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Actio is a Berlin-based live coaching app that calls you before live sessions begin, leading to higher class attendance percentage than competitors. Despite this, they were witnessing a large drop-off in class engagement once the a user attended their first few classes, hindering new session discovery and overall product stickiness.
Redesign the home feed (the main entry point into live sessions) and user profiles, considering the interlink between the two. Success would be measured by our ability to increase time spent in live sessions, increase discovery of new classes with new coaches and increase social engagement and interaction.
When I originally was informed I'd be supporting this project, I thought I was working on a yoga app. After integrating with their team and learning more about the goals for the product, I helped redefine their strategy, restructured the overall IA, and established a new visual language and innovative interaction paradigms.
The home features immersive, autoplaying, full-bleed, session preview videos from creators to give an overview of their upcoming classes, with a clear call to action to join. We also wove in stories, to give creators more opportunities to connect with their audiences with a lower time commitment.
Accounting for multiple profile variations and states, with clear visual treatments to delineate between them. I also designed a future-state creator studio, which was critical as the company moved towards monetization.
It became clear early on that our work would be used to pitch investors and sell in the vision for Actio 2.0. Because of this, I went a bit crazier with some of the interaction design than I normally would if this were to actually be implemented in a production environment. Sometimes you need to create a shiny toy. Oh, and it worked. Our vision helped them secure new funding and stay afloat during an uncertain financial situation.
My creative director on this project (who was also my manager at the time) really pushed me to break outside of my comfort zone with the visual design. One valuable lesson I learned is that visual design is more about creating something unique (objective) than creating something that looks good (subjective).
The original ask for two screens was misleading, since I knew it would be impossible to deliver them in isolation without considering their interlink and the rest of the experience. Admittedly I got a bit carried away and gave the client far more than they asked, and helped them figure out their product roadmap for future releases.
Since launch, live session engagement continues to increase at an exponential rate as more user profiles are being created daily. In addition to achieving all intended business outcomes, our work has helped the startup secure new funding, has influenced the look and feel of their marketing website and has helped them attract top design talent. It feels great knowing I played a role in this.
live cast minutes
Users attend 3+ sessions per week
User profiles created
“We came in with high expectations and you have exceeded them by far”
Nikita Farenholz
CEO, Actio