Ruby's Fitness App

Company background

Ruby’s Fitness App aims to empower people with learning and physical disabilities through sports. Co-Founders of Ruby’s Fitness App, Bronagh McNamara and Sinead Lynch discovered a gap in the market for specialised exercise and fitness programmes for young children and adults with learning disabilities. The app is also dedicated to Sinead’s late daughter Ruby who passed away suddenly four years ago, aged just seven. Both Sinead and Bronagh have degrees in sports and leisure management and physical activity, sports exercise and health. Bronagh has dedicated the last 20 years working closely with children and those with disabilities, while Sinead has 20 years’ worth of experience as a personal trainer.

Challenge

Ruby’s Fitness identified an opportunity to create an exercise app that catered to young people with disabilities. The visual design of the application needed to encompass functionality based around home exercise and be presented in an easily accessible and easy to understand way. Ruby’s Fitness needed support to develop a visual prototype of this mobile application.

The aim of this project was to accurately represent the status of a user’s progression and test its navigation and User Interface Design on its target audience. This visual prototype needed to showcase some of the core features which would make this application unique and provide detailed representations of this application and how it would function to attract potential investors.

Solution

To assist and make their idea a reality Ruby’s Fitness made contact with North West Regional College (NWRC) Business Support Centre (BSC) who supported them through the InnovateUs programme.

NWRC Creative & Digital Media Technical Consultant Aaron McKeever provided 30 hours of upskilling support in concept design and walkthroughs as well as using invision prototyping tools.

Impact

On completion of the project the company was able to successfully develop their prototype further so that it can be used on Android.

Future

Bronagh McNamara of Ruby’s Fitness described the benefits of working with NWRC’s Business Support Centre via the Department for Economy InnovateUs programme: ‘’Aaron has been the creative media support for us the last 6 weeks for our App Ruby’s fitness App. We came to NWRC to move our prototype further. We are very impressed by the work that has been produced we also will be given valuable training so we can up-skill ourselves on our App. Our App is for anyone with a disability so we wanted it fun and interactive , Aaron has helped to do so. We were unable to make the prototype live so it can be used on Android Etc, Aaron supported Ruby’s Fitness with this. This training has been excellent and it also give us an opportunity to upskill.’’