STEPS
STEP is an app designed for athletes/coach, providing workflows for 3D kinematics, with real-time and visually rich metrics/reports using a mobile camera by analysing the body's gait
About the project
Monitoring the athlete’s performance during training session enhances his abilities as well as the coaches ability to identify drawbacks which can directly boost the player's attitude towards the upcoming game. A video is instrumental in telling that story. To show what is working and what isn’t in player’s competition. Coaches and trainers examine training exercise videos from live-action and the results of their careful analysis of various parameters and provide helpful feedback to the athlete.
Individual
User Research, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Prototyping & Testing
Duration
4 Weeks
The problem
Sports analysis with the use of sensors is a very expensive tool for amateur and professional athletes at the grass-root level in India. This biomechanics analysis, with real-time and visually rich metrics/reports, is being used by many international athletes helping them shape their overall performance.
ONBOARDING
Let’s Record
Identify foot Type
Capturing the foot information gives a better understanding about the type of foot(neutral, pronation or supination) the type of arch(low, normal, high) that can be used to understand the foot structure and also help in shoe selection.
Let’s Record
Video Analysis
Even a small mistake like setting down the foot in the wrong way can harm your body. Video analysis gives a single joint to full-body assessment. Synchronising with reference the footage helping the runner and coach to understand running angles and parameters.
Dashboard
The Dashboard shows analytics charts about cadence, pace, ground contact time, foot-strike, stride, swing speed, and other body metrics by helping the athlete to refine style and technique.
ANALYSIS REPORT
Graphs, Numbers, Images & Suggestions
Coach Analysis
The coach can view athletes footage, monitor performance reports and suggest improvements without him being present in the same room. This will help in correcting any mistakes that are holding the athlete back from becoming the fastest runner on the block.
Community & Setting
Getting connected with the community will create a model for learning, sharing, and teaching. Latest updates and news will keep the athletes and coach updated about upcoming events and treads. Also consultation and sharing comments with in the community will help to share knowledge.
Overall Interface Elements
Runners don't quit
Most runners pick-up bad running habits that slows them down and hurt their bodies.
STEPS is a mobile app that has the ability to discover those mistakes and build up your perfect running form.
Design Brief
To design a solution for tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India that will help the athlete in running more efficiently and without pain or injuries by understanding body kinematics and techniques.
Research
Target Audience
The Target Audience/Stakeholders for the solution consist of Coach and Athlete. The main objective of the project was to focus on user’s need, psychology and the complete eco system.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
The goal of secondary research was to having a good understanding of the field, domain and the problem space. Also creating a good starting point for primary research by refining the hypothesis and achieving a user centric approach.
Sports which are currently using advance analysis
Softwares used for Analysis
What is Video Motion Analysis ?
Video analysis is the process of using any motion recording and gaining useful and actionable information from it. Video, simply a continuous sequence of images, is especially effective in enhancing technique to investigate problems with movement. Video analysis can help sport scientists, physiotherapists, sport coaches, team coaches, and the athletes themselves.
Types of Video Analysis
Method used for monitoring activity
Key findings from existing technology
All the softwares can only be used by trained professionals
It is an expensive technology and only used at international and club level sports
It involves multiple devices & sensors
Foot Type Understanding
Current Scenario and Facilities in India for Athletics
Reasons behind underdevelopment of sports in India are
1. Corruption & Mismanagement of sports authorities
2. Social and economic inequalities
3. Lack of infrastructure
4. Policy lacunae
5. Meagre allocation of resources
Key Findings
Secondary Research Insights & Problem Space
1. Players going oversea for events only have opportunity to use advance training facilities
4. All the communication are verbal between coach and athlete
2. Government schemes at district level like Khel Sansthan but players don’t get good coaching or they practice on their own
5. Athletes don't get Special Coaching on time
3. Athletes meet the coach only before major games or else at a training camp
6. Lack of proper physical training and diet
Athletics reference books and research paper
The following books and papers were studied to understand track events at the Olympics and science behind the technique used
Kinematics of transition during human accelerated sprinting
Fast science: A history of training theory and the methods for elite runners through 1975
Sprints, Hurdles and Relays, Basic Coaching Manual
Biomechanics of Sprint Running
Richwoods Track and Field 2013
New studies in Athletics
Understanding components
in the sprint events
Phases in a 100 meters sprint and splits that are very crucial to finish with a good time
Deterministic Models
A concept map that describes the bio mechanical factors determining a movement or action.
Source - METHODS OF MOVEMENT ANALYSIS - https://canada.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/methods-of-movement-analysis
Key Learnings
Main Features
Energy System
Biomechanics Principles
Analysis & Corrections
Drills & warmups
Cause of Injuries
IAAF Rules
Primary Research
Interviews - 2 Athletes each from District, State and National Level Players, State and International Athletics Couch.
Observation study
1. Interviews with Elite Athletes
S. Lokesh
State Bronze, State Gold
State Record - 5.90
National bronze, South Asian Champion - Gold
Vishwambar Kolekar
2013 National , 2018 National
2018 Asian Games
State record in 1500M
Captain C. Murlidharan
1995 to 2010 - Served as coach for Services2018 Asian Games
1994 to 1997 - Indian athletic team coach
2007 - World military games coach
2010 till present - Captains Track and Field
Pramila Aiyappa
India Heptathlete
2000 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
2010 Common Wealth Games
Key Findings
Primary Research Insights
1. Information on techniques and analysis from the experts
4. Capturing the session and observing at a slow pace makes a lot of difference in coaching
2. Current practices & methods athletes and coaches use
5. Tracking progress on paper is difficult and coaches don’t have basic digital medium to keep records
3. Athletes never used advanced analysis methods
6. Lack of facilities and infrastructure
Prioritised Requirements
Persona
Athletes and coaches from district, state, and National levels were interviewed. I even got a chance to interview Indian international/ national coach and athletes. Who represented India at common wealth games and olympics.
Athlete personas at all level
Coach personas at all level
Identifying common patterns, behaviours and pain points to come up with personas of Athlete and Coach.
Scenario
Arjun wants to improve his stance on block clearance and reaction time share his activity with the coach who is not in town and get feedback. Analysis on block placement, body posture and takeoff for drive phase.
Arjun has captured a video while he was practicing the block start and drive phase.
He feels that visually he can understand the mistakes better but he is not sure if he has a proper body posture and timings.
He wants an expert to guide him looking at the videos and analysis with will help him tailor his technique.
Coaching Sessions
Next Steps
Working on feedback of using different models for training and techniques.
Measuring the overall UX with Framework like 'HEART’ (Google Framework) Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Success
Having a deeper understanding of user psychology behavioural patterns and iterate the design
For many years it was accepted that
“Sprinters were born and not made"
Most runners pick-up bad running habits that slow them down and hurt their bodies. STEPS is a mobile app that helps you identify those mistakes and build up your perfect running form.
Reference papers and guidelines :
The International Association of Athletics Federations - https://www.iaaf.org/home
The Indian Olympic Association - https://www.olympic.ind.in/
ACM Digital library - https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1082121.1082136
Fast science : a history of training theory and methods for elite runners through 1975 - https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/04a8/8cf43439c0d222ed8dabe4fe1be03c4cef7a.pdf
Methods of movement analysis - https://canada.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/methods-of-movement-analysis
Research Gate - Video Analysis Tools for the Assessment of Running Efficiency - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308074208_Video_Analysis_Tools_for_the_Assessment_of_Running_Efficiency
Sprints, Hurdles and Relays - https://athleticsgw.co.za/resources/Technical_Information/ASA_Level_1_Coaching/ASA-Level-1-Coaching-Sprints-Hurdles-Relays.pdf
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/overview/themes/