Thrive
(03)
Overcoming Physical Barriers
Overcoming physical barriers to fitness is a challenge for many. Thrive is an adaptive training app designed to help users overcome them through dynamic training programs, customized therapy exercises, and focused progression tracking.
My Role
Lead Designer
Timeline
6 Weeks
Project Type
Personal Project
Designing for Recovery and Focus
Whether you are a beginner navigating an existing injury or an experienced athlete managing fatigue, training requires focus and adaptability. However, existing training apps are bloated with too many social features that lead to negative social comparison and unwanted distractions. Designing for this context meant stripping away the noise to prioritize personal recovery and meaningful progression.
Examples of traditional scholarship search UI
Constraints
Synced with health and activity metrics
The app needs to be able to sync with wearable devices to track progress and provide personalized recommendations.
Balancing advanced features with simplicity
Whether your a beginner with a existing injury or a experienced athlete, the app needs to be able to provide advanced features without overwhelming the user.
Complementing professional guidance
The app cannot replace in person guidance of a physical therapist or personal trainer, however it can perscribe the right exercises and feedback to help users progress through barriers on their own.
Framing the Issue
It’s not that existing training apps lack data; it’s that they highlight the wrong information. They lock users into rigid routines and push arbitrary milestones that completely ignore the nuanced journey of recovering from physical limitations.
Pain Points
Vanity metrics
Data like weekly volume or a hypothetical PR bring no value to users trying to evaluate actual progress.
Rigid Exercise Constraints
Limited exercise slots prevent users from accurately monitoring the progression of therapy exercises the same way they would track a standard bench press.
Lack of Execution Critique
There are no reset exercise features, which stops users from being critical of their execution, and a complete lack of set modifiers like drop sets.
Social Distractions
The prevalence of social features distracts from the workout and fuels negative social comparison.
Syncing training with real-world data
Instead of forcing the user's body to adapt to a rigid training app, the app adapts to the user's body. By leveraging biometric data and customizable widgets, Thrive shifts the focus away from social feeds and vanity metrics to actionable health data.
Animation showing card interactions and navigation
Solutions
Adaptive training mode
Modifies existing training routines based on specific limitations or constraints you set.
Meaningful Data Tracking
Replaces vanity metrics with actionable data like total sets executed per muscle group, specific exercise progression (PR + set volume), and average heart rate throughout routines.
Custom Layouts
Users can modify the widgets displayed on their home screen to support their specific goals, which are then mirrored on wearable devices.
Distraction-Free Environment
Custom notifications reduce mobile device distractions by identifying when no set has been logged and enforcing strict rest timers.
Profile views, and scholarship card states
Profile Setup
The user starts by setting up their profile which includes their physical limitations, goals, and biometrics. This information is referenced as a baseline to create a personalized training programs.
A mockup of the interactive Blend Explorer page.
Adaptive training mode
The user can enable adaptive training mode to automatically adjust their existing trainig programs to accommodate and progress through their physical limitations or injuries. The app will take into account, the users training intesity, time constraints, and current state of recovery to automatically adjust their training program to ensure they are able to progress through their limitations and injuries.
Animation showing filter interactions
Search results flow
Custom layouts and notifications for advanced users
For more advanced users, the app provides custom layouts, notification to fit any trainig style. If you want to focus on strength training, the app will display more relevent metrics on the home screen, and provide notifications to keep you on track. If you want to focus on cardio, the app will display more relevent metrics for that, and provide notifications to keep you on track.
Dark mode theme for the home, search and profile pages.
