To not become good, but great at hurdles, young talents feel pressure to do everything possible to succeed. Daily practices and drills become routine. The families hire personal coaches to work with their young athletes. As their passion grows, hurdlers need more and more effective personal training tools. How/what kind of personal training can help them to unlock their potential?
120 m intelligent track
— a personal trainer for the hurdle runners
SKIIP: The Smart Track
Duration
February - April 2018
Team
Alone, Personal Project
My Role
Research, UI/UX
Research
To get to know existing personal training experience, I conducted the interview with young hurdlers who are in medium experience levels (2~3 years.) The questions mostly related to their experience of hurdle practice. Based on the interview and researched data, I could identify their need and pain points.
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/current.png)
Current Hurdle Self-Training Tools
"Hurdlers have difficulties of doing personal training due to a limitation of getting feedback and occupying a large space."
Get Lowest as Possible
To reduce the speed in the air, hurdlers should be lowest and closest to hurdle as possible. That's why hurdlers should skip over the hurdles, not jump over. The most important thing in hurdling is to keep the right posture.
Hard to Get Feedback
The coach cannot be there for 24 hours. However, hurdlers need the coach to look at how their posture is. If there is no coach, it is very difficult to get any feedback when they practice alone.
Hard to Install Hurdle in Home
Unlike in the track and field, it is very hard to install the hurdles in a home. It is very large and heavy. It is very hard to carry on and there is not enough space to install all the hurdles and do the practice.
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/problem_illus_skiip.png)
Problem
It is hard to spot and fix common mistakes the hurdlers making during the hurdle self-practices.
When hurdlers don’t have track practice, they cannot get accurate feedback as coaches cannot always be there and watch their jumps. It is hard to know if they have good form or not without somebody watching. Moreover, it is hard to install hurdles at home. There is a lack of space for them to practice it whenever they want to.
Ideation
Even it is said to be portable, it is still limited by the space. Athletes do best when they are in a familiar setting.
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/portable_mat_1.jpg)
01 Portable Mat
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/portable_hurdle_1.jpg)
02 Portable Hurdle
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/smart_track_1.jpg)
03 Smart Track
Solution: Intelligent Coach
The solution I chose to make was the 120 m smart track accompanied by an app. During hurdling, the runners will get instant feedback on their jumps. If they jump too high, the floor part between two hurdles will show white LED lights. Through the app, hurdlers can book the lane and see all gathered data during their practices.
- tRACK overall
- Track Detail
- App
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Overall-View.jpg)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Product_Detail_1.jpg)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/app_hero_img.jpg)
How does it work?
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/arrow.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ss1.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ss2.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ss3.png)
01
Book the Lane
Save your time by booking a lane earlier
02
Check Your Booking
Check the location and time of your booking
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ss4.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ss5.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/login_skiip.png)
03
Go to Your Booked Lane on Time
By using NFC chips, the lane automatically recognizes you. To start the hurdle practice, you need to step on the blinking start button.
04
Practice Hurdle
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/04-1-skiip.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/04-2-skiip.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/04-3-skiip.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/04-4-skiip.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/04-5-skiiip.png)
05
Check Data
Learn about yourself by checking your data
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ss6.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ss7.png)
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ss8.png)
Challenge I Overcame
The final product above is v2. In v1, I used the red light to give feedback. However, it was wrong because it's hard to see in the sunlight. In addition, the map was missing. Because of this, it confused users about where to go at a scheduled time. It was simply not usable based on what my potential users told me. Even though v1 was a finished product, I decided to redo it completely.
![](https://okaykimsmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/revise-skiip@2x.png)
“Keep validating is essential!”
Sometimes we hand off the product after doing one-time validation. However, there could be a chance we missed something obvious to users. To build a product that many users love, we shouldn't stop validating.