One group brief we received whilst studying Design for Industry at Northumbria University was to create a service that improved the well-being of young adults. Our solution was Cine-Fit: A gym in a cinema. Cine-Fit would give people who experience a lot of anxiety a safe and familiar space to exercise without fear of judgement. This could be fitted into existing cinemas, and is aimed towards improving the existing cinema experience which is being valued less and less with the rise of internet streaming.

We started our research by interviewing several students, and we found that many felt anxiety going to gyms, mainly due to the fear of being compared to fit gym-goers. As a group we brainstormed ideas and came across an interesting concept: Would people feel less anxiety if they exercised in the dark? We thought through how this might work in different environments and found that a cinema could be an effective place to reduce this anxiety. After much roleplaying, storyboarding and user feedback we eventually came up with our solution.

Our potential users gave us very positive feedback about our final solution. As well as creating an exciting and unique experience, Cine-Fit would be a gateway into improving physical as well as mental health, and could give people the confidence to exercise more regularly.