Uplift
Crafting meaningful interactions that ease the fitness journeys of Cornell students
SUMMARY
As part of the project team AppDev, I worked on ideating and designing features to Uplift to address user engagement challenges and enhance the delivery of real-time fitness information. As a result, we have seen daily active users on Uplift rise by 300%, as well as a lack of noticeable churn as the semester progresses..
ROLE
Product Designer
TEAM
1 Product Manager 2 Product Designers 1 Product Marketer
TIMELINE
September 2023 - December 2024
CONTEXT
An information fitness app for Cornellians
As Cornell students, 3 main challenges come in the way of keeping ourselves physically fit.
Students lack the confidence to start their fitness journey
Students struggle to find comprehensive information about available resources.
Students are not happy with the quality of fitness offerings at Cornell
Leading to a lot of....this.
This is where Uplift comes in
Uplift aims to solve these problems by offering users a welcoming and informative fitness experience at Cornell.
CONTEXT
But we do have a problem...or a few
When I first began designing on Uplift, the app had been shelved for 3 years, due to Cornell fitness centers being shuttered by the pandemic. As these centers reopened, user engagement rose but never returned to pre-pandemic levels. This presented a valuable opportunity to address underlying issues within our app before relaunching.
Problem 1
User engagement drops sharply as the semester advances
Problem 2
Lack of integration with official Cornell sources, resulting in limited real-time information
HMW
Coming upon 3 years of being shelved, we ask ourselves...
How can we enhance Uplift's longevity and maintain our position as the go-to source for fitness information at Cornell?
USER RESEARCH AND KEY METRICS
Warming Up with User Insights
Through our research, I spoke to a diverse set of students, from seasoned gym-goers to novices who want to begin their fitness journeys.
INSIGHT 1
Routine and familiarity leads to less reliance and engagement
As students become more familiar with gym routines, their engagement tends to drop as the semester progresses.
INSIGHT 2
Students have high expectations
for their gym experience
Students want to anticipate their gym experience but often face unexpected situations like closures and overcrowding
INSIGHT 3
Time is a commodity that drives students to be selective about how they spend it
Despite busy schedules, students are willing to allocate time for gym sessions if they can be assured of productivity and efficiency
Measuring our Success
Our whole product team was through the roof to be working on the return of a hallmark of AppDev’s repertoire of mobile apps. But, we still had to hold ourselves to a high standard. How do we know we created something exciting and impactful?
Engagement over time
New user acquisition
Session frequency
Our Guiding Philosophies
GUIDE #1
Have fun and explore novel solutions
Moving out of the pandemic, let’s bring freshness and fun interactions into every tap.
GUIDE #2
Empower students and exceed their expectations
Provide personalized and responsive support that empowers students to achieve their fitness goals
GUIDE #2
Set Uplift up for longevity
Be ahead of the curve by designing for unpredictable situations and interruptions to regular scheduling
SOLUTION SPACES
Exploring Our Possible Routes
Using these in mind, our team began brainstorming two possible solutions to address our problem, selecting only one given our 4 month semester time constraint.
Uplift Activities
Solution Space 1
Uplift Activities
Recently-designed feature that can be bolstered with additional functionality
Relatively easy to design with components borrowed from existing features
Not an exciting venture, lacking relevance to problem space
Uplift Capacities
Solution Space 2
Uplift Capacities
Incorporates real-time data to keep students always informed
Offers students more control over the quality of their gym-going experience through choice
Requires restructuring current information architecture to include capacities across app
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Enhancing our existing app’s navigation
Gyms are at the core of the Uplift experience, and with a new feature on the way, how can we preserve scanability while designing new additions?
Step 1
Understanding Cornell fitness structure
Each fitness building at Cornell contains a wide variety of facilities, including spaces for differnet sports to be played, as well as fitness centers where students can work It’s crucial to distinguish between these two key components: the Fitness Center and the Facility.
Structure of Cornell fitness
Step 2
Reorganizing our IA
While our team found it straightforward to differentiate between sections of each building, we realized that students often struggled to do the same. Furthermore, nesting too many items together could lead to increased confusion and a less intuitive user experience. Therefore, we implemented Tabs to counter and and anticipate additional features that would come into play.
Comparing Uplift’s gym navigation evolution
MEANINGFUL VISUALS
Introducing Capacities
By introducing real-time updates on a gym’s current volume, we aim to transform Uplift into a dynamic and indispensable tool for users, fostering a greater sense of trust in both our app and Cornell Fitness Centers.
Step 1
Communicating Live Data Effectively
User feedback confirmed that capacity information was critical and deserved a more prominent placement than just being on each gym detail page. As a result, we decided to ensure that this information is easily accessible for all users.
Comparing colors for our data visualization
How do we format?
After testing both visual options, we found that the circle display provided a clearer and more intuitive way for users to quickly assess gym capacities at a glance. The circular design also aligned better with our overall aesthetic and allowed for a more balanced use of space on the home page.
Comparing data visualization
Color Choices
Communicating the capacity of a gym is more than just conveying quantity. It invokes feeling, swaying the user’s decision-making process regarding which gym to go to. We had originally considered a green/orange/red pallette for these bars, which would have deviated from our design system’s intended use case for these colors (success/warnings/errors). We instead decided to go with an angular gradient color, keeping with our philosophy to experiment and take risks. We were careful to be subtle, yet convey urgency when needed to let our user make the most informed decision.
Step 2
Integration into our current screens
User feedback confirmed that capacity information was critical and deserved a more prominent placement than just being on each gym detail page. As a result, we decided to ensure that this information is easily accessible for all users.
Room to add more capacity-related features, such as capacity prediction, which would require more breathing room
Still unsure whether additional features would be user-validated
Placing on header avoids overcrowding page by default
Quick interaction to hide/show information
Interaction might not be intuitive at first
Comparing entry points for Capacities
Step 3
Putting the details all together
Our previous decision to use tabs helped greatly when integrating Capacities into each individual gym page. Instead of having to fit capacities the very crowded single-column page, we organized ourselves and made room for a very digestible, clean, and effective gym browsing experience. We were also able to get rid of Popular Times, a proto-capacities feature that only relied on hard-coded data, unlike our current feature.
Before and after of our gym details page.
FUNCTIONALITY THROUGH INTERACTION
Going beyond static
We already had some pretty big wins for this feature. We had integrated it into two screens, had received good internal testing feedback, and were ready to spend the rest of the semester simply developing and testing.
However...
We were not complacent.
Our research into Cornell’s fitness centers revealed data points that we could leverage through web scraping in order to further enhance the user experience. So we jumped back into it.
And decided to tackle 3 last tasks...
Report building hours and schedules.
Reporting amenities/services that increase accessibility awareness.
Let students set reminders and notifications regarding capacities.
Step 1
Finding the right fit
These features are specific to each gym and share a common functionality, so it made sense to group them closely. However, we were careful not to disrupt the delicate balance of our existing details page layout. We found that utility buttons were a proper addition to our interface, and we took care to not emphasize these actions, as they are meant to support, rather than dominate, the primary user experience.
Our new inclusion of utility buttons
Step 2
Establishing a common display
We are not looking to develop an entire flow – in order to emphasize glanceability and quick action, we decided to use modals to display data that users would digest, quickly take action on, and then dismiss.
Before and after of our gym details page.
FINAL DESIGNS
A hub for your fitness journey
In the end, we had all the components necessary to ensure that students would gain value from our information and continue returning to the app as the semester progresses. Let’s check it out.
Video Demo
Clean Visuals and Function
REFLECTION
Work on Uplift continues
Work continues to be done on the development of Uplift. It is currently launched on the Google Play Store and the App Store. After user testing, my product team has received support for Uplift’s new interactivity features. We have struck a chord with Cornell students looking for a good gym experience, and we hope to continue seeing how we can push forward with them in mind.
Special Thanks To...
My fellow Uplift podmates
I want to thank Uplift devs, marketers, and legacy designers for creating very iteration of Uplift, especially the amazing pod leads who have led our journey out of the shelf: Marcus and Bella.
My design mentors and mentees
Designing for an app with so much history can be scary. Thank you for the whole design team on AppDev for being the funnest and most supportive people, allowing me to develop my craft in a safe and loving space.

Special thanks to my mentors!! Jason, Emily, Tise, Amanda, this couldn’t have been done without you <3

And thank you Yucheng, for being such a bright and warm spirit and an amazing first mentee!
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Made by Dennis Quizhpi, supported by love, ambition, and the dreams of his immigrant parents ♡
Creado por Dennis Quizhpi, apoyado por el amor, ambición y los sueños de sus padres inmigrantes ♡