Transforming Fitness Coaching: Data-Driven Solutions for Smarter Training with ARIS Dashboard
As the sole UI/UX designer, I was responsible for creating a dashboard that seamlessly integrates with the ARIS ecosystem, enhancing gym trainers' workflows. Through user research, I uncovered key pain points—fragmented tracking, unintuitive navigation, and a lack of actionable insights—shaping a design strategy focused on efficiency. I led the entire design process, collaborating with developers and data scientists to ensure the ARIS Dashboard streamlined performance tracking and met trainers’ needs.
UX Design • UI Design • User research • Prototyping • Usability testing • End-to-end
Figma • Figjam • Jira • Google Workspace
2024 (Jan - Mar)
ARIS is a fitness tracking app that helps gym goers log and analyze their workouts. When paired with the ARIS Band, it unlocks automated tracking, detailed metrics, and deeper insights.
As ARIS grew, so did a critical need—trainers lacked an efficient way to manage and support their clients. The ARIS Dashboard was built to bridge that gap.
Through feedback gathered from ARIS's existing users, a common theme emerged,
Before assuming that a trainer-focused dashboard was the right solution, I took a step back to explore its viability. I spoke with personal trainers across different settings—freelancers, local gyms, and large fitness centers—to uncover their biggest pain points. These conversations provided crucial insights into their workflow inefficiencies and what they truly needed in a tracking tool.
Through interviews with 10+ personal trainers, I uncovered two key challenges disrupting their workflow:
1
Fragmented Record-Keeping – Trainers relied on a mix of tools—iPad notes, physical documents, Excel sheets, and memory—making client progress tracking inconsistent and disorganized. Updates were often made post-session, leading to gaps in records and lost insights.
2
Subjective Assessments & Lack of Structure – Trainers gauged progress through guesswork, asking vague questions like “How tired are you?” or “Can you do one more rep?” Without precise data or structured explanations, clients struggled to understand their training plans, leading to disengagement and inconsistent progress.
We try it out for 1-2 months and see how it goes. If it doesn't go as expected, then we tweak the program. But sometimes they feel demotivated and just stop training.
- Aziz, 31, Freelance PT
When I asked my clients ‘can you do one more rep?’ It seems like they can do it, but then they said they can't. I wish I had a proper way to understand their limits and not just gut instinct,
- Isaac, 27, In-house PT
It's actually quite busy as a PT, I’m spending more time after sessions inputting their info than I am actually training my clients during their workouts, and it's pretty tiring after a while...
- Ian, 28, In-house PT
With these challenges in mind, I asked... How Might We
The goal was clear—design a solution that minimizes manual effort, provides precise performance data, and enhances trainer-client communication. This led to key design decisions focused on automation, structured tracking, and actionable insights.
User interviews revealed two distinct trainer archetypes, each with varying levels of tech-savviness—a key factor influencing their workflows. The focus was to break down their jobs-to-be-done and identify the unique challenges they faced, ensuring the dashboard catered to their specific needs.
Mapping the client journey highlighted key friction points: trainers spent excessive time manually logging workouts, struggled with fragmented data, and lacked clear progress metrics. Clients, meanwhile, often didn’t understand the reasoning behind their routines, leading to low motivation.
These insights led to three core opportunities:
✔ Automating workout logging by syncing ARIS Band data.
✔ Centralizing progress tracking with a streamlined dashboard.
✔ Leveraging data analytics to recommend personalized plans.
✔ Enhancing engagement through data-driven recommendations and visual reports.
By introducing objective metrics, we empowered trainers to make informed decisions while keeping clients motivated and on track.
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With a tight 3-week deadline, collaboration was key. I worked closely with data scientists to uncover insights behind the numbers and partnered with developers to ensure designs were both visually effective and technically feasible.
To make complex data intuitive, we focused on:
✔ Clear visual summaries – Using charts and graphs to highlight key performance metrics.
✔ Frequent feedback loops – Gathering input from trainers, stakeholders, and internal teams to refine designs in real time.
✔ Balancing clarity with functionality – Transforming raw data into digestible insights for quick, informed decision-making.
By maintaining an iterative, fast-moving approach, we delivered a polished, intuitive dashboard—on time and tailored to real trainer needs.
At this stage, we onboarded 8 beta testers—gym trainers from diverse settings—to evaluate the platform. The goal was simple: ensure the dashboard aligned with their workflows and provided the right tools, metrics, and visual displays to tackle their key pain points. This hands-on feedback helped us fine-tune the features and ensure we were meeting real-world needs.
1
Based on feedback from 75% of gym trainers, there was a demand for more flexibility in viewing past workout sessions. To address this, I replaced the toggle option with a dynamic dropdown menu, allowing trainers to easily access various key metrics at a glance.
2
62% of trainers wanted a way to identify overlooked muscle groups in their routines. I added a modal view that appears when a routine is clicked, showing different muscle group icons to visually highlight the targeted areas. This visual enhancement ensures trainers can quickly see the targeted areas within each workout, helping them maintain a balanced training plan.
3
All trainers emphasized the need for a clear visual cue for scheduled sessions, allowing them to quickly identify training days without clicking through each date.
4
Most clients follow dynamic training schedules based on their training progression, rather than fixed session counts. As a result, we removed this feature to better support the personalized nature of client plans.
5
The analytics page underwent a near-complete overhaul to better serve trainers' needs—providing detailed insights tailored to different workout types and session metrics. This major shift ensured data was not just available, but truly actionable.
To streamline workflows and eliminate guesswork, we introduced:
✔
Centralized Dashboard – Consolidated client data, including progress logs, health conditions, and past sessions, into one easily accessible platform across devices.
✔
Automated Tracking – We implemented a real-time data sync between the ARIS app and dashboard, linking trainers and clients seamlessly. By integrating the ARIS Band, workout logging became fully automated—eliminating manual note-taking and ensuring 100% consistency in record-keeping.
✔
Objective Progression – Designed visual dashboards and advanced metrics to provide clear, data-backed insights, empowering trainers and enhancing client engagement.
