Context
Showcase
Research
Design Decisions
Reflections
My Journey
As one of two product designers on the Uplift team, I led deep dives, design explorations, and prototyping to deliver a feature that uses real-time fitness center data to boost user engagement. This resulted in a 125% increase in daily active users and sustained retention across semesters.
CONTEXT
Using a college fitness center can be a hassle.
Are any gyms at Cornell open past 11pm?
r/Cornell - Posted by u/JustACornellian
Students face a daunting information gap when beginning their fitness journey.
They are frustrated by the quality of fitness offerings, without clarity on ideal times to work out.
Maybe it’s just Teagle and the times I go but it’s always packed for new years resolutioners including myself.
r/Cornell - Posted by u/JustACornellian
Wanna start going, but...I feel nervous going alone. I also don’t really know what to do…
r/Cornell - Posted by u/JustACornellian
New gym-goers face intimidation and a lack of guidance, making it hard to start their fitness journey confidently.
The remedy?
Revitalizing a classic Cornell resource.
Revitalizing a classic Cornell resource.
Solution
Equipping Cornellians with vital insights
Campus gym capacities, at a glance
Bringing live fitness center data to the forefront of Uplift for smarter, more informed workout planning.
Access vital resources and facility information
Seamlessly explore essential information through intuitive modals for a smoother fitness experience.
Get crucial updates on capacities
Set up reminders to be notified when a facility goes below a certain threshold of users.
Research
Diving into our app and users
Uplift has a history dating back to 2018, when it was first designed and developed by Cornell AppDev students. A lot has changed since then, so it is worth diving headfirst into its user and app environment.
Returning from hiatus
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.
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.
A brief history of Uplift
Engaging the Cornell community
To ensure a well-rounded perspective, we surveyed 6 Cornell students from diverse fields – from non-gym goers to avid gym rats – across a two week period. While not exhaustive, this sample offered a telling snapshot of Cornellians’ key pain points.
Objective #1
How are your fitness needs being solved by Uplift?
Objective #2
What aspects of the Cornell fitness experience can be improved?
Sifting through user interview results to bring out insights
Delivered insights
Key insight #1
Familiarity reduces reliance on external tools
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
Reliable, real-time information fuels confidence
Students want to anticipate their gym visits with confidence but often face disruptions, creating frustration and eroding Uplift’s perceived reliability.
Key insight #3
Tight schedules demand immediate, actionable data
5/6 students are selective about how they allocate time for gym sessions, making it essential to provide actionable data at a glance.
Streamlining fitness journeys
HMW provide reliable, real-time updates to reduce disruptions and build trust in Uplift?
Design
Translating insights into impactful designs
Our goals, how might we’s, and understanding of our users prepared us to tackle the next step—designing solutions that deliver clarity, convenience, and confidence to every gym visit. Below are the key design decisions that shaped our final solution.
Improving navigation for Uplift users
In preparation for these features to be incorporated into our existing app, it is important to revisit and refine language and streamline the navigation that shape Uplift's core user flows.
Revising our information architecture
Each fitness building at Cornell offers spaces for both sports and workout facilities.
While our team found it straightforward to differentiate between sections of each building, we realized that students often struggled to do the same, impeding on their ability to read and understand Uplift content.
Therefore, we added Tabs to 1 ) tackle existing navigational issues and 2) make our app scalable for new features.
While our team found it straightforward to differentiate between sections of each building, we realized that students often struggled to do the same, impeding on their ability to read and understand Uplift content.
Therefore, we added Tabs to 1 ) tackle existing navigational issues and 2) make our app scalable for new features.
Using tabs to reorganize Uplift
Using color to communicate status
Color plays a critical role in conveying capacity and influencing user decisions. It was important to first determine its place in our new designs.
Iteration 1: Use existing design system colors
Misuse of design system colors
Overusing these accent/alert colors – especially for capacity-related visuals – can cause unnecessary user stress.
Branding inconsistency
Creating any visuals with these colors in a primary role–rather than their intended roles as accents–would additionally lead to feeling of fragmentation within the product UI.
Iteration 1
Final Iteration: Create new gradients to fill need
Smooth Transitions for Capacity Levels
Using this gradient would allow for seamless transition from low to high occupancy, reducing abrupt shifts and improving readability of data.
Brand integration
Gradient meshes with Uplift branding to provide cohesiveness, evoking warm tones along with energy that is associated with Uplift’s fitness branding.
Final iteration
Where should capacities be accessed?
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.
Iteration 1: Capacities Page
Supports scalability for features like capacity prediction, but requires more space and validation to ensure relevance and value.
Iteration 2: Capacity toggle
Prevents overcrowding and enable quick interactions, but it may pose a learning curve for first-time users.
Iteration 3: Floating Action Button
Offers quick access to capacity information, but adds to home clutter.
Our initial iterations have led to a satisfying starting point in our designs, But, as designers, there was more to uncover.
Going beyond capacities
HMW can we improve information accessibility and navigation of Uplift?
Determining content through insights
Our research identified three key information types to help users better understand a fitness center.
Interview data point
“Missed a workout window due to inaccurate building hours.”
Solution 1
Make building hours more easily visible
Interview data point
“Friends report back to them from the gym to show how crowded it is.”
Solution 2
Add capacity reminders
Interview data point
“Experienced frustration when...finding the gym misreported certain amenities.”
Solution 3
Add accessibility and amenity information for up-to-date details
Development insight
With our engineers, we discovered an API that provided all the necessary data. Initially, we considered a SWOT analysis to prioritize features, but with our available bandwidth and ease of implementation, we decided to feature all this data to some extent.
How do we represent utility features on a page?
Building on these insights and development capabilities, we began exploring visual approaches to ensure seamless integration of these features into the app.
At this point, I also began conducting user testing with current Uplift users.
At this point, I also began conducting user testing with current Uplift users.
Introducing modals
By using modal interactions, we found new ways to display secondary and contextual information without disrupting our main flow or crowding a gym page.
Modal 1.1
Report important accessibility services and amenities
Modal 1.2
Consolidate building hours and schedules
Modal 1.3
Allow Cornell students to set conditions to be reminded of the best times to work out.
Reflection
Work on Uplift continues
Uplift is currently live on both the Google Play Store and the App Store. Our user testing showed strong support for the new interactive features, especially from Cornell students seeking a better gym experience. While my time at Uplift and Appdev is done, I'm so excited to see what future teams continue working on!
Lessons learned
Pushing past complacency has huge rewards.
Although our initial solution met its goals, we soon discovered it was just the beginning. The grand achievement of the semester only came when we leaned into discomfort.
By embracing discomfort, we unlocked new insights and took our designs to the next level.
By embracing discomfort, we unlocked new insights and took our designs to the next level.
Designing for trust is a responsibility
All along the way, I worked with volunteer testers, friends, and gym-goers. Design isn’t just about providing information – it’s about taking deliberate steps to address user needs with empathy
While delivering data is great, gaining trust is more important.
While delivering data is great, gaining trust is more important.
A passionate team helps elevate the project to new heights
True excitement is palpable and contagious – our team had that from day one.
Through biweekly standups, 2AM grind sessions, and a strong mentor-mentee system, we propelled our project towards its goal of launching.
Through biweekly standups, 2AM grind sessions, and a strong mentor-mentee system, we propelled our project towards its 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.
To 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!
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!
Congrats, you did it!
For anything you might need (Figma files, artifacts, or even a coffee chat), just reach out!