Seeking for UX advice: Multiple challenges issue

Process & Techniques
#1

Hey there,
I’m one of the creators of WeFitter.com, a digital platform for eomployees that gamificates and rewards active lifestyles with prizes and challenges. Soon we will be an app (link to invision https://projects.invisionapp.com/share/NR45AIHEA#/screens/100694733)

We go the companies, both marketing for costumers or HR for employees, and they have a customized space where they can add customized challenges and rewards program.

1- User signup
2- Connects a fitness tracking app or device
3- Selects company with a validation code. They can also skip since the platform is available for any user
4- User earns points being active and workingout.
5- They have access to rewards with points cost or they can also join challenges.

Also they benefit from our rewards & challenges program as WeFitter it self. Is like a transversal rewards we offer for all users, no matter the company

The issue, in terms of UX, is with the challenges!

In terms of logics, do you think is logical that a user can join more than one challenge at the time? At the end, they are getting points from kilometers and calories. Right now they can. We launch as wefitter challenges every week and they can be active in more than one challenge. Do you think is ok or should be restricted to one challenge at the time? Will it damage users with less possibilities and adding restrictions?

Users can be part of their employee program and join a challenge but also be part of a gym program and join their challenge too.

Do you think user can join as many challenges they want or should be restricted to one at a time? Some companies, at then who are paying for the service, they say they only want users to join a challenge at the time while users would want to join as many as they want.

I hope you understood my conflict. Any help will be appreciated.

#2

Hi @wefitter – welcome!

I do understand your challenge.
Do their kms and calories double down by getting them points on both challenges? ie they don’t have to do twice the work. If so, then I think it would be fair to limit it to one.
I think that would be the expected behaviour. You would have to grandfather out existing challenges obviously.

Bottom line though, is who pays your bills? If the businesses generate your income, then keeping them happy should be your priority.

#3

My ex-employer used to run a health, fitness and environment challenge each year (albeit without any special software - it just consisted of an Excel spreadsheet!). We chose 5 challenges each year, selected from a list of options (e.g. eat 5 serves of fruit and vegetables per day, do 30 minutes of exercise, go a day without smoking etc). Some of the challenges could have some overlap (like your km and calories example) but others didn’t. I think different people had different approaches. Personally, I saw the challenge as a fun way to improve my health and fitness and saw the points as secondary, so I tended to choose challenges based on where I thought I needed to improve. I liked having several challenges at a time, because I could focus on a couple one day, and a couple of others the next day depending on what else was going on in my life (I rarely met all of them in a single day). I think most of my colleagues were similar, but there were some people who just wanted to win as many points as possible for their team and didn’t really care as much about the real outcomes in terms of their health and fitness. They might be inclined to deliberately choose overlapping or easier challenges, especially if the points can be used to access rewards.

So I think you need to understand the motivations of your target users. Are they more interested in improving their health and fitness or the points and rewards? Do they want to focus on one challenge at a time, or would they prefer the flexibility of having several challenges so that they can change their focus from day to day?

#4

Brilliant answer, @Lynne =)

I agree that these are perfect questions to have in mind while going back to user research to find the useful nuggets of actual behaviour and needs that will help shine a way.

A competitor review might show that other fitness apps allow the user to select from a list of challenges when signing up, and/or run weekly competitions throughout the year, but I think the answer for [I]wefitter[/I] can be improved by understanding the unique context. This will also help innovate and build in new ideas to give a competitive advantage.

​To answer your specific questions, @wefitter :

  1. In terms of logics, do you think is logical that a user can join more than one challenge at the time?
    Yes, I think it might. People often have conflicting or harmonious thoughts and feelings about their health, the way they spend their time and their motivations for getting fitter. I would expect that some smaller and easier goals might help them see progress on the way to more ambitious ones, or a mix of challenges be more interesting rather than the same one for a long period. The user research will help highlight the primary focus for this.

  2. Do you think is ok or should be restricted to one challenge at the time?
    As above.

  3. Will it damage users with less possibilities and adding restrictions?
    Possibly, you’d need to do some health or fitness psychology research to find out. A starting hypothesis might be that less possibilities helps keep focus and minimise distractions, or it might be that adding restrictions hampers users from staying motivated and engaged. Engagement seems like it will be pretty key to the app.

  4. Do you think user can join as many challenges they want or should be restricted to one at a time?
    There might be something important in letting users find a challenge that suits them, but similarly if we got to choose our own challenges we might not choose ones that were good for us. Maybe having friends challenge you on something would add a helpful element of competition or motivation? Too many challenges at once will be overwhelming and prevent focus, but similarly (and as above) being to restricted might also make it less engaging or interesting—but that really depends on how you design the limited choices.