Designing Motivation Through Progress
Sweat is one of the most prominent fitness apps for women. While it had a loyal user base, its progress-tracking mechanism felt outdated and disconnected from its core message of empowerment. My role as Senior Product Designer was to lead the redesign of the Activity and Progress features, introducing ways to help members see, celebrate, and share their journey.
The challenge was clear: how do we transform an underused feature into a motivational engine that keeps users engaged with their workouts?
Problem
Low Engagement with Progress Tracking
Only 5 percent of first-time users interacted with the existing progress page. Users described it as a static snapshot rather than a tool for tracking real improvement.
Motivation Without Recognition
User research revealed that lack of visible progress was a key reason members lost motivation. 73 percent of members rated workout tracking as important or very important, but the current feature did not provide the recognition they needed.
Missed Opportunity for Retention
Data showed that the likelihood of membership renewal dropped exponentially after weeks without completed workouts. Without a way to surface progress and create positive reinforcement, retention remained a challenge.
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The app feels very much like a snapshot… I don’t feel like it is tracking anything.
Defining Motivation Drivers
We started by mapping the ways members stay motivated. Clear goals, tangible rewards, and visible recognition surfaced as the strongest levers.
Competitor Benchmarking
We analyzed leading fitness apps and found Sweat lacked robust progress-tracking compared to others. This validated our direction to focus on streaks, milestones, and achievements.
Co-creation Through Design Sprint
I facilitated a week-long design sprint with cross-functional stakeholders, clustering “How might we” statements and running sketching workshops to explore new ways of visualizing progress.
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Lighting should evolve with us, responding intuitively to our environment.
Building Confidence with Structure
We reorganized the Activity tab so earnings, streaks, and milestones appeared upfront. This made progress visible from the moment users opened the app.
Celebrating Every Milestone
We designed achievements for first workouts, streak completions, and long-term milestones. Each recognition created a positive loop that encouraged continued use.
Validating Through User Testing
Prototypes were tested with members through remote hallway testing. Iterations were made based on feedback, including clarifying calorie metrics and emphasizing achievements. Satisfaction scores improved by more than 35 percent in the second round of testing.
Solution
The final solution transformed Sweat’s progress tracking into a motivational hub.
An Activity tab showing total workouts, streaks, and achievements at a glance.
Achievements that marked milestones and created shareable moments.
Weekly goals and streaks that nudged members toward consistent activity.
A scalable design system that allowed new achievements and streak formats to be added over time.
The redesign was built on iterative validation, ensuring that every feature reflected what users valued most.
Impacts
The redesigned Activity experience delivered measurable improvements:
A 35.2 percent increase in user satisfaction between the first and second round of testing.
A 20 percent improvement in ease-of-use scores.
Members who viewed their progress were significantly more likely to complete additional workouts.
96 percent of members who engaged with the Activity tab went on to complete workouts, proving its motivational impact.
This case study reinforced the value of progress tracking as a retention lever. By celebrating achievements and making data meaningful, Sweat encouraged members to see fitness as a journey rather than a single snapshot.
