A fast-growing sports & fitness app losing new users at sign-up — a nine-step onboarding process that felt like homework, not motivation.
Company stage
Seed
Industry
Sports & Fitness
Services provided
Research · Wireframe · Mobile app
The challenge
Stryda was acquiring users but losing them before they ever reached the product. The onboarding flow had grown organically — form after form, screen after screen — until it became a barrier instead of a welcome.
New users were dropping off within the first three steps. The experience had no sense of momentum, no reflection of the brand's energy, and no clear signal to the user that the effort was worth it. The product was strong — the first impression wasn't.
My approach
The insight was simple: users didn't feel progress. They were filling out forms, not starting a fitness journey. I redesigned the flow around momentum — fewer steps, clearer microcopy, and visual feedback that made every tap feel like a step forward. I moved through wireframes quickly, testing early concepts with real users before committing to high-fidelity.
The insight was simple: users didn't feel progress. They were filling out forms, not starting a fitness journey. I redesigned the flow around momentum — fewer steps, clearer microcopy, and visual feedback that made every tap feel like a step forward. I moved through wireframes quickly, testing early concepts with real users before committing to high-fidelity.
The final prototype was a mobile-first onboarding experience — reduced from nine steps to three, with a tone that matched the brand's energy from the very first screen.
The results
The new flow felt less like a form and more like a starting line. Users who completed onboarding reported feeling ready to use the app immediately — without needing a tutorial.
Onboarding time dropped by 70%. Admin overhead for managing incomplete sign-ups fell by 45%. And for the first time, the first impression matched the product behind it.