Project 1 Exercise “Fake Out”

CGT 172 - SP22 Parsons

Noah Egierski
Phillip Reid

Project Overview
Problem Statement: Users of fitness trackers are finding themselves making efforts to “fake out”
or cheat their monitors. For employees, cheating may be motivated by arbitrary company
standards, in place for healthcare purposes. For others, cheating may be done due to their lack
of motivation, but unwillingness to stop using a tracker. In addition, some users are concerned
with the privacy of their data when using their device.

Target Users: Students with equivalent to 15+ credit hours, 16-25 years old
- Attends class in-person; Lives on or near campus
- Walks to class; or uses skateboard, bicycle, other manual transportation -
Excluding use of motorized, electric, or other assisted transportation
- Trying to stay or become “athletic”
- Definition of athleticism specific to user; this design attempts to make people “feel”
athletic, not necessarily meet quantitative measures of athleticism.

Our design for a fitness tracker application aims to solve this problem by use of positive
reinforcement. Based on our research, we believe that an overall supportive user experience is
the best way to combat cheating and disuse. Our design achieves this by sending encouraging
notifications, using positive wording, and working around busy schedules. Our design also
addresses concerns about privacy by allowing certain types of data tracking to be disabled.

Research
When it comes to data (relating to consumer privacy):
Anonymous does not always mean anonymous.
AOL published random ID numbers from about 650,000 users that showed searches that
people had made over several weeks.
Most companies are reluctant to hand over their users’ data. It’s due to reputational
damage they will suffer.” - King
“Like many companies, FitBit responds to valid legal processes issued in compliance with
applicable law.” -FitBit
When it comes to cheating:
It is easy to cheat an application/program when the outcome results in a reward.
Therefore it is important to reward users with positive messages so they feel better about
themselves for putting in work.
If incentives are involved, make it so that they are not worth cheating for. This doesn’t
mean make rewards cheap/garbage, but make it so people won’t be very inclined to
cheat.
“It would seem that when it is easier to cheat, more people would cheat. That is not the
case. Even with the little risk of getting caught, participants only cheated a little bit.” -
Breaking Muscle
 “One reason people cheat is that we want to feel good about ourselves. We don’t think of
ourselves as cheats. We can cheat a little and still feel like a good person.” -Breaking
Muscle
Breaking Muscle
FitBit
Fitness Cheating
HuffPost

Interviews
Interview 1-4 - Noah - Interview Transcript:
The questions: Ok so: Do you use a fitness tracker? (Fitbit, Apple Watch, etc) If so, what is it?
How do you use said tracker? Is it more of a “check time to time” or is it more of a “oh hey look
at that” type of usage? Would you say you are relatively active? Have you ever been required to
at least walk a specific number of steps for any reason? Have you, or do you see a possibility
where you have/would “cheat the system” and get the number to be higher than your actual
steps? Why do you think someone would cheat on a Fitbit or fitness tracker? (Answer if you
haven’t cheated one yet)…

1) Yes. I use an apple watch. I use it to monitor how many calories I am burning and how long I
have exercised for. Check from time to time. Maybe for an assignment but not that I know of. I
personally have never cheated the system but I could see where people would do that. I think
someone would cheat because of a psychological issue within themselves or to try and fit a
social standard.

2) I use Apple’s “Health” app as my fitness tracker regarding steps and mileage. I routinely
check my steps and mileage roughly every week to just check how active I have been and if I
need to make any changes to my activity. I would say I’m not really active. No I’m not required
to walk for any reason. Yes, I would totally cheat the system if I could. I think people cheat the
systems just so they can remove the guilt of not being as active as they actually are.

3) I use a fit bit and the health app in my phone,

I use it to track steps, time and calories burned. I think I’m pretty active. I work out 4-5 times a
week. I’ve never been required but I make it a goal to get 10,000 steps a day. I haven’t cheated
but I could definitely see someone doing that to make themselves feel as though they did more
than they really did when they look at their results

4) yes.
Apple watch.
to see how many calories I burn in a day and to make sure I'm standing for at least 12 hrs of the
day.
“oh hey look at that”
I'm relatively active.
Steps are kind of similar to standing for 12 hrs so idk, but no it hasn’t counted my steps and told
me to take more.
no bc i don’t count steps, however sometimes it doesn’t track when i’m exercising even tho my
heart rate is up. so it cheats me
a fitbit. duh
Interview 5 - Phillip - Notes:

User Type:
- Somewhat fit, defines fitness as consistency in exercise
- Average class schedule (~15 credit hours)
- Attends In-Person
- Uses a longboard, considers skating on a longboard exercise
- Spends 2 hours a week active

History with Fitness Trackers?

Used Fitbit - started using a fitbit for a fitness class.
Why use Fitbit?
Helps keep track of fitness data (quantifies fitness), still uses tracker today

Student life:
- Being on campus keeps you in a routine, can exercise between classes -
On the other hand, can be tough to keep consistent because of class -
Can’t always be bothered to set up reminders / alarms
Cheating:
- Interviewee did end up “cheating” the fitbit because of winter weather -
Would cheat by swinging the fitbit around
- Only cheated to meet arbitrary goal set by class
- Did become increasingly aware of health decisions (diet, exercise, etc.)
Privacy Concerns
- Not very concerned about health information like heart-rate, steps taken etc. - Is
concerned about sharing location data, leaking of that kind of data is very bad

Final Suggestions:
- User would like to see more personalized encouragement, instead of impersonal alarm
messages.

See file “UXP1_Interview-ReidPhillip_01-25-22.mp4” for recording of Interview 5.

Sketches / Iterations
Initial Drafts / Ideas
Apple Watch App Idea
After Interviews
Evaluation: Usability Testing
Usability Test 1, done by Phillip
First Impressions:
- Home Page
- Easy to see step counter
- Previous Day statistics plus graph makes it seem busy
- Buttons are obvious enough signifiers
- Drop-down is less obvious, but little arrow helps
- Schedule
 - Use could be figured out
- Plan
- Fine
- Settings
- fine, “Use my Location” should be off by default
- Consider pop-up screen so user can read more about how their data is used

Task: The task was to change the current schedule and then change the current
Fitness Plan to reflect a more intense routine.
- Scheduling seems “clunky”, slow, should change to Monthly Calendar? - Fitness
Plan screen is easy enough to navigate, could change plan successfully

Usability Test 2, done by Noah

First Impressions:
- Home Page
- Step counter is very visible, good idea
- Navigation buttons are easily noticeable
- Didn’t notice drop down first time “on the screen”
- Schedule:
- “Too much switching between boxes”
- Plan:
- The plan is more of a Statistics page, but it works
- Settings:
- The settings are settings.
- “Nice job including dark mode”
- “Interesting that you guys decided to include themes. I wouldn’t have
thought of adding those.

Final Design
This design addresses the problem we set out to solve in the following ways:
- Using positive, encouraging language
- Making important, quantitative measures of fitness visible
- Accounting for unique situations and schedules
- Fitness Plan creation screen can be expanded in electronic prototypes if more personal
information needs to be gathered

Home Screen:
Scheduling Screen:
Pop-up that occurs when the user taps on a day in the Calendar.
Fitness Plan Screen:
“Change Plan” Screen. First time users will see this screen before anything
else. It can be seen again by using a button on the “Fitness Plan” page.
“Current Plan” screen:
Settings Screen: