Reprojecting a Fitness App Regarding Retention and Usability Using Nielsen’s Heuristics

Abstract

The increasing use of wearable devices, associated with sports practices, served as a motivation for the researchers of this work analyzed the app called Fitness, developed for iOS platform. The choice for iOS was due to the fact that Apple Watch is considered the best selling smartwatch in the world. Besides that, during their physical activities Apple watch users have the possibility to have their data captured by the biosensors in the watch. Such data can be transferred to the iPhone, processed and the result presented to the user to a structured report. However, it was identified serious problems of design in the generated report, probably because it disregards the user’s context. Thus, the objective of this research is to identify the existing limitations in Fitness using the evaluation heuristic, in addition to proposing solutions to the referred problems identified through the restructuring of the application interface based on Nielsen’s heuristics. To the identification of the limitations and the consequent restructuring of the interface, the research used qualitative and quantitative methods. The results showed a great improvement in usability, with more than 20 points on the SUS scale. In addition, it was noted that heuristics minimize user memory loads, shortcuts and speak the user’s language were those that most brought benefits to the interface.