like the option to send a course via different modalities, such as GPX, PNG, PDF, or even a map that will open right into Google Maps.
Research Questions:
What is their background?
How do they currently use the course mapping feature?
What do they wish the course mapping feature could do?
How do they use the sharing feature of course mapping?
Competitive Analysis with Strava, Komoot, and Ride With GPS revealed that existing apps offered:
More social networking options
Intuitive and pretty UI
User trust in the quality and reliability of the brand
Each app has the ability to share a route, but none of them share an image of the map or a pdf with directions. They only share a link to the app, so the recipient must have an account to view the map.
Project Goals
I used a Venn diagram to display the project goals in a succint and visual way, considering user goals, business goals, and technical constraints.
Feature Set
Based on my user research conclusions, the project goals, persona, and the competitive analysis, I developed a set of features for this project that includes:
Must-haves
Nice to haves
Surprising and delightful
Can come later
Design
User Flow
User Flow
After further analysis of the research, I mapped out a user flow with the persona in mind, translating her needs and goals into steps for the flow. After creating the user flow, I realized that the added feature, despite the fact that it adds significant value to the user, is a simple addition to add.
Task Flows
In looking at the user flow and comparing the existing app, I could see that adding this feature is basically adding one extra step with three choices for the user. The choices are which file format to share the course:
PNG
PDF
GPX
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Taking the persona’s goals, user flow, and task flow into account, I created the first set of wireframes to test with my users.
Low Fidelity Usability Testing
I took the wireframes back to my original test group of athletes with the following goals:
To test the ease of use of the UI.
To test initial UX with course map sharing and filetype
To obtain open-ended feedback from users
Summary of Findings
In general, all users successfully completed the task and found it useful.
Three of five users felt that copying a link was the their preferred way of sharing.
The one android user was confused by screen four, because sharing is different on an android versus an iPhone
High Fidelity Wire Frames
The feedback from the initial usability testing did not yield much to change. I noted that my design was for the iPhone, and one user was confused by the what is a standard iPhone interface screen for sharing. In the future perhaps I should limit participants in the usability to the device I am designing for or create a second set of screens for Android users.
High Fidelity Usability Testing
I took the wireframes back to my original test group of athletes with the following research goals:
Determine if the user can easily share a course map on Garmin Connect
Determine if the user can successfully send course to a friend via several methods and with three different file formats to choose from.
Assess the ease for the user to navigate and complete a send task flow.
Establish any pain point
Methodology
Participants were asked to complete the following tasks:
Share a course map with a friend
Share a course map with five friends
Share a course map with a friend on Garmin Connect
Share a course map with friend who doesn’t have Garmin
Share a course map with a friend not on the list
Metrics
Task completion rate
Task duration
Number of errors
Qualitative feedback from participants about their experience using the app
Summary of Findings
Metrics
Task completion rate - 100%
Task duration - 38 seconds
Number of errors - 0
Qualitative feedback:
In general, all users successfully completed the tasks and found the UI to be useful.
All users found the Garmin Connect first screen difficult to understand at first, with the vertical three dots and the send to phone icon.
The one android user was again confused by share screen, because sharing is different on an android versus an iPhone
One user suggested adding an additional screen to allow the user to change the filename before it is was sent.
Next Steps
Complete iterations on the prototype, implementing the the horizontal three dots as opposed to the current vertical for ease of use instead of aesthetics.
I am choosing not to add a screen to change the filename, since only one user suggested it, and it would add complexity rather than simplifying the user experience.
Final Prototype & Concluding Thoughts
The final prototype reflects the change of the vertical ellipse to a horizontal ellipse. It was a challenge to work within an already established UI without direct access to the tools from within Garmin. Beyond enhancing my skills as a designer in Figma, by biggest takeaway from this project was the research. This was the second project after Dream Colors, where I performed research with people. What made this a particularly exciting and educational experience was recruiting and interviewing participants I didn’t know personally from a Facebook group for Garmin users. Putting on my researcher hat felt natural and reminiscent of my days doing research and teaching research methodology in higher education. Interviewing users and analyzing the data was very revealing and enjoyable.