Project Overview

Health Loop is a rethink of public outdoor gyms, which are gaining popularity worldwide yet are avoided by many.

Using Health Loop begins with discovering it. Situated in dense urban areas, Health Loop looks simple, light-hearted, and slightly curious. With a water fountain, a stretching station, and signage at the entrance, it invites passers-by to stop for a moment, observe, and consider using it.

The Balance station is nearest the entrance, and feels both familiar and curiosity-inspiring. Going for a closer look, people will find a friendly sign and handles that want to be held. Stepping on the board is where the fun starts—the sign springs into life: "Lean right", "Lean left", "Accuracy!", and almost too soon, 90 seconds later, "Top Work!".

Health Loop helps people take easy steps forward in their fitness. Health Loop is six pairs of stations, and is deliberately approachable, understandable, and fun.

A Nuanced Solution for a Critical Problem

Health Loop is born out of a global need to be more physically active. The reality of physical inactivity is alarming: children born today in many developed and developing countries are expected to die five years younger than their parents due to a lack of physical activity. This epidemic spans cultures, continents, languages, and societal classes—action needs to be taken.

Outdoor gyms are being implemented worldwide, but project research highlighted that despite the intention, outdoor gyms are mostly unused by regular, relatively inactive people. Three key reasons were identified: intimidation, a lack of understanding, and a lack of enjoyment.

Firstly, intimidation is a huge barrier for people who don't consider themselves to be in shape: it's intensely intimidating and off-putting to exercise next to highly athletic users or in highly public locations. The designer heard continually that people felt like "they weren't fit enough to be there" or "they were just getting in the way".

Health Loop helps by appealing exclusively to less-fit people: there are no pull-up bars, no jumping blocks, and no heavy weights. Instead, difficulty settings are concealed, and every user's attention is intentionally kept on themselves through an interactive display.

The second problem is that most people simply don't have the know-how. Health Loop reduces the gym to six stations, each with a simple, clear purpose, and guidance is provided through approachable signage and a digital screen.

The third problem is that strength-based training is typically 'an acquired taste', and initially getting sweaty lifting weights is somewhere between unpleasant and boring for many people. Here, Health Loop uses simple, short game-like challenges to make the exercises interesting and fun. Each station is unpredictable and constantly adaptive to keep each user challenged, and the prototype station that was built was truly enjoyed by trial users.

This fun approach can also be seen in Health Loop's appearance. It avoids similarities to existing equipment to avoid preconceptions, and instead cultivates a welcoming, cheerful feel.

Overall, Health Loop provides an approachable, understandable, and enjoyable fitness experience.

Project Details

Summary

Health Loop is a rethink of public outdoor gyms, which are gaining popularity worldwide yet are avoided by many.

Using Health Loop begins with discovering it. Situated in dense urban areas, Health Loop looks simple, light-hearted, and slightly curious. With a water fountain, a stretching station, and signage at the entrance, it invites passers-by to stop for a moment, observe, and consider using it.

The Balance station is nearest the entrance, and feels both familiar and curiosity-inspiring. Going for a closer look, people will find a friendly sign and handles that want to be held. Stepping on the board is where the fun starts—the sign springs into life: "Lean right", "Lean left", "Accuracy!", and almost too soon, 90 seconds later, "Top Work!".

Health Loop helps people take easy steps forward in their fitness. Health Loop is six pairs of stations, and is deliberately approachable, understandable, and fun.

The Brief and the Need: A Critical Need for Physical Activity

Health Loop is born out of a global need to be more physically active. The reality of physical inactivity is alarming: children born today in many developed and developing countries are expected to die five years younger than their parents due to a lack of physical activity. This epidemic spans cultures, continents, languages, and societal classes, and action needs to be taken.

The project began with a wide brief: design physical installations for the urban environment to help people become more active. Specifically, after initial research, two groups of users were focused on. Firstly, the broad group of city dwellers who would benefit from a basic increase in their physical activity, and need a nudge or a bit more convenience to do so. The second, and more challenging group of users are those with a 'learned hopelessness' or 'learned avoidance'. These are people who over time have developed the opinion that exercise 'just not for them', based on past experiences, many of which were negative.

Fitness in Urban Environments: Determining Opportunity Areas

The initial challenge was determining what potential solutions could be most impactful and successful. To do so, the project started with field research in Scandinavia and the USA, with the designer trying a wide variety of exercise formats and interviewing both users and experts in physical training, activity behaviour change, outdoor gym development, fitness marketing, fitness app development, and teen co-curricular coaching. Literary research supplemented the designer's knowledge in various fitness, weight loss, wellness, and behaviour change methodologies.

The designer then created a range of design concepts including apps, immersive fitness classes, workplace installations, and improved outdoor gyms. These concepts were taken back to these users and experts, and critically evaluated for what could work, who it would work for, and where innovation was possible.
Focusing on improving existing outdoor gyms was selected as the most promising concept, for their accessibility to most people, possibilities for improvement, and their enthusiastic rate of adoption across the world.

The Problems with Outdoor Gyms: Intimidation, a Lack of Understanding, and a Lack of Enjoyment

Returning to the research with a focus on outdoor gyms, it was clear that although existing outdoor gyms are designed to help the broader population become more active, they're for the most part used by already fit and active people. This project sought to change this, to design specifically for regular, relatively inactive people.
The designer identified three key shortcomings of existing gyms from this research: intimidation, a lack of understanding, and a lack of enjoyment.

Firstly, intimidation is a huge barrier for people who don't consider themselves to be in shape. With this state of mind, it can be intimidating and off-putting to work out next to highly athletic, capable, and sometimes show-off users. On top of this, many gyms are situated in busy, exposed locations, and the designer heard continually from potential users that they felt like "they were on stage", "they weren't fit enough to be there" or "they were getting in the way of more deserving people".

Health Loop helps first by simply making the gym unsuitable for already highly fit people. They're not the target market, so it's designed not offer the workouts they seek: there are no pull-up bars, no jumping blocks, and no heavy weights.

Additionally, to aid with confidence, difficulty settings are concealed, and every user's attention is intentionally kept on their own station through an interactive display. This speaks directly to users who said "I don't like it when I look around and see other gym users watching me".

The second key problem is that because most people have never followed their own equipment-based fitness program, or frankly any fitness program at all, and they simply don't know what to do or how to use the machines. Health Loop reduces the equipment to six stations, each with a number, a simple, clear purpose, and signage explaining how to use it in everyday language. The stations themselves are intuitive to approach and use, and digital guidance provides the needed instruction and timing.

The third problem, and the most immediately obvious, is that strength-based training is typically 'an acquired taste', and getting sweaty lifting weights is somewhere between unpleasant and boring for many people. It's simply not enjoyable initially. Health Loop uses short game-like challenges to make the exercises interesting and fun. Each station is unpredictable and constantly adaptive to keep each user challenged, and the prototype station that was built was truly enjoyed by the target users who tried it.

This fun approach can also be seen in Health Loop's appearance. The form language specifically avoids similarities to existing equipment to avoid preconceptions, and instead cultivates a welcoming, cheerful feel.

Health Loop's Digitally Guided Exercise: Enjoyment, Progress, and Instruction

Interactive signage on each station is designed to both help people get started and to keep them coming back. Sensors which react to how they are being used, and a display gives instructions: when someone stands on a station, it lights up and gives instructions on what to do next, such as "Lean left" with an accompanying arrow, or "Bend forwards". This continues for 90 seconds, with occasional "Accuracy!" or "Control!" bonuses for good performance. Before the user knows it, they've completed an exercise.

To keep people coming back, each station adapts to keep it challenging based on how the user is performing, and if users want, they can also use a Bluetooth-based smartphone app to track progress and adjust the challenge level as desired. This app is designed in such a way it the user's phone can stay in their pocket throughout them workout, with all interaction through the exercise station. This system enables constant challenge, and provides users with a sense of progress and motivation to return.

Progressive Usage: Designing for Increased Understanding and Confidence over Time

A key aspect of Health Loop is the concept of "progressive usage over time". This arose from user research that showed when people start using outdoor gyms, often they walk past a couple of times first, get familiar, come back and try one exercise station, leave, a few visits later try an additional station, and so on. Users take time to become familiar and confident with the range of equipment. Health Loop is designed to match user's confidence.

When a user first comes across Health Loop, they will discover a water fountain, a stretching station, and a clear explanatory sign at the entrance, specifically designed to draw people over and give them a few minutes to watch and become familiar with the gym, without making them feel socially uncomfortable as a 'nosey spectator'. Next to the entrance are the easiest, most understandable, and least awkward exercises such as the Balance station, providing an easy bridge to first usage. The most difficult and confidence-requiring stations including the Bend and Crouch stations are at the back, in a less public view. This setup helps users to progress at their own pace, as their confidence suits.

Implementation and the Product Lifecycle

Health Loop is intended for worldwide implementation, building on the worldwide surge in popularity in outdoor gyms, and it requires simply language changes on the signage and digital display to adapt to most markets. For site locations, it's intended to be located in high-foot-traffic, dense urban areas, specifically including along commuting routes to and from work, near popular lunch and break spots, and adjacent to playgrounds.

With the modular setup, Health Loop can be easily moved to different locations, updated, and improved over time. The equipment itself is designed to be sturdy and durable, using primarily concrete, steel tubing, and recycled rubber, with common parts used wherever possible. Power can be sourced from the grid, solar, or even self-generation.

The use of a basic white LED matrix display was highly considered, being crafted in a way that it appears intentionally designed and 'timeless' in its simplicity, and sidestepping the comparison with constantly developing high-end display technologies.

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