Strava x Recover Athletics

Integrating athlete rehabilitation into Strava


Individual Project 
Tools

Figma Photoshop

Duration

5 Weeks


Strava boasts a vast online athlete community of over 100 million users, however the platform falls short in meeting real-time accessibility standards. Injuries are a large part of sports, for both professional and amateur athlete, and Strava lacks features which would enable the app to become more accommodating for athletes with injuries.

The Challenge

Imagine a partnership between Strava and Recover Athletics which brings principles of accessibility and choice into the Strava user experience. Develop features which enhance the experience for recovering athletes, with real-world implications.

The Opportunity

Imagine a partnership between Strava and Recover Athletics, a Strava acquired app which focuses on athlete soreness. The redesigned Strava interface utilises existing Recover Athletics features, such as recommending pre-workout stretches before workouts. Further imagines principles of Recover Athletics, such as accessibility, and flexibility into new features to incorporate through this partnership.

Strava x Recover Athletics

THE SOLUTION

Discovering the Problem

I have been a Strava user since 2020 when I started running more regularly during the pandemic. However due to my knee injury, I found that many Strava features weren’t supportive of my limited running capabilities. To validate the problem I interviewed one athlete with recovering injuries and went through a round of secondary research.

Important Quotes

“I don’t always record runs on Strava because I don’t think it accurately represents my workout. I don’t just go on straight runs, I have to walk for a good amount of time […] Running in the city, is also its own challenge, […], you just have to memorise which roads actually work for you and which don’t.

- Former College Athlete recovering from ankle injury

Heuristic Evaluation & Service Design Blueprint

After understanding the problem better through researching, I wanted to understand Strava better too. Using the flow of choosing a route and going a run, I performed a Heuristic Evaluation to understand the user experience.

During this I found that there were inconsistencies between roads mapped, and roads existing.

Users weren’t allowed to be completely flexible, and there weren’t many onboarding features for understanding all of Strava’s capabilities.

Takeaways

Lack of accessibility in way finding

Traffic, heavy foot traffic, inconsistent sloped roads, and many urban environmental features can hinder finding paths which work well for athletes recovery

Utilising Multiple Apps

Many athletes who are in rehabitilation have multiple apps, one to stretch, one to track their progress in recovery and one to record runs/keep track of workouts.

Inaccurate Data Collection

Strava lacks flexibility in workout choices once a workout activity has been started.

Problem Statement: What is it and why does it matter?

Injuries are a large part of sports, for both professional and amateur athlete, and Strava lacks features which would enable the app to become more accommodating for athletes with injuries.

Target Audience: Whose problem am I solving?

I am focusing on athletes, who were already Strava users, who have endured an injury and are looking to keep exercising at lesser capacity.

HMW Question

How might we improve Strava to build an inclusive experience for athletes with disabilities or injuries to safely and effectively resume training in their sport?

Through research, I came accross Recover Athletics. Recover Athletics focuses on athletes “soreness.” By allowing users to identify where they are sore, they are able to track their soreness and also look through tutorials of stretches, short-workouts and workout tips for their soreness.

I then found out that Strava had recently acquired Recover Athletics, which at first was a “oh-no” moment that turned into an opportunity.

Competitive Analysis: Recover Athletics

Strava x Recover Athletics

Recognizing the recent acquisition, I thought it would be interesting to explore what this partnership could mean and look like within the Strava interface. Strava already partners with Beacon and Spotify, so this was an opportunity to think about how features in Recover Athletics would be important within Strava.

Opportunity Statement

Imagine a partnership between Strava and Recover Athletics which brings principles of accessibility and choice into the Strava user experience. Develop features which enhance the experience for recovering athletes, with real-world implications.

Prototyping Design Solutions

Starting with the existing Strava interface, I sketched ideas on top regarding adding accesibility, warm ups and also the flexibility to change in between exercises

Visibile ADA callouts

Integrate Recover Athletics in the routing feature, for drawing a route. When activated, it shows roads which do comply to ADA (American Disability Act) Standards. For example if the sidewalks aren’t ADA compliant with the widths, or the slope isn’t compliant.

Pain Points Addressed: Lack of accessibility in way finding

1

3

FINAL OUTCOME

Integrate Warm Ups

Pull up Warm Up exercises from the Recover Athletics icon, and see recommended stretches before workout. Customised for each athletes needs.

Pain Points Addressed: Too many apps

2

Flexibility in Exercises

Allow users to change between various exercises during a workout. This will let users walk or run depending on their needs and can even measure their data for how long they have ran/walked. Then users can get more specific data about their exercise.

Pain Points Addressed: Inaccurate data collection

With more time and money, I would…

  1. Talk to users

Talking with larger samples of target users, better understand user needs and behaviours when using the app. Developing better understanding of the rehabilitation athlete community within the app.

2. Incorporate Safety features

Considering emergency calls, thinking about how Beacon starts to play a role within the Recover Athletics partnerships

3. Understand Rehabilitation

Understanding how Recover Athletics progress dashboard is built into the Strava interface

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