team
4 members
Role
Product Designer
duration
3 Months
Tools & Methods
Figma, Contextual Inquiry, Concept Analysis, Usability Testing
Class booking app design for a pilates studio
Improving transparency and trust in online class bookings for North Chicago Pilates through a dedicated reservation experience.
overview
The Goal
Help users feel empowered and in control of their personal fitness experience through a transparent and trustworthy class booking process.
Background
My team developed this project to supplement a physical experience with a digital aid. While scoping the project, we discovered a mutual frustration with online exercise class registration.
Challenge
Online class registration processes are often time-consuming, and complicated or unclear about pricing, payments, and class information.
Solution preview
Meet North Chicago Pilates
A class booking experience designed to center transparency and trust, informed by a contextual inquiry and usability tests with 100% task completion.
Click a screen to enlarge
Research & Ideation
Understanding users' pain points
We conducted a total of eight contextual inquiries and found a few commonly cited issues, which informed our persona development.
02
lack of pricing and payment transparency
Information regarding studio and class cost breakdowns is often unclear or hard to find.
A registration process that obscures pricing, complicates booking, and requires manual check-in can undermine students' confidence in a studio.
01
Persona 1
mina, 24 (new student)
Goal: Begin a fitness journey and find classes that work for her schedule and budget before committing.
Frustration: The registration process felt unwelcoming to new users; frequent prompting for memberships made it hard to explore freely.
Quote: "I always wanted to try pilates classes, but it's hard to book different kinds of classes with a trial." – P1
Mapping what users need the product to do
The inquiries also informed our concept analysis table. This helped prioritize and finalize product direction, and informed the content and interactivity for the solution.
Concept
Attribute
Operations
User
–
–
Class
class type, instructor, location, length/duration, difficulty, cost
check-in, share, view, search for, favorite
Gym
proximity, address, hours, parking info, gym info
navigate, share, view, check-in
Location
address (street, zip), phone number
view
Reservation
time, day, availability
make, cancel, view
Instructor
name, availability, specialization/certifications
contact, view
Account
favorites, saved classes, bookings, username, password, payment info, user info (phone, email)
view, edit, sign up, delete
Payment
credit card number, name, address
add, remove, update info, view
Membership
price, name, acc number, membership type
pause, cancel, renew, join, view
Feedback
instructor, student, feedback info
view
Item
item type (health supplements, apparel), price, size, quantity
buy, reserve, share, view
Testing & iterating
Validating the structure with usability testing
Synthesizing the generative research allowed us to develop our first lo-fi wireframes. To validate our design, we conducted a round of usability tests.
7 participants
Tests were conducted via Zoom, with participants screen sharing from their personal devices.
2 user flows
New users creating accounts, adding preferences, and reviewing recommendations; and returning users booking classes using credits through the favorites page.
Designing
Wireframing user flows
New Users
After registering, new users can set class preferences, sign waivers, and register for their first class, all without unnecessary time or effort.
Returning Users
Returning users can browse saved instructors and check in digitally, with pricing and class details clearly highlighted throughout.
Closing thoughts
What I learned
01
We are not the user!
I know, it's a cliché – but important nonetheless! Going into this project, we initially planned a feature allowing communication with instructors outside of classes, but most users showed little interest. This feedback helped us focus on core features that users did demonstrate an interest in.
What's next?
01
Full product scope
Ideally, we would expand to a high-fidelity prototype that supports the full scope of interaction beyond these two specific user flows.
02
Measuring success
If we launched this project, we would love to evaluate user confidence ratings, conversion rates, time on task, and error frequency, among others.
