Project Feel Anywhere Exercise Bike
Year 2020-2021
Company KKStream Ltd.
Client Feelcycle Ltd.
Feelcycle is a Japanese exercise brand, which hosts physical exercise classes around the country. During the pandemic crisis, they decided to bring physical event into customers houses starting from cycling.
Learning sport businesses
In the beginning of the project, we had to comb the client’s needs and requirements. We interviewed and researched the sport business in Japan and had some great findings.
Transform idolatry
In Japan idols are created in every business, from entertainment, politics, to retailers. What they are selling is not the product itself, but the idol’s appearance and influence. Therefore, we had to include the idea in the development of the product.
Obsession in culture
In Japan promotion is very important. It shows the business’ sincerity for the customers. With Feelcycle, we wanted to host event and merch to the fans and the fans could have a chance to interact with their idol coaches to have a more immersive experience.
Sport = fancy = cool
Sport in Japan is more a fashion than a health topic. When it comes to product strategy, we learnt that It is about attracting fans, not health seekers. Beside health tracking features, it’s more important to make the users have a sense of fashion and trend.
Challenges & goals
Immersive virtual experience
Since the members mostly join the classes for the coaches, it is important to make them feel included. This was easy when the events were offline, but when it comes online, it is way much more challenging to make the audience engaged.
Designing for cycling scenarios
Interface on an exercise bike has to be thoughtfully made. We set up two bikes in the office to let everyone try and experience the scenario, in order to find insights in this newly growing sport. Music/video syncing is also a challenge for UX and development. We had to test and review our UI whenever we made a new version.
Immersive virtual experience
For the streaming room, we design different dentures to allow the participant to interact with the exercise coach. They can react to the video, add their favourite coaches, or even win priority to purchase specific classes. Our goal was simple: a virtual class should be as interactive as a physical class.
Designing for cycling scenarios
Personalised
Users don’t have that many tasks to do on a bike. We didn’t want to overwhelm the user with too many features. Instead, we focused on the most personalised features, such as statistic tracking, class booking, and of course following their favourite classes and coaches.
Accessible & ergonomic
The distance between the screen and the user’s face is not as far as watching TV, but also not close enough like a tablet. The usability is therefore focusing on the balance of showing information and making it easy to reach: the user has to tap the button when the video is playing, but the video can’t be covered too much at the same time.
