A lot of us who practice BJJ are professionals who travel, but training has to continue no matter where we are. We can’t stop, otherwise our technique and cardio will go backwards several months. Finding a gym that fits our training style and schedule while traveling to new cities is very important. However, not every BJJ gym has a website, even there is, the gym schedule is not public. It’s important for BJJ traveler to find a gym based on his/her own criterion, etc. “I can only train Tuesday and Thursday evening this week, and I want to train in advanced class since I’m a purple belt”. On Reddit r/bjj and other BJJ forums internationally we hear the need of such a gym locator. Personally, I trained in Mexico, Switzerland, China, Vietnam while traveling, and it always takes me long time to find good gyms matching my schedule, not to mention I prefer to find a gym that takes care of drop-in students.
OK, this is frustrating.
So, I want to design an app that helps traveling BJJ practitioners find gyms based on their travel schedule, location and training style.
User Research
I interviewed some BJJ practitioners who travel, also posted surveys on Facebook BJJ groups to find out how people currently find gyms while traveling. Here’s what I found: schedule, class level (beginner, all level), class type (competition, women, etc.), instructor teaching style, drop-in friendliness, gym rules, are all factors people consider during search.
Scope of Design
To start with, I decided to focus on: 1. gym schedule, 2. gym location, 3. gyms in California.
The core value of such an app is BJJ gym schedules which is usually not public. Matching gym schedule and user schedule is the key. Therefore, for implementation I need to collect all current schedules from each gym that’s in the catalog, and keep updating them. 🙀
Decisions
- The user flow may start from asking the user’s availability and location.
- Enable personal recommendation based on user’s common travel locations and schedule.
- Enable gym visit records to help users record their BJJ journey for motivation purposes. We all need a little push :)
User Testing
I showed the interactive prototype to people from my gym, and asked them to click around and give any feedback they can think of. It was such a rewarding process because I’ve learned so much about people’s desire and their unique habits. I made some changes and I am still improving the design.
