---
title: Using Design To Help Steel Warriors Fight Knife Crime
teaser: 'How we applied design thinking to tackle a problem in our community.

  '
tags: design thinking,workshops,product design
author: Miles Johnson
published_on: 2020-04-30
---

![Mock ups of the new designs for the steel warriors mobile website](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/FOzdwPzSou7A0T4vkuIK_sw-blog-design-phase-2.png)

In February we began working with Steel Warriors, a London-based charity that 
provides gyms and training sessions to give young people a support system 
and to build mental and physical confidence to walk the streets unarmed. 
Spectacularly, the outdoor gyms that Steel Warriors provides are made using 
steel collected by melting down confiscated knives. 

Though this is an ongoing engagement the London design team wanted to 
share the outcomes of phase one of the project as well as give a taste of what’s
to come from this collaboration.

## The Brief

When Steel Warriors came to us they had an ambitious plan of developing a 
digital platform to support their amazing physical offering. At the outset we 
discussed a series of broad features:

* Activity Tracking
* Workout Instruction
* Community Building

Once we downloaded all of the information about their business goals and 
needs we set to work with a research phase. 

## Research Phase - User Insights

We began our research phase by attending a Steel Warriors training session
at their gym in Ruskin Park. Training sessions are free and take place weekly
visit their [website](https://www.steelwarriors.co.uk/training) to learn more. 

![two images side by side showinf individuals working out on the steel warriors gym](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/kX4gYKD8TLmmC9LafNgj_sw-blog-workout-i.png)

While at the workout session we spoke to the athletes that participated as 
well as Simone, one of Steel Warriors’ excellent trainers.

Some comments we received were:
 
> I’m afraid of heights so there is definitely a fear factor to contend with
 
> Nearly every exercise today was new to me
 
> Gym’s like these have amazing communities

From those conversations it became apparent that the training and instruction
is the key value proposition for Steel Warriors. This insight helped us to 
pivot our focus to investigating how we could deliver a digital experience 
that both teaches users workout techniques and helps them to organize 
workout routines.

## Research Phase - Competitive Analysis

With some first hand experience of the training sessions we turned our focus 
to competitive analysis. For this we looked at four applications/services that 
we felt aligned with the aforementioned features identified in our initial 
conversation with the Steel Warriors team. 
 
To do this we set about downloading and investigating the applications. We 
used them ourselves and read online reviews to see what features users loved 
and what features they were not so fond of. Following that first pass we then
did Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to get 
a picture of the product as a whole as it stands in the market. From there we
mapped out the most common user flows and tried to identify the product’s 
unique selling proposition (the highlighted portion in the diagrams).

*Side Note:* SWOT analysis is typically used as a tool for helping businesses 
identify the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities
 and threats) forces shaping their business environment and it can often 
serve as a starting point for developing a business strategy. At thoughtbot
 we find that SWOT analysis can be useful to help put competitive products 
in a wider context in regards to the one we are building. With that gained 
perspective we can not only compare product features and flows, but we can 
also better understand the shared market these products inhabit.

### Strava

Strava is a mobile application for tracking your fitness activity. Strava uses 
three primary ways to engage with users:

1. Tracking and analysing their workouts

2. Showing users new routes and maps for uses to try out

3. Creating challenges and allowing users to compete with one another

![Presentation pages showcasing research outcomes from investigating Stava](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/pnA9CVQMSnebhGrARAsa_sw-blog-strava.png)

### Yoga Studio

Yoga Studio is a mobile and Apple TV application that delivers video yoga 
class for all levels of experience. Yoga Studio’s key features are:

1. Accessible video yoga classes for all abilities

2. Customizable yoga workouts (made easy with their video-stitching technology)

3. Workout planner to schedule workouts in advance

![Presentation pages showcasing research outcomes from investigating 
Yoga Studio](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/mIXaxTNQRqjb3HTOxLKV_sw-blog-yoga.png)

### Apple Watch (Activity App)

Hardware integrations with great software are often market game-changers 
and that is the case with the Apple Watch. For our analysis we focused on 
the Apple Watch Activity app, which serves two main purposes:

1. To track and archive user workout data

2. To motivate users to be active at all levels from walking up the steps to a 5k run

![Presentation pages showcasing research outcomes from investigating the 
Apple Watch activity app](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/fRhbWseXRqOm7QZG7uI7_sw-blog-apple.png)

### Nike Run Club

Nike Run Club is a mobile application that helps athletes get the most out 
of their running experience. Its features include:

1. GPS run tracking

2. Guided Runs

3. Weekly, monthly, and distance challenges 

4. Competition between friends

![Presentation pages showcasing research outcomes from investigating the 
Nike Run club app](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/AMv7uwPCR7qXyFoNrTtv_sw-blog-nike.png)

## Research Phase - Moodboards

In an effort to help Steel Warriors visualize potential outcomes from the 
research we generate mood boards based on the broad feature themes 
from our first meeting (Activity Tracking, Workout Instruction, Community 
Engagement).

![A series of three moodboards showing visual design direction options](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/lUJUolCKTkqYmcjLgZ2O_sw-blog-moodboard.png)

## Research Phase - Next Steps

With this light research phase complete we identified a series of next steps 
for the engagement. First was to speak to internal stakeholders to get 
confirmation of our learnings. Second was to reach out to more athletes 
for more in depth interviews to learn more about their workout habits. 
Finally, we wanted to hold a design workshop in order to:

1. Highlight any assumptions we have about the product / users / etc. and ideate on how to gain a deeper understanding of them (interviews, user testing, market research)

2. Identify user pain points & map out a proposed user journey 

3. Prioritize proposed features with business needs in mind 

4. Select a small piece of the user flow to prototype and test

With a good foundation laid in our research phase we began to think about 
our approach to delivery. Fortunately, we were able to partner with [8th Light](https://8thlight.com), 
a software consultancy with similar values to ours, to support us on the 
development side of the equation. 

## Part II - Design Workshop

With limited availability from key stakeholders we set out to run a 1-day 
workshop in which we would complete the following exercises:

1. Introduction & Pleasantries

2. Rapid Research Review

3. Goal Statement

5. Year Plan

6. What does success / failure look like

7. Storyboarding

8. Critical Path

9. Planning
 
 ![two presenation mock ups of the workshop schedule](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/9EUE5X5CSqRoI7C8xR4G_sw-blog-schedule.png)

## Design Workshop - Goal Statement

![the thoughtbot, 8th light, and steel warriors team putting post-it notes 
on the whiteboard](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/cplwaAO9Swq1K0zRbeAn_sw-blog-workshop-hero.png)

**Instructions:**
Define the problem at hand keeping in mind what we learned in the 
research review. As a group we’ll be trying to distill down what the problem
is both from a business perspective and a user perspective by filling in 
the following sentences.
 
“As an Individual, I want ______________ so that I can ______________”

“As Steel Warriors, we want ______________ so that we can ______________”
 
**Outcomes:**
As Steel Warriors, we want to get more of our target users to our gyms. So 
that we can gather data about usage to help with our funding and our 
future planning.
 
As an individual, I want to emulate top athletes I have seen. So that I can 
improve myself, mentally and physically, and potentially join a community.

## Design Workshop - 5-Year Plan

![images showing the team conversing and writing on a whiteboard](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/3LYLJrVWTZK4msy1TzDk_sw-blog-5-year-plan.png)

**Instructions:**
Discuss and define the ideal future of the company
 
**Outcome:**

Now

* More people using the Gyms
* More Gyms

2-3 Years

* Expand Camden Youth Programs

5 Years

* Steel Warriors across Europe
* Expand to mental health services

## Design Workshop - What does success / failure look like?

![the team conversing and and a close up shot showing someone 
writing on post-it notes](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/SCUQGMSTKewmaALnjXqu_sw-blog-success.png)

**Instructions:**
Identify a short list of success metrics and parallel to that a look at what 
failure looks like.
 
 **Outcome:**
We identified key metrics that we could use to measure success/failure 
such as gym visits, partnerships with youth services, and media coverage. 
We then crafted a simple statement to put the identified metrics into 
perspective.
 
*The project will be deemed a success if users get value from the digital
experience and if steel warriors receive useful data that can help them
to secure more funding.*

## Design Workshop - Storyboarding

![the team from verious angles sketching storyboards](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/LoKzCxJcSPaTmLXEBshg_sw-blog-sb-ideation.png)

**Instructions:**
Using sketches, draw out perspective user flows. Present sketches to 
the group and vote keeping in mind the previous exercises.

![team members holding up their storyboards as they share them with the group](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/ywP0Apf8TnCmF9cQylUN_sw-blog-sb-show.png)

![team members standing at the whiteboard and voting on the storyboards](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/uU1ytlYqQJmonrDF96qh_sw-blog-sb-vote.png)

**Outcome:**
We utilized the outcomes of the voting process to identify features and 
understand their priority. With that information we mapped the features 
onto a diagram we could reference going forward.

![pictures of the various storyboards that team members produced 
during the exercise](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/Rdo3IbkcRVe6G09HzHj7_sw-blog-sb-outcomes.png)

![team member at the whiteboard and a diagram showing priorities](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/ZqfPUcWsQI2lebhwAqYt_sw-blog-sb-priority.png)

##  Design Workshop - Critical Path

![teamate standing at the whiteboard drawing a diagram](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/Yp8nPeoHRiSrYqN5Ryha_sw-blog-critical.png)

**Instructions:** 
As a group, map out the ideal path of users solving our identified problem.
Decide on an area of the path to prototype.
 
 **Outcome:**
Using all of the previous exercises we began to build a critical path. As a
means to helping out in the upcoming planning session we also discussed
how we could split features into phases ensuring that we could deliver a 
lean product and iterate on it over time.

![diagram outlining the critical path as it relates to the user booking process](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/Wrp9P4wVQRW61bfNuwls_sw-blog-critical-diagram.png)

## Design Workshop - Planning

![Group of teamates in a discussion around a table](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/KOVGJNzhRiChTqj5PVDJ_sw-blog-planning.png)

**Instructions:**
Given the area of focus selected in the previous exercise create a backlog 
of early features and discuss timeline and start date and short term goals.
 
 **Outcome:**
Based on what we learned throughout the day we decided that we would 
focus on helping users book workout sessions online for phase 1.

## Design Workshop - Wrap Up 

![One teamate looking up towards the group not shown in the photo and smiling](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/sBpgJw3AQyOZj23bLATQ_sw-blog-conclusion.png)

The final part of the workshop when we could all release a deep breath 
and appreciate the effort that we had put in throughout the day. 

**Instructions:**
Ensure that all aspects of the workshop have been documented and 
shared across the group and clarify any unresolved queries.

**Outcome:**
High fives, excitement, and exhaustion - workshop complete.

## Part III - Prototyping & Beyond

With the workshop wrapped up we were all eager to dive deeper into the 
design process. We worked with 8th Light to determine what technology 
stack we would be using and set some rituals to abide by, weekly planning 
meetings (as needed) asynchronous stand ups, and retrospectives. 
 
Since that time the thoughtbot design team and 8th Light have begun 
designing and building the booking system. From focusing on micro 
interactions such as form fields to helping translate the Steel Warriors
brand to the web we have been especially driven by the amazing 
mission of Steel Warriors. 

![A video showing the design proccess of our initial design proccess](https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/YyvRD72KQumU6cojJVBD_steel-warriors-proccess.gif)

If you want to learn more, participate in workouts, or donate to Steel 
Warriors visit their [website](https://www.steelwarriors.co.uk). If you want
to follow along with our design progress follow us 
on [Dribbble](https://dribbble.com/thoughtbot).
 
Special thanks to photographer Francis Augusto for his amazing 
photographic documentation of our workshop session. To see 
more of his work visit his [website](https://www.francisaugusto.co.uk).
 
Thanks for reading.