Barbellona

Creating an empowering brand and product to strengthen body image
Barbellona mobile app
Discovery

Interviews
Field research
Insights

Strategy

Brand positioning
Competitive analysis
Naming
User personas

Design

Moodboard
Logo exploration
Brand identity
Information architecture
Wireframing
User testing
Usability testing
Visual design
Prototyping

The problem

Approximately 80% of U.S. women, aged 18 to 30, don’t like their bodies. 50% of women use unhealthy behaviors to control their weight.

The National Eating Disorders Association

We live in a society where unrealistic and unhealthy body ideals are highly valued, leading to poor body image. This contributes to the development of eating disorders, depression, anxiety, relationship issues, substance abuse, and other health problems. Powerlifting is a sport that focuses on strength—not aesthetics—and requires proper nutrition to fuel the body.

How might we help powerlifters train while also empowering them to improve their body image, self-esteem, and mental health?

The solution

The brand

Barbellona is a powerlifting gym with on-site and online coaching services that get lifters stronger not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Unlike traditional gyms, Barbellona is above all a tight-knit community targeting female athletes who are recovering from negative body image, eating disorders, or other mental illnesses and want to use powerlifting as a platform to get better.

The product

The Barbellona mobile app helps users reach their goals by tracking their workouts and mood, analyzing their strength progress, managing their training program, connecting with other members and coaches, and practicing self-care.

My Role

UX designer
Visual designer
Brand strategist

Tools

Sketch
InVision

Barbellona mobile app training screens

Track training sessions with the help of a weight plate calculator and seamlessly record form check videos

Barbellona mobile app screens for analyzing progress

Analyze progress with coaches to improve form and technique and work on getting stronger

Barbellona mobile app program screens

Easily view individualized program designed by Barbellona coaches, continually adjusted based on progress

Barbellona mobile app community screens

Connect with the Barbellona community with access to a forum and messaging for unlimited support

Barbellona mobile app self-care screens

Focus on self-care by creating positive affirmations and journaling to improve mental health conditions

Jump to Barbellona prototype ↓

The solution

The brand

Barbellona is a powerlifting gym with on-site and online coaching services that get lifters stronger not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Unlike traditional gyms, Barbellona is above all a tight-knit community targeting female athletes who are recovering from negative body image, eating disorders, or other mental illnesses and want to use powerlifting as a platform to get better.

The product

The Barbellona mobile app helps users reach their goals by tracking their workouts and mood, analyzing their strength progress, managing their training program, connecting with other members and coaches, and practicing self-care.

Jump to Barbellona prototype ↓

Discovery

Interviews & field research

I started by interviewing female powerlifters, coaches, patients, therapists, and body positive advocates to better understand the daily challenges of training while recovering from negative body image.

I also observed how powerlifters train at the gym and identified pain points. One of the biggest frustrations that lifters had was viewing and tracking their programs via cluttered spreadsheets on their phone while at the gym:

Screenshots of powerlifting programs viewed on mobile phones

Lifters have to zoom in on Google Sheets or an image, struggling with cognitive overload, to figure out their training program for each session.

Themes & insights

I organized all the research findings, identified key themes, and created insight statements to define opportunities for design.

Environment
Competitive powerlifters are willing to pay more for a gym with proper equipment.

Powerlifters don’t like going to commercial gyms because they:

  • Lack the specific equipment needed to train properly and effectively
  • Are too crowded with people who don’t share the same training mentality
  • Don’t allow chalk and noise
  • Don’t have an atmosphere conducive to strength progress and growth
  • Have people with poor gym etiquette
Support
Lifters want coaches who understand the severe body image challenges they face.

Lifters recovering from negative body image have difficulty training due to:

  • Body-weight classes used for competitions
  • Fixation on muscle gain and fat loss and how their body looks
  • Weight gain to lift at maximal capacity
  • Diet and nutrition issues, especially with history of disordered eating/eating disorders
  • Unrealistic goal-setting based on comparisons with other lifters
Time/Workflow
Lifters are busy and want to make their training sessions as efficient as possible.

Lifters with online coaches use their phones at the gym to jump between several apps:

  • Google Sheets before each lift to check program and input weight
  • Calculator to determine what plates to use
  • Camera to record each lift of their main worksets and analyze the videos after set
  • Notes to jot any pertinent information on lifts
  • Facebook/Instagram/Email/Text to send videos and notes to coaches for feedback

Strategy

Brand positioning

In order to understand the current gym market in San Diego and identify opportunities, I created a matrix that plotted competitors’ sense of community against quality of equipment.

Barbellona brand positioning matrix

Competitive analysis

I analyzed the top competitors to further identify opportunities. Powered by insights from the research phase I determined that a mobile app would be the best solution to help powerlifters train while also empowering them to improve their body image.

Barbellona competitive analysis chart

Naming

I explored Latin and Greek names and words due to their connotations of power and strength. Discovering that Bellona is the ancient Roman goddess of war was a delightful surprise.

Barbellona naming mind map
Barbellona naming mind map
Barbellona naming mind map
Barbellona naming mind map

User personas

To inform all design decisions I created personas based on two types of users: powerlifters coached on-site and powerlifters coached online.

Barbellona persona: Cassie Cruz
Barbellona persona: Ella Becker
Barbellona moodboard

Design

Logo exploration

I wanted the logo to embody the power and boldness of the brand so my approach was to utilize the negative space in an impactful way.

Barbellona logo sketches

Brand identity

Inspired by Bellona, the ancient Roman goddess of war, the Barbellona brand adopts this metaphor of resilient warriors using barbells to battle against all negative societal attitudes towards women. The Roman virtues of tenacity, courage, and valor drive the look and feel, empowering lifters to train hard and become better versions of themselves every single day.

The palette has a powerful, adaptive, and balanced look. Typography is big and bold. Images of athletes are never altered to remove so-called “flaws.” Tying it all together, the brand’s core values of strength, community, and self-love craft meaningful experiences throughout every touchpoint.

Primary logo

App icon

Barbellona app icon

Colors

Typography

Montserrat typefaceMuriza typeface

Values

Strength

Community

Self-love

Key adjectives

Bold
Powerful

Raw
Feisty

Energetic
Supportive

Photography

Female powerlifter putting on her wrist wrapsFemale powerlifter putting on her belt

Information architecture

After creating a prioritization matrix to define the features that would fulfill both personas’ needs, I designed the app’s structure to make it simple and intuitive to navigate.

Barbellona mobile app site map

Wireframe sketches & user testing

I rapidly tested a low-fidelity paper prototype with users to validate the initial concept of the mobile app.

Barbellona wireframe sketches

Low-fidelity wireframes

Upon opening the app, the user would see an overview of her workout and a CTA to start. This design decision was based on feedback that the training feature is most important. After a brief self-care check-in the user would go through every set programmed by her coach concurrent with a weight plate calculator and ability to record form check videos.

Usability testing

I conducted usability testing with two lifters, which provided valuable feedback for multiple rounds of design iterations.

Final prototype

View Barbellona prototype on InVision →
Barbellona mobile app training screens

Track training sessions

After a self-care check-in, users complete their programmed workout with the help of a weight plate calculator. Users can also record form check videos and take notes.

Barbellona mobile app screens for analyzing progress

Analyze progress

Users can dive deep into their training log and form check videos, share them with their coaches to analyze form and technique, and work on how to improve and get stronger.

Barbellona mobile app program screens

Manage training program

Users can easily view their individualized program designed by their Barbellona coaches. Programs are updated every cycle and continuously adjusted based on progress.

Barbellona mobile app community screens

Connect with the community

Users can access a forum where they can connect, help, and inspire each other. Discussions vary from training to mental health. Conversations with coaches and other lifters is key.

Barbellona mobile app self-care screens

Focus on self-care

Users can create their own affirmations to promote positive thinking, journal to improve mental health conditions, and set reminders to practice self-care.

Next project

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