ReActive
The Essence
Improving the experience of booking fitness classes across different studios in big cities
Type
UI/UX Design - Mobile
Personal Project
Ingredients
Tools Figma, Excel, Google Suite
Skills Research, Visual Design, Competitive Analysis, User Interviews
Infusion
Role UX Researcher & Designer
Team 1 Project Manager, 4 Researchers/Designers
Duration 3 months
What I Worked on
Inspired by conversations with friends frustrated by current fitness services, I set out with my team to create a solution. We designed a fitness platform that makes booking classes at various studios financially easier, fosters community, and helps users track their health goals. The result is a mobile app that organizes studios, pricing, availability, and progress tracking in one convenient place.
Problem
Finding the right studios, plans, and classes for fitness goals can be overwhelming. Many people struggle with confusing costs, limited flexibility, and a lack of community. Current booking apps don’t provide personalized options or a space for connection, leaving users feeling isolated and discouraged.
Solution
Create an app that aims to bring users together, feel confident in their bookings/purchases, and build rewarding fitness streaks. The app will provide a detailed fitness history, save personal preferences for each studio, offer insights on local studio trends, display clear pricing, and be tailored to meet users' unique needs.
Final Screens
Case Study Structure
Research
Competitor Analysis
I started my research by looking into the current offerings for this market. I knew this is a fairly saturated space, but my conversations had told me there was still much to be done. I evaluated each company (Classpass, Peerfit, Gympass, Soulcycle, and nike run club) on 3 main factors:
1. Unique value proposition
2. Company advantages
3. Company disadvantages
I found that there is a demand for community in all apps, and classpass is the leading provider for multi studio use. The main painpoints at classpass was cost transparency and lack of customer service.
Cost Transparency
“It felt like I was getting cheated and I had no control over how much they were going to charge me, and I had no way of finding out if it was even a fair price”
Pain Points
User Research Surveys
Looking for quantitative data, surveys were sent out to online fitness communities of neighborhood clustered communities with the following questions. We received 36 responses from individuals ages 22-35 from big cities in the United States.
Personalization
“I would show up and everyone with the studio app membership would get to pick a spot near the instructor, but I just had no way of choosing whatsover”
Lack of Accountability
“It just sucked honestly - I really wanted it to work out but I just couldn’t form the habit on my own and I eventually stopped pushing myself to go”
Validation
User Interviews
Based on survey insights, I redefined the niche and refined my questions to gain a qualitative perspective on the problem space. I then interviewed five target users with beginner, average, and advanced gym experience levels.
User Personas
From these interviews, I was able to craft 3 profiles of the types of individuals that would use this product, people who are regulars, like Gym Rat Gary, have multiple attempts but leave discouraged, like Traumatized Tracy, and complete beginners with a wanting for fitness, as portrayed in Aspirational Annie.
Affinity Mapping
User Journey Mapping
Concept
Focus
Synthesizing all information up to this point, our ideation will focus on the following 3 things:
Group fitness/accountability
Economically conscious, want transparency
Build on existing third party apps + add improvements
Resulting in following “How might we” problem statements:
Design System
We chose a deep violet/purple color that feels resilient and signals strength.
Iteration
Low Fidelity Wireframes
High Fidelity Wireframes
Next Steps
Prototyping in Figma
I want to learn more about prototyping since most of this project focused on visual designs and high fidelity wireframing.
Reflection
Learning: This is my field!
Seeing all the pieces of UX research come together felt deeply human. I sifted through interviews, survey data, and affinity maps, diving into users psychological needs to bring design thinking to life. It was fulfilling to learn how to use and translate my strengths in empathy and critical thinking to make design decisions.
Usability Testing
With a working prototype, we could conduct robust usability testing and track things like error rates, time per taks, task completion rates and understanding user satisfaction and interaction.
Learning: Iterative design process
I learned the full end-to-end design process and loved seeing the final product take shape through iterations. Each version came together more smoothly, making the entire process feel sustainable and rewarding as I built confidence with each step.
Partnerships with Studios
Use ReActive to partner with local studios to colleges, giving students the opportunity to test this feasibility of this platform.
Challenge: Online strangers
Meeting this team through an online community, I faced challenges streamlining communication across varying commitment levels and time zones. But by adapting to fit each others skills and creating clear expectations, we successfully completed the project.
Challenge: My first project
This was my first project where I applied the design methodologies from my courses. Getting hands-on helped me understand the process on a deeper level. I learned far more through practice than I ever could from just reading about it, and it solidified my passion for design work.