Gym!
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Gym! ✧
Elevating a fitness app through thoughtful UI design that supports habit-building and user motivation.
A complete redesign of the mobile app for Gym!, a gym franchise operating in Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. This self-driven project stemmed from my passion for UX and my recognition of significant opportunities to enhance the app’s usability and overall user experience.
In 2020, I initiated a redesign of the Gym! app (a fitness franchise present across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) after identifying clear usability and engagement gaps in the existing experience. While the app provided essential functionality such as class booking and membership access, the overall structure felt fragmented and transactional. Key features lacked hierarchy, navigation required unnecessary effort, and the product did little to support long-term motivation or habit formation. I saw an opportunity to transform it from a utility tool into a more holistic fitness companion.
This was a self-driven UX project, where I independently conducted research, defined the problem space, redesigned the information architecture, and developed an intuitive User Interface and interactive prototype. My approach focused on balancing functional clarity with emotional engagement ensuring that users could efficiently manage memberships and bookings while also feeling supported, motivated, and encouraged to return consistently. The goal was not just aesthetic improvement, but structural and behavioral redesign grounded in real user needs.
Challenge & project approach
The Gym! app was designed with the intention to help users discover workouts, track progress, and stay motivated in their fitness journey. The existing experience was fragmented, with users struggling to navigate between workouts, classes, and progress tracking.
Key features were buried, and the app lacked clear guidance, personalization, and motivational cues, which led to low engagement and inconsistent usage. My aim was to analyze these pain points and craft a new redesigned experience that prioritized clarity, usability, and user motivation.
The existing Gym! mobile app fulfilled basic functional requirements—membership access, class booking, and general information—but lacked cohesion and strategic depth. Navigation patterns were inconsistent, core features were siloed, and the app primarily served as a transactional tool rather than a platform supporting user engagement and retention. There was limited visibility into personal progress, minimal personalization, and little reinforcement of behavioral loops that encourage habit formation. As a result, the product underutilized its potential as a daily touchpoint in members’ fitness journeys.
I approached this project as a comprehensive UX redesign initiative. Rather than focusing purely on interface improvements, I aimed to rethink the product structure, clarify its primary value propositions, and align features with user motivations. The project scope included user research, competitor benchmarking, restructuring the information architecture, defining interaction patterns, and building a scalable design system. The objective was to create a more intuitive, motivating, and strategically aligned experience that could support both operational efficiency and long-term user engagement.
Discovery & Research
Understanding user behavior, motivations, and friction points in the existing Gym! experience.
To ensure the redesign addressed real operational and user needs, I began with a focused discovery phase combining qualitative research and structural analysis. The objective was to understand how members, coaches, and administrative staff interacted with the Gym! ecosystem, identify friction in existing workflows, and define a clear scope for the redesign. This phase provided the foundation for both strategic direction and design decisions.
To ground the redesign in real user needs, I began by evaluating the existing Gym! app experience through heuristic analysis, user interviews, and competitor benchmarking. The goal was to understand not only usability issues, but also behavioral gaps—why users downloaded the app, how often they returned, and what prevented it from becoming a consistent part of their fitness routine. This phase revealed that while the app covered functional basics, it lacked clarity, personalization, and motivational reinforcement.
I conducted informal interviews with active gym members across Estonia and Latvia to gather qualitative insights into their expectations from a fitness app. I complemented this with a comparative analysis of leading fitness platforms to identify best practices in onboarding, habit formation, progress tracking, and engagement loops. The research highlighted a recurring theme: users didn’t just want access to bookings they wanted visibility into their progress, easier planning tools, and subtle motivation to maintain consistency.
Research methods applied:
Stakeholder & Staff Interviews (Coaches, Administration, Gym Members)
Conducted conversations to understand daily workflows, member expectations, operational constraints, and pain points across different user groups.Competitor Analysis
Evaluated leading fitness and wellness apps to identify best practices in onboarding, engagement, booking flows, and habit-forming mechanics.User Flow Mapping
Analyzed and restructured core flows such as class booking, workout tracking, and membership management to uncover friction and redundancies.User Journey Mapping
Mapped the end-to-end member experience (from discovering the gym to maintaining long-term fitness habits) to identify engagement gaps.Persona Development
Synthesized research insights into representative user archetypes to guide feature prioritization and tone of interaction.Project Scope Definition
Defined clear objectives, constraints, and feature priorities to ensure the redesign remained focused and strategically aligned.
Key Research Findings
Through research and analysis, several recurring pain points emerged:
Transactional experience: The app was primarily used for booking classes or checking access, with limited ongoing engagement.
Low visibility of progress: Users lacked clear feedback on attendance frequency, workout consistency, or milestones achieved.
Fragmented navigation: Important features such as bookings, membership details, and personal stats were siloed and required multiple steps to access.
Limited personalization: The experience felt generic, offering little adaptation to individual goals or workout habits.
Minimal motivational cues: There were no structured reminders, streaks, achievements, or visual progress indicators to support habit formation.
Problem framing
The discovery phase revealed that the Gym! app was functioning primarily as a utility tool rather than a fitness companion. While it enabled essential actions like booking classes and checking membership details, it lacked cohesion, motivation mechanisms, and a strong value proposition beyond transactions. The core problem was not missing features, but a lack of structural clarity and behavioral reinforcement.
The outcome of the user research methodologies provided key insights into how gym members interacted with the Gym! app and revealed opportunities to optimize their experience. By mapping out essential flows such I identified areas where users encountered unnecessary friction.
After observing the results from these research methods several observations could be pointed out regarding the flaws of the product's lifecycle, acquisition and usage stages. Not just the navigation was rather improvable but some key features of the app were lacking prominence due to these flaws that were generating that users wouldn't interact with them.
To move forward, I reframed the challenge around a central question:
How might we transform the Gym! app from a transactional booking tool into a motivating, habit-supporting fitness platform?
From this reframing, several strategic priorities emerged. The redesign needed to encourage engagement beyond transactional moments by giving users clearer visibility into their progress and activity patterns. Navigation and information hierarchy required restructuring to reduce cognitive effort and make core actions intuitive. The experience also needed to support habit formation through subtle motivational cues, milestones, and feedback loops. At the same time, simplicity had to remain central—ensuring that operational tasks such as booking and membership management remained frictionless. Finally, the digital product needed to better reflect and enhance the physical gym experience, creating continuity between in-app interactions and real-world workouts.
Considering all these insights a new approach for the app could be started in which these issues could be resolved and give the user a sense not of just accomplishment but also rewarding.
Information Architecture & Product structure
Restructuring the product to support clarity, engagement, and long-term habit formation.
The existing Gym! app lacked a clear hierarchy between functional tools (booking, membership, access) and engagement-driven features (progress, activity history, goals). As a result, users navigated between disconnected sections without a strong sense of continuity. To address this, I restructured the product architecture around core user intentions rather than internal feature groupings. The goal was to create a system that reflected how members think about their fitness journey: planning workouts, tracking performance, and maintaining consistency.
The redesigned structure introduced a clearer separation between operational tasks and personal insights, while keeping both easily accessible. The navigation was simplified to emphasize primary actions such as booking a class or starting a workout while elevating progress tracking and engagement features to a more prominent position. This shift transformed the app from a reactive tool used only when needed into a proactive companion that encouraged regular interaction.
Key App features deep dive
Designing core features that balance operational efficiency with motivation and long-term engagement.
The redesign focused on transforming everyday interactions into moments that reinforce consistency and progress. Rather than adding unnecessary features, I concentrated on elevating the most critical touchpoints in a gym member’s journey. Each feature was redesigned to reduce friction, increase clarity, and subtly support habit formation. The main sections of the app were modernised, better structured and given a nicer and simpler approach.
Class Booking Flow
Class booking was one of the most frequently used features, yet the existing experience required multiple steps and offered limited filtering clarity. I redesigned the flow to prioritize speed and visibility.
The updated booking experience introduced clearer filtering (by time, trainer, intensity, and availability), improved calendar visualization, and simplified confirmation states. Visual cues such as availability indicators and contextual details (trainer, duration, capacity) helped users make quicker decisions. The goal was to reduce cognitive effort and enable bookings in just a few intuitive steps.
A new calendar related to the bookings system was also implemented having into account that it represented one of the most used and critical features of the app which is users being able to find out workouts or trainings and be able to book them. On this updated version of that feature users can apply different filtering options to refine their search as well as getting detailed information about the type of workout/training and in case of need contact the coach who carries out the selected event. It became easier as well for the user to keep track of his bookings as these are now saved on his calendar.
Progress & Activity Tracking
A major gap in the previous app was the lack of meaningful feedback on attendance and performance. Users had limited visibility into their consistency or achievements.
The redesigned Progress section surfaced key metrics such as workout frequency, attendance streaks, and monthly summaries. Clear visual hierarchy and lightweight data visualization made it easy to understand activity at a glance. This shifted the app from a reactive booking tool to a reflective progress companion, reinforcing motivation through visible momentum.
Personalized Dashboard
To strengthen engagement, I introduced a personalized home dashboard that adapts to user behavior.
Instead of a static landing screen, the dashboard highlighted upcoming bookings, recent activity, recommended classes, and progress snapshots. This created a sense of continuity between sessions and reduced navigation friction. The aim was to make the app feel aware of the user’s fitness journey rather than presenting generic content.
Membership & Account Management
Operational tasks such as membership status, renewals, and gym access were reorganized into a clearer, more accessible structure.
By grouping related information contextually and reducing redundant steps, users could manage subscriptions and access details with minimal friction. The experience remained simple and efficient while visually aligned with the broader system, ensuring consistency across functional and motivational features.
The Profile and rewards information also received a new look and more customised to the user approach, as the user should feel encouraged to make use of the app and get rewards that translate into "points" that he can later use for the Marketplace or to unlock special services or subscriptions.
Marketplace
To extend the app’s value beyond workout scheduling and tracking, I introduced a Marketplace section where members could browse and purchase gym-related products and services directly within the app. This included items such as supplements, merchandise, personal training packages, and special class bundles. The marketplace was designed to feel integrated rather than promotional, using clear categorization, simple product cards, and a streamlined purchase flow. By embedding this feature within the broader gym ecosystem, the app not only created an additional revenue channel for the gym but also provided members with convenient access to products and services that support their fitness routines.
Validation & Iteration
Since this project was developed as a conceptual redesign, it did not proceed to a full development phase. Instead, the validation process was approached through stakeholder review and strategic feedback. I structured the final concept as a proposal that could be presented to relevant stakeholders within the local Estonian branch of the franchise, including gym management, coaches, and administrative staff. The goal of these sessions would be to assess how well the redesigned experience aligned with operational workflows, member expectations, and potential business opportunities.
Through walkthroughs of key user flows and feature concepts, stakeholders would be able to evaluate the practicality of the redesigned booking system, the value of introducing progress tracking and engagement mechanisms, and the feasibility of integrating new areas such as the marketplace. These discussions would also help surface operational considerations—such as class scheduling logistics, membership management, and potential integration with existing systems—that could influence implementation.
While the project remained conceptual, framing the redesign through stakeholder validation ensured that the proposed solution remained grounded in realistic operational contexts. This step also highlighted how the concept could evolve into a viable product roadmap if further pursued.
Potential next steps on the redesign project:
Conduct structured feedback sessions with local gym management and staff
Validate the redesigned booking and progress flows with real gym members
Prioritize features for a potential MVP release
Assess technical feasibility and integration with existing gym management systems
Iterate on the concept based on operational and user feedback
Outcome & Reflections
Redesigning the Gym! app provided insights into user engagement, operational clarity, and the strategic role of digital experiences in fitness.
Although the redesign remained conceptual, the proposed improvements highlighted significant potential impact for the Gym! app. By conceptualizing enhancements and improvements the redesign aimed at clarifying navigation, simplifying flows, increasing member engagement and reduce friction in daily app use, supporting a business goal of long-term habit formation for the users. Features such as i.e. the personalized dashboard and marketplace were designed to deepen user interaction and provide additional value to both members and the franchise. Presenting these ideas to local stakeholders emphasized for me as a Designer the importance of aligning digital experiences with operational realities and business objectives.
From a personal and professional perspective, the Gym! project reinforced several key lessons:
Understanding real user needs: Learned the importance of grounding design decisions in research rather than assumptions, even when resources are limited.
Balancing functionality and engagement: Realized how crucial it is to design not just for usability, but also for motivating users and supporting long-term habits.
Structuring complex flows: Gained experience in organizing multiple features and interactions into a clear, intuitive information architecture.
Prototyping for communication: Learned how to create visual and interactive concepts that effectively communicate design intent to stakeholders.
Iterating conceptually: Practiced testing ideas and refining flows through feedback and reflection, even without development implementation.
Holistic product thinking: Developed awareness of how operational, user, and business needs intersect in a digital product.
Confidence in presenting designs: Improved skills in explaining design rationale and strategic choices to non-design audiences.
Growth mindset: Learned to embrace experimentation, accept limitations, and use early projects as a foundation for more complex, senior-level work.