FITTR

What it was

A ten-day research assignment at 10kdesigners, in a team of four. Pick an online community and work out how people actually behave inside it.

We chose Fittr — an Indian fitness community that started as a WhatsApp group in 2015 and grew to hundreds of thousands of members.

What we did

Wrote down eleven assumptions before we started, so we'd know later which ones we got wrong.

Then split it into two groups: existing Fittr members — around 60 approached, 5 interviewed, 11 surveyed — and fitness enthusiasts who'd never used Fittr, watched trying it cold. A survey for the numbers, interviews for the reasons.

What we found

Fittr's whole premise is that anyone can start anywhere, and the community lives up to it — the members and coaches were genuinely welcoming.

The opportunity was in the tools. People new to fitness needed more context around the terminology before they could use them confidently. Experienced users managed fine; beginners found them intimidating.

So we proposed adding an information icon on each metric — press it and it explains what the tool does, what each number means, and how to use it. Learn the term where you encounter it, without leaving the screen.

See the research process →

What it led to

I posted it on LinkedIn, and it got me my first ever internship — at Fittr.