Uplift

The process

As one of two product designers on the Uplift product team, I conducted semi-structured interviews, visual and interaction explorations, and prototyping to ideate and deliver a full-fledged feature, which leverages real-time campus fitness center data to display live data and drive up user engagement.

As a result, we have seen daily active users on Uplift rise by 300%, as well as a lack of noticeable churn throughout the following semesters.

Product Context

An informational fitness app for Cornellians

As Cornell students, 3 main challenges come in the way of keeping ourselves physically fit.

Overcoming the First Step

Students lack the confidence to start their fitness journey

Lost in the Information Maze

Students struggle to find comprehensive information about available resources.

Disatisfaction with fitness options

Students are not happy with the quality of fitness offerings at Cornell

Leading to a lot of...this

Uplift aims to solve these problems by offering users an accessible and informative fitness experience at Cornell.

Problem

Uplift fights an uphill battle with its users.

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 and moving forward with new features.

Problem 1

User engagement drops sharply as the semester advances

Problem 2

Lack of integration with Cornell's suite of databases, resulting in limited real-time information

Coming upon 3 years of being shelved, we ask ourselves...

How might we enhance Uplift's longevity and maintain our position as the go-to source for fitness information at Cornell?

User Research and Key Insights

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.

Key insight #1

Declining Engagement Due to Routine Familiarity

As students establish their gym routines, their need for external guidance decreases, leading to diminished engagement with the app as the semester progresses

Key insight #2

High Expectations for a Seamless Gym Experiences

Students want to anticipate their gym visits with confidence but often face disruptions, creating frustration and eroding Uplift’s perceived reliability.

Key insight #3

Time-Sensitivity Influences Decision-Making

70% students are selective about how they allocate time for gym sessions, making it essential to provide actionable data at a glance.

Measuring Success

How do we know we made an impact?

Engagement over time

70% students are selective about how they allocate time for gym sessions, making it essential to provide actionable data at a glance.

New User Acquisition

Measure the number of new users joining the app after the launch of key features as a gauge for word-of-mouth spread and our features’ impact.

Task Completion Rate

Ensure seamless user flows by evaluating how user testers complete key actions within our app’s feature.

Guiding Philosophies

Have fun and explore novel solutions

Empower students and exceed their expectations

Set Uplift up for longevity

Brainstorming

Exploring our possible routes

Uplift Activities

A previously-designed feature that highlights areas for recreational sports.

Offers a chance to enhance Uplift's utility to students with different fitness patterns.

Lacks relevance to problem space

Does not address real-time data gaps or aid gym-goers in decision-making.

Final Solution

Uplift Capacities

A new feature leveraging real-time data to display minute-by minute representations of how crowded a fitness center is.

Incorporates real-time data to keep students always informed.

Offers more control over their gym experience by enabling smarter choices.

Requires dramatic restructuring of information architecture.

Information Architecture

Enhancing our existing app’s navigation

With a new feature on the way, how can we make sure navigation stays intuitive while supporting future enhancements?

Reorganizing our IA

Each fitness building at Cornell contains a wide variety of facilities, including spaces for different sports to be played, as well as fitness centers for working out.

While our team found it straightforward to differentiate between sections of each building, we realized that students often struggled to do the same.
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Therefore, we implemented Tabs to counter and and anticipate additional features that would come into play.

Feature 1

Uplift Tabs

Using a streamlined tab interface to stratify the layers of complexity of Cornell's fitness environment.

Visual Design

Visualizing 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.

How do we format dyanamic population data?

After testing both options, we found that circular visualization provided a more intuitive way for users to assess gym capacities at a glance.

This design solution not only aligned better with our Uplift branding, but was also spatially optimized to be balanced on the home page.

How do we communicate capacity status to our users?

We had originally considered a green/orange/red palette for our bars, but they appeared like an off-brand shade of our CTA colors.

To avoid creating another palette of unnecessary colors, we used an angular gradient to be subtle, yet convey urgency when needed to let our user make the most informed decision.

Accessing Capacities

By ensuring an all-in one hub for capacities, we are giving students access to all capacity data at a glance. The challenge is finding the proper entry point.

Capacities Page

Scalability to expand feature, such as capacity prediction, which would require more breathing room

Further validation still needed for additional features to confirm relevancy and value.

Home Toggle

Optimized placement on header, avoiding overcrowding

Quick interaction to hide/show information

Learning curve may not be intuitive for first-time users

Feature 2

Uplift Capacities

Bringing live data for each fitness center to the forefront of the Uplift experience.

This is where tabs come in handy!

We had already reached some amazing milestones this semster, creating a solution that elevated the student fitness experience.

But, as designers, there was more to uncover.

Our research showed even more data that could be web scraped to improve the student experience.

So we jumped back into it with another feature.

Going above and beyond with utility

Going beyond static

The type of data we uncovered, including accessibility services, building hours and schedules were going to add a bit of tension with our already existing UI, so we brainstormed ways to include this new feature.

Unlocking modals

By using modal interactions, we found new ways to display contextual information without disrupting our main flow.

This feature provides the ability to explore granular details about a fitness location, enhancing their experience without crowding a gym page.

Feature 3.1

Reporting important accessibility services and amenities

Feature 3.2

Consolidating building hours and schedules

Feature 3.3

Capacities reminders

Capacities reminders bring together everything we’ve learned and built, serving as the ultimate bridge between user convenience and actionable insights.

Reflections

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.

Reflections

Reflection #1

Pushing past complacency has huge rewards.

While our first solution met its initial goals, we realized that they were not enough. The grand achievement of the semester only came when we leaned into discomfort and kept discovering, iterating, and finding new directions for our designs.

Key insight #2

Designing for trust is a responsibility

All along the way, I worked with volunteer testers, friends, and even random gym-goers – design is not only about delivering as much info as possible; it's about taking deliberate steps to make sure users' needs are taken care of.

Key insight #3

A passionate team helps elevate the project to new heights

True excitement is palpable and infectious – our team had that and more, always on top of communication and pushing each other towards the goal of launching.

Thank you to my Uplift podmates <3

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 <3

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.

And thank you Yucheng, for being such a bright and warm spirit and an amazing first mentee!

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