01_Intro

Nike x is a fourteen weeks service design project for Nike Run Club. We team was given a design challenge to innovate existing experience with distance running. We conducted primary research to frame problem with ten distance event runners with various levels of achievement from 15K to ultra marathon and two experts in endurance sport industry. My team also ran design workshop with distance runners to ideate concept and came up with a new training service concept with both digital and physical touchpoints. We spent 7 weeks prototyping and iterating the concept and shot a video to demonstrate how the concept works. We have gained positive feedbacks on the final outcome and prototypes from faculties and colleagues.

02_Problem Framing

Decreasing number of endurance event finishers

The number of endurance running event finishers had been growing rapidly in the past decade and reached its peak in 2013. However, recent data has shown that the number of event finishers decreased 2 million in the past three years.

U.S. Running Event Finishers

The Millennials were the primary drive of the past growth

and are blamed for the recent decrease.

MILLENNIAL Runners' challenges

To understand the challenges of the Millennial runners, we set out to conduct interviews

with 10 endurance runners with various levels of running event experience.

To see the in-depth research process, please visit here.

After four weeks of research, analysis and synthesis, we found

repetitive patterns of the three challenges below.  

How might we empower the millennial runners to stay on track

of training and achieve their running goals?

03_solutions

Service system

Information Architecture

U Box prototying

Service bluprint

04_Prototyping process

Hypotheses

The purpose of the prototype was to validate the key hypotheses in our concept. We listed out all of the hypotheses and used a 2x2 with X-axis from high to low risk if untrue and Y-axis from high to low uncertainty. We tested the hypotheses that sit in the high risk if untrue and high uncertainty quadrant. 

prototyping and testing

1. It is easier to keep runners on track of training by giving them a series of tasks instead of a single goal.

2. Runners believe the flexible training journey can deliver comparable result as rigid training programs to help them accomplish running goal.

3. Tangible rewards motivate distance runners to stay on track of training programs. 

4.Marathon runners attend other running events along with their training journey.