Google designers element the continuing effort to revamp Fitbit app

What you want to know

• Google has overhauled the Fitbit app because it formally acquired the corporate in 2021, making it match according to Materials You design language.
• In an interview printed to the Google Design web site, the Fitbit UX staff defined the way it determined to adapt the Fitbit app to combine it with Google platforms.
• The designers share the thought course of behind the transition, which has spanned two years and continues to be ongoing.

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Google formally closed its deal to accumulate Fitbit roughly three years in the past, and it’s nonetheless working to combine Fitbit into its well being portfolio and bigger units and companies ecosystem. We are able to see the results of this undertaking in a number of methods, just like the Fitbit app redesign matching the Materials You design language. Nonetheless, we simply acquired a uncommon take a look at the thought course of behind Google’s visible redo of the Fitbit app by an interview with the Fitbit UX staff posted on the Google Design website.

Whereas it is apparent that the brand new Fitbit app — which has been rolled out in components beginning final yr — matches the Materials You theme, designers needed to begin engaged on the undertaking earlier than it was finalized. They began work two years in the past and leaned into the Mild and Area artwork motion that originated in Google’s residence state of California within the late Sixties. 

“We knew there was momentum across the idea of ‘kind follows feeling,’ we knew it was about personalization, and we knew it was all about you — that labored very well for celebrating one of the best of Google with Fitbit,” stated Mat Helme, a Fitbit product and model design lead. 

This strategy in direction of design is how we acquired the Fitbit app because it seems immediately, with gentle backgrounds, wealthy colours, and a number of pastel shades. We are able to see the results of Google and Fitbit’s design preferences nonetheless directing app updates, just like the just-released Fitbit Sleep revamp. 

“Having Fitbit lean into rounded varieties and softer colours feels pretty distinctive, and the round kind issue is an enormous a part of how we design for that uplifting and compassionate feeling,” stated Judy Zhao, who’s a pacesetter of the Fitbit visible movement and methods staff. “We’re in a position to do that as a result of we’re combining a number of worlds into one holistic well being journey expertise.”

Nonetheless, it is about extra than simply design. The designers at Fitbit additionally wished to make well being and health metrics out there in a manner that was straightforward to digest. 

“We’re on a journey as a product staff to turn out to be much less about information assortment and extra about providing you with perception and actionable data to take cost of your well being journey,” stated Fitbit UX Design Lead Sarah Wilson. In observe, Wilson says that this entails utilizing charts and textual content to clarify all of the health and well being jargon that may not be naturally understood by everybody. Going a step additional, Fitbit needs to make it simpler for customers to take recorded information and apply it to make the precise health and way of life adjustments.

That leads us again to the Google Pixel Watch 2, which has the round kind issue to match Fitbit’s rounded design preferences. It additionally contains the sensors required to supply the information Google needs to share in a easy manner. So, it stands to cause that the Pixel Watch — and its round kind issue — is an enormous a part of the Fitbit technique transferring ahead.