The Challenge:

At Design Driven Innovation's Hackathon for urban fitness, my partner and I designed an app called Lunch Break in 48 hours to encourage fitness among urban employees while fostering connections between users and businesses.

The Concept:

Similar to a bike share program, Lunch Break is a shoe share system that allows users at participating workplaces to check out a pair of shoes during their lunch break and select a route to a local restaurant or cafe within the specified period of time of their lunch break. In the event that the user doesn't wish to purchase food, the app will route the user to a nearby park or public attraction, where they can then enjoy a bagged lunch or other preprepared meal in a different environment. The routes allot time for them to run or walk to the business, eat, and return to their workplace.

In our prototype, Lunch Break uses Yelp's API's to identify appealing restaurants/cafes nearby and Google Maps' Navigation API to help route users to the chosen restaurant. In the event that the user doesn't wish to purchase food, the app will route the user to a nearby park or public attraction, where they can then enjoy their lunch break in a different environment.

The Process:

During the period of ideation, my partner and I chose to focus on the fitness of urban professionals. We began drafting when or how we would be able to facilitate fitness among all urban professionals. We asked the following questions:

• Many workplaces may have gym facilities, but what else are companies lacking in improving the fitness and well-being of their employees?
  
• What would be an incentive towards using a fitness app for urban professionals?
• What are possible incentives to get employees to work out?
  
• Why would people choose to workout during their lunch break?

This last question led us to a discussion of how employees go about their lunch break. We drew from the allegories of our friends and families for further research:

• Many workplaces don't have a gym or provide membership to a gym
• Some utilize their lunch break to workout at the expense of the time available to enjoy their lunch
• Some remain at their desks to continue checking emails or look through social media
• Some are envious that people were able to fit in a workout during their lunch break but never choose to bring the necessities required for a workout

The Icon:

When designing the icon, I wanted to choose an appropriate image to pair with the name of the app. First iterations included sketches of shoes, a shoe with wings, a shoe with lunch next to it, and a plate. We settled on using a hamburger, an icon well known for its abundance in American restuarants. From here I designed multiple ways of making the hamburger look recognizeable yet simple.