Kyle asked us to conduct some industry research before beginning this project. Considering the nature of the content will be a big part of this project so it is important we understand the needs of industry to find what works well and why.
Objective
To analyze key competitor smartwatch apps to identify features, user experience elements, and market strategies, aiming to inform improvements and differentiation for our app.
Competitor Identification:
Select 3 top competing smartwatch apps across fitness, health, productivity, and lifestyle categories.
Feature Comparison:
Compare key features (e.g., heart rate monitoring, GPS, notifications).
Identify unique features and frequency of updates.
User Experience (UX) & Design:
Assess design, navigation, and onboarding.
Note common patterns and unique UX approaches
Strava is a fitness app that lets you plan and optimise your running by providing in depth data about performance and even has predictive capabilities to measure your growth using artificial intelligence. Strava is probably the hottest fitness app at the moment with plenty of social media users sharing their Strava run times across their respective platforms.
Stravas key features include the gamification of running, allowing users to climb leaderboards for routes. This adds a fitting competitive element that can be found across most sports. Like most running apps Strava let’s you track your performances so that you can crunch the data yourself. Beyond this they offer a premium tier that has a lot more to offer, including; setting and tracking custom goals, building your own running routes, personalised insights on your performances and the ability to join or create challenges with friends.
Strava finds it’s USP within it’s ability to make running a social activity. In good timing with the popularity of Strava we can align this with the explosion of run clubs around major cities. It is here that Strava sees it’s success. Instead of exchanging social media handles, runners have begun to exchange Strava handles, allowing them to keep it all about the running and all about Strava.
Strava’s design implements a simplistic approach to a data driven experience. Focussing on the numbers and data visualisation allows users to digest their own data much more efficiently. To further this approach clean sans serif type is used to not distract from the data shown and to keep it legible especially on a small screen. The colour used is minimal but poignant, the strong orange used within the interface seeks to highlight key information or show interactions. Beyond this the palette is limited to shades of black, grey and white in order to break up the data shown to improve intuitive navigation of the app itself. Stravas design puts data first, showing this either with colour or size, it is important keep in mind the situational limitations the user may be experiencing when using Strava mid run, this is where this approach shines in going that extra step to keep it relevant.