Evolve You
Reinventing EvolveYou’s Fitness App Experience
React Native Mobile App
Completely redesigned EvolveYou's fitness app experience, from onboarding to workout tracking, improving navigation, engagement, and user retention, and helping boost App Store ratings from 3.2 to 4.6 within the first two months.
- Role
- Product Designer / UI Developer️
- Year
- Sept 2019 - February 2020
- Disciplines
- UX Design, UI Design, Interaction Design, UI Implementation (React Native)
Overview
EvolveYou (formerly Tone & Sculpt) offers hundreds of trainer-led workouts for home and gym. I was one of two Product Designers tasked with a ground-up overhaul of the UX, UI, and interaction design, contributing through discovery, prototyping, and hands-on implementation in React Native to deliver a more intuitive, engaging, and scalable app.
The old UI of the app
01 / Discovery & Research
Understanding User Needs
We began by assessing the existing app and gathering insights into user frustrations and opportunities for improvement.
Activities included:
Activities included:
- Heuristic evaluation of the current app's usability
- Competitor analysis (Sweat, Nike Training Club, Freeletics) to benchmark features and onboarding
- User research via interviews and app store review analysis
01 / Discovery & Research
User Personas
From research we developed three core personas:
- The Beginner – new to training, seeks structured guidance and encouragement
- The Gym-Goer – comfortable with equipment, needs flexible plans to fit busy schedules
- The Goal-Chaser – motivated by progress tracking and measurable results
01 / Discovery & Research
Journey Mapping Sessions
We facilitated whiteboard sessions with the wider product team to map key user journeys (e.g. onboarding → selecting a plan → tracking progress).
This revealed critical drop-off points, particularly in onboarding and navigation, where users struggled to connect with relevant content.
This revealed critical drop-off points, particularly in onboarding and navigation, where users struggled to connect with relevant content.
02 / Design Exploration
Design Exploration
With insights in place, we moved into ideation and prototyping.
Key focus areas:
Key focus areas:
- Onboarding flow: Reimagined to capture fitness goals and personalise recommendations.
- Navigation: Simplified to reduce friction and surface key actions faster.
- Workout player: Redesigned for clarity, better visual guidance, and progression tracking.
- Community features: Explored lightweight social interactions to drive motivation.
Onboarding Flow
Clickable Prototypes
03 / Interaction & Visual Design
Interaction & Visual Design
The visual identity was modernised to align with EvolveYou's brand refresh, focusing on:
- A clean, component-driven UI system in React Native
- Motion design concepts to make navigation feel fluid and rewarding
- A design system ensuring scalability for new features
UI Components
04 / Implementation
Delivery & Implementation
At Solid State Group, designers were also responsible for implementing their designs in frontend code alongside the more technical full-stack developers.
I implemented the UI in React Native, which allowed the full-stack developers to focus on the more technical development tasks—application logic, API integrations, and advanced animations.
We shipped in agile sprints with regular design/dev syncs to maintain fidelity.
I implemented the UI in React Native, which allowed the full-stack developers to focus on the more technical development tasks—application logic, API integrations, and advanced animations.
We shipped in agile sprints with regular design/dev syncs to maintain fidelity.
The finished app
05 / Impact
Results & Impact
The redesigned app launched in January 2020 to strong adoption and positive reception:
- Significant increases in daily active users and session length post-launch
- Improved feature adoption, with onboarding completion rates up markedly
- Positive feedback on simplified navigation and personalised onboarding
3.2 → 4.6
App Store star rating improvement within the first two months
The redesign made such a difference. It feels smoother, clearer, and way more motivating. I’ve stuck with my plan longer than ever before. It really feels like having a coach in my pocket.”
EvolveYou user / Post-relaunch App Store review (2020)
Reflection
This project showed the value of end-to-end UX involvement: from whiteboarding with the team, to prototyping and testing with users, through to hands-on UI implementation.
By combining solid UX foundations (personas, journeys) with practical frontend delivery in React Native, we shipped a transformed product experience that directly impacted user satisfaction and retention.
By combining solid UX foundations (personas, journeys) with practical frontend delivery in React Native, we shipped a transformed product experience that directly impacted user satisfaction and retention.
Niall Quinn 2025