Spree is an exercise app for reducing the risk of frailty in older adults, and encouraging communities to support at-risk individuals.
Designed as part of the Global Design Challenge for Sport and Physical Activity 2021, it went on to win 1st prize, and a €10,000 development grant. It was a joint effort by Ross Dowd, Danann Cumiskey, John Glynn, Shane Keating and Tom English.
Project Lead, Research, Wireflows, UI/UX Design, Illustrations
Figma, Adobe XD, Miro, Whimsical, Adobe Illustrator, Premiere Pro
Spree is an exercise app for reducing the risk of frailty in older adults, and encouraging communities to support at-risk individuals. It went on to win 1st prize at the Global Design Challenge for Sport and Physical Activity 2021, and a €10,000 development grant. It was a joint effort by Ross Dowd, Danann Cumiskey, John Glynn, Shane Keating and Tom English.
The onset of frailty in older adults brought on by continued social isolation can result in very serious consequences. Falls in older adults can cause significant physical and psychological injury to the individual, and send them to the hospital where they could contract further illness. Impaired strength and balance contribute to most falls in older adults. Improving stability requires a specific, fully tested and safe exercise programme and ongoing commitment by the older person. However, people are feeling isolated and alone, often with little motivation to keep active when there are other concerns to worry about.
The onset of frailty in older adults brought on by continued social isolation can result in very serious consequences. Falls in older adults can cause significant physical and psychological injury to the individual, and send them to the hospital where they could contract further illness. Impaired strength and balance contribute to most falls in older adults. Improving stability requires a specific, fully tested and safe exercise programme and ongoing commitment by the older person. However, people are feeling isolated and alone, often with little motivation to keep active when there are other concerns to worry about.
Strength and balance exercises have been shown to reduce the instances of serious injury sustained in a fall in the elderly and less physically mobile. Adherence to strength and balance exercise programmes such as the Otago Exercise Programme can prevent the occurrence of serious falls by as much as 35 - 40%, and has been proven in studies to significantly reduce the risk of death and falling in older community-dwelling adults.
Although many, many exercise apps are available, we found the overwhelming majority are targeted at a much younger audience, both in terms of their content and usability. Setup of new apps was found to be a pain point for a significant portion of our users. Creating an appropriate and accessible app for adults over the age of 65 is our priority.
The onset of frailty in older adults brought on by continued social isolation can result in very serious consequences. Falls in older adults can cause significant physical and psychological injury to the individual, and send them to the hospital where they could contract further illness. Impaired strength and balance contribute to most falls in older adults. Improving stability requires a specific, fully tested and safe exercise programme and ongoing commitment by the older person. However, people are feeling isolated and alone, often with little motivation to keep active when there are other concerns to worry about.
The onset of frailty in older adults brought on by continued social isolation can result in very serious consequences. Falls in older adults can cause significant physical and psychological injury to the individual, and send them to the hospital where they could contract further illness. Impaired strength and balance contribute to most falls in older adults. Improving stability requires a specific, fully tested and safe exercise programme and ongoing commitment by the older person. However, people are feeling isolated and alone, often with little motivation to keep active when there are other concerns to worry about.
Strength and balance exercises have been shown to reduce the instances of serious injury sustained in a fall in the elderly and less physically mobile. Adherence to strength and balance exercise programmes such as the Otago Exercise Programme can prevent the occurrence of serious falls by as much as 35 - 40%, and has been proven in studies to significantly reduce the risk of death and falling in older community-dwelling adults.
Although many, many exercise apps are available, we found the overwhelming majority are targeted at a much younger audience, both in terms of their content and usability. Setup of new apps was found to be a pain point for a significant portion of our users. Creating an appropriate and accessible app for adults over the age of 65 is our priority.
Strength and balance exercises have been shown to reduce the instances of serious injury sustained in a fall in the elderly and less physically mobile. Adherence to strength and balance exercise programmes such as the Otago Exercise Programme can prevent the occurrence of serious falls by as much as 35 - 40%, and has been proven in studies to significantly reduce the risk of death and falling in older community-dwelling adults.
Although many, many exercise apps are available, we found the overwhelming majority are targeted at a much younger audience, both in terms of their content and usability. Setup of new apps was found to be a pain point for a significant portion of our users. Creating an appropriate and accessible app for adults over the age of 65 is our priority.
Our focus was to provide the support and encouragement required by our users to keep active. We researched what drives people to exercise, and what motivates individuals to keep up habits in general. Involvement with family and friends was high on that list, and drove our design iterations throughout the process. Our competitive benchmarking also uncovered that while there were a number of app and web products available that could provide instruction on frailty prevention exercise, the technical barrier to entry was often too high for the intended audience.
It was at this point we wondered what if that technical barrier to entry could be offloaded to another? And what if these same individuals could not only assist in setup and familiarising the older adult with their exercise tool, but could act as their personal coach in their exercise journey? And could a more social exercise journey provide more incentive to keep active?
Based on these insights, we expanded our app design to incorporate three different user roles:
Spree's "Champions" are near-frail older adults who will be guided through accessible and appropriate exercises to maintain their mobility.
The Champion is provided with exercises that are appropriate to their frailty level, as catalogued by the Spotter and a baseline frailty test. Exercise instructions are delivered in a clear and concise manner, using a combination of text and looped videos. The Champion has the choice to follow along with the exercise videos at their own pace, or to call their Spotter to remotely exercise and have them coach through it.
"Spotters" nominate and aid their Champions in the initial setup, and act as their personal coach.
A Spotter has two clear roles, onboarding and coaching. By allowing the Spotter to create their Champion’s account, we make the onboarding process simple and streamlined. By reducing the barrier to entry, we aim to encourage more older adults to take up exercise via their smart devices.
"Supporters" are the friends and family of the Champion, cheering loudly from the sidelines.
The friends and family of the Champion are invited to download the Spree app as a Supporter, a distinct app mode solely devoted to noisily and proudly cheering on your fitness heroes. On the Champion completing an exercise, the Supporters receive a notification prompt to congratulate them. This support system is in place so as a family, a neighbourhood, or even a local GAA club can rally behind their local heroes and cheer them on during their fitness adventure.
Conducting a baseline assessment of exercise participants in essential in preventing the onset of frailty. These tests set ensure that the exercise programme matches their fitness level, and helps prevent the risk of a participant overexerting themselves and becoming injured. In programmes such as the Otago Exercise Programme, this consists of a series of exercises, the performance of which is monitored by a trained clinician, who rates the performance and provides an appropriate exercise programme to follow.
User Flow diagrams were used to conceptualise how our app could mimic this assessment process, and how a Spotter could be used to help rate the Champion's performance, assist in carrying out exercises, and to help tailor the resulting exercise programme.
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Setup of new apps was found to be a pain point for a significant portion of our users. By reducing
the barrier to entry, we aim to encourage more older adults to take up exercise via their smart devices.
The Spotter can create their Champion’s profile for
them, and then simply send the Champion on a
bespoke smart-link, allowing them to automatically
access their newly created account without hassle.
If they do not have the app preinstalled, the same
link will prompt a download of Spree from the app
store.
From there, the Spotter acts as their personal
coach, tailoring and managing the program to suit
their Champion.
The Otago Exercise Programme was chosen as a reference for our exercise content after consultation with several medical practitioners, and was chosen for its success rate in preventing serious falls by as much as 35 - 40%.
Improving stability requires a specific, fully tested and safe exercise programme and ongoing commitment by the older person.The OEP consists of 17 strength and balance exercises and a walking program,performed three times a week. It also details how the programme provider should manage and check-in with the older adult.
While our app would not have direct clinican oversight and therefor cannot guarantee results identical to the OEP, studies have shown that adaptions of the programme still provide tremendous benefit to regular practitioners.
The Champion is provided with exercises that are appropriate to their frailty level, as catalogued by the spotter and the baseline frailty test. Exercise instructions are delivered in a clear and concise manner, using a combination of text and looped videos. The Champion has the choice to follow along with the exercise videos at their own pace, or to call their Spotter to remotely exercise and have them coach the Champion through it.
The onset of frailty in older adults brought on by continued social isolation can result in very serious consequences. Falls in older adults can cause significant physical and psychological injury to the individual, and send them to the hospital where they could contract further illness. Impaired strength and balance contribute to most falls in older adults. Improving stability requires a specific, fully tested and safe exercise programme and ongoing commitment by the older person. However, people are feeling isolated and alone, often with little motivation to keep active when there are other concerns to worry about.
At the heart of Spree, we want our users to keep active. We want them to feel the support and motivation that they deserve, and to eventually be driven to keep exercising for themselves. Good intentions are all well and good, but we found that a social aspect would be the best method of encouraging exercise uptake in our user group.
We researched many different methods of motivation in the digital space, from anonymous likes to personal messages. We also looked into successful initiatives that lean into communal support, such as Operation Transformation.
A bit of encouragement can go a long way, and we were to eager to allow communities to passively and actively support those who need it most.
The friends and family of the Champion are invited to download the Spree app as a Supporter, a distinct app mode solely devoted to noisily and proudly cheering on your fitness heroes. Supporter's can find and follow their Champion via a link from the Spotter, and can use the app to follow their hero's exercise journey from the sidelines
On the Champion completing an exercise, the Supporters receive a notification prompt to congratulate them. They can do this in the form of a pre-generated encouraging message for convenience, or by sending a personalised message of support. Any personalised messages are sent to the Spotter for approval before being passed onto the Champion. This support system is in place so as a family, a neighbourhood, or even a local GAA club can rally behind their local heroes and cheer them on during their fitness adventure.
Once the Champion has earned some support, they then can view their county page and see how other Champions are getting on. This feature was designed around the idea that if the user ever feels that they are alone in this fight against frailty, they can check the county and national map and see how many others are fighting with them.
Champions or spotters can post update on the exercise progress in the form of stats or stories, to update their supporters and engage with their caring communities.
The exact amount of cheers and supporters is only visible to the Champion and Spotter, with other Champion’s results being abstracted. This avoids focusing on direct competition between Champions, and more emphasis on a shared exercise journey.
This is only the start of the Spree journey, as we look to develop our dream into a fully fledged app.
This is only the start of the Spree journey, as we look to develop our dream into a fully fledged app.
