UX Case Study

Understanding the Challenge

• Runners have diverse goals—fitness, competition, or wellness.
• Existing apps often overwhelm beginners or lack personalization
• The goal: Create a streamlined, motivating experience tailored to user intent.
• Design a prototype that reflects product thinking and strong UX decision-making.

A Personalized Running App Prototype

• Adaptive onboarding with smart user segmentation
• Modular features based on fitness goals
• Clean design system, intuitive flows, and real user feedback
• Mobile-first, low-to-high fidelity journey from concept to testable design

Product Thinking & Strategy

• Identified market gap between high-performance apps and beginner-friendly UX
• Defined product vision: "A running app that adapts to your intent, not the other way around"
• Segmented users into three intent clusters: Fitness, Performance, and Wellness
• Created a lean feature roadmap based on user value vs effort (MVP-first approach)
• Balanced business goals (retention, engagement) with user needs (clarity, simplicity)

The Process

Building a Better Running App

• Studied 4 top apps (Strava, Nike Run Club, Adidas Running, MapMyRun)
• Identified gaps in personalized onboarding and beginner inclusivity
• Saw overemphasis on social/community features not relevant to all runners
• Concluded that intent-driven experiences were underutilized

Problem Framing & Opportunity

• Mapped diverse runner profiles: weight, fitness level, running habits
• Surface-level goals like “lose weight” were often tied to deeper motivations (stress relief, control, health scares)
• Defined core user needs: simplicity, clarity, motivation, flexibility
• Opportunity to become a runner’s “coach-lite” app with adaptive UX

Feature Prioritization & UX Strategy

• Designed user journey based on onboarding choice (Fitness, Performance, Wellness)
• Prioritized features by impact (onboarding → run tracking → review)
• Deferred low-priority features like social sharing & friend invites
• Mapped intent → feature → motivation to align with product goals

From Concepts to Interfaces

• Mapped diverse runner profiles: weight, fitness level, running habits
• Surface-level goals like “lose weight” were often tied to deeper motivations (stress relief, control, health scares)
• Defined core user needs: simplicity, clarity, motivation, flexibility
• Opportunity to become a runner’s “coach-lite” app with adaptive UX

Testing & Iteration Loop

• Mapped diverse runner profiles: weight, fitness level, running habits
• Surface-level goals like “lose weight” were often tied to deeper motivations (stress relief, control, health scares)
• Defined core user needs: simplicity, clarity, motivation, flexibility
• Opportunity to become a runner’s “coach-lite” app with adaptive UX

Turning Insights Into Impact

Throughout this project, I demonstrated end-to-end product ownership — from identifying user needs and analyzing competitors to defining clear personas, prioritizing features, and aligning them with business goals. I applied structured problem-solving to distill insights into actionable solutions, crafted a scalable product vision, and collaborated across disciplines using low- and high-fidelity design prototypes. Continuous user testing guided data-informed iterations, while roadmap thinking and MVP scoping ensured a lean yet impactful product direction. This case highlights my ability to balance user empathy with strategic execution — a critical trait for modern product management.