B2C HEALTH TECH
Reimagining Personal Training for the Future
"How might we reinvent personal training in an age of AI and connected communities?"
Our sponsor, HoloCoach, challenged us to design an app that incorporates AI to make fitness more accessible, personalised, and motivating.
Role : Product Designer
Timeframe: 48 hours
Sponsor: HoloCoach
Hackathon
AI
Problem
Fitness apps assume users are consistently motivated, but real life fluctuates. When energy or mood is low, rigid workout plans create guilt and lead people to drop off. Users need support and accountability that adapts to how they actually feel day to day.
Solution
We created Kora AI, an adaptive coach that checks in with users and adjusts their workout plan based on their energy level. The app also includes a supportive community space for shared encouragement and accountability, helping users stay consistent in a way that feels human and achievable.
Impact
The experience reduces guilt, increases workout follow-through and supports long term habit formation by meeting users where they are. Users are more likely to stay engaged because the app fits their lifestyle instead of expecting them to fit a rigid plan.
"People are bad at initiating working out. They need encouragement, reminders and accountability."
DEFINE
Design Approach
As the only product designer in the group, I led a series of short workshops that helped the team stay focused and intentional under time pressure.
Define the problem and user needs
Facilitated ideation and Crazy 8 sketching
Prioritised features based on feasibility and user value
Designed the user flow and interface
Collaborated with engineers to prototype in v0
My priority was to make sure every feature solved the problem of consistency and emotional support.
DEFINE
Framing the Oppurtunity
To turn the problem into something we could actively design for, I facilitated a How Might We workshop with my team. Together, we aligned on a shared design goal.
"How might we create a platform for health motivated individuals in order to create a consistent and personalised routine."
This became the foundation for our ideation and feature prioritisation.
DEFINE
Core Concept
Our solution introduced Kora AI, a supportive and adaptive fitness coach that understands that people are human and not always running at full capacity. Kora encourages users to show up, even on low energy days, by adjusting workouts to match how they feel.
The app also integrates community support and simple onboarding to make fitness feel manageable and personal.
DEFINE
Key Features
Kora AI: The Human-Centred Fitness Coach
Users begin each day by checking in with how they feel. Kora responds with empathy and adapts the workout plan accordingly.
If the user reports low energy, Kora offers a lighter workout to help maintain consistency instead of encouraging the person to skip the session entirely.
Kora can also be spoken to directly within the app, allowing users to adjust their routines and ask for guidance.
The goal is to form habits through support rather than discipline or pressure.
Community-Based Accountability
During team discussions, we realised many of us were already part of informal WhatsApp group chats where people share proof of workouts or simply encourage each other.
We decided to bring this behaviour into the app through a community space where users can:
Join groups aligned to their fitness goals
Share progress updates
View community streaks and leaderboards
This gives users a sense of belonging and shared motivation.
Personalised Fitness Planning
When signing up, users complete a short onboarding flow that captures their goals, preferred workout types, duration and weekly schedule.
Kora uses this to create a personalised plan from day one.
As the user checks in each day, the plan evolves in response to how the person actually feels. This reframes working out from something rigid and demanding to something that adapts to real life.
Accessibility Through Encouragement
A central goal was to make the experience feel welcoming rather than intimidating.
The app positions working out as something flexible and doable.
The message is:
You do not need to be perfect; You just need to show up in the way you can today.
DESIGN
Visual Design
We kept HoloCoach’s monochrome base palette and introduced a green accent to represent growth and momentum. The interface is clean and quiet so the emotional tone and communication from Kora can take centre stage.
WRAP UP
Reflections
This project reinforced the importance of defining the problem with clarity. Once we understood that consistency breaks down when fitness apps ignore the human component, the product direction became clear. As a product designer, my role was to bring structure, prioritisation and empathy to the process. By guiding workshops, aligning decisions and shaping the experience around real user needs, I helped the team move with focus and purpose.
It was also my first time working with v0. I enjoyed experimenting with these tools and seeing how quickly we could turn ideas into something tangible. Learning to express logic and interaction patterns clearly for an AI builder helped strengthen my thinking around system flows and behaviour design. This has made me more aware of how to communicate intent clearly and how to iterate faster.
The result was a concept that feels meaningful because it recognises that people are not machines. We designed for real life, not an ideal version of it. This experience has strengthened my ability to bridge thoughtful product strategy with execution and has grown my confidence in using emerging tools to enhance, rather than replace, design thinking.