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PulseFit

UX DesignProduct ResearchMobile

A fitness and diet app for busy adults who need tracking that stays simple and personal. View case study presentation

UX/UI Lead · 4 weeks · 2026 · Solo design lead · Mobile

Tools·Figma · FigJam

PulseFit preview
Overview

Overview

PulseFit is a health, fitness, and diet tracker for adults 18–40 who want better habits but can’t spend hours logging every detail. As sole UX/UI lead, I led research, defined the information architecture, iterated from lo-fi through usability testing, and designed the high-fidelity prototype. The product brings workouts, nutrition, and light community features together in an experience that stays quick to use day to day.

Problem

Fitness apps often demand too much input and still feel generic for people with limited time.

Users abandon tracking when setup and logging consume their scarce free time.

Competing products tended to be either deep and heavy, or simple and incomplete.

Calorie-only progress rarely felt motivating on its own.

Goals

Goals

Design a single fitness and diet experience that remains quick to use on busy weeks, with consistency as the primary measure of success.

Research

Research

In week 1 I conducted 5 interviews, reviewed MyFitnessPal, Strava, and Apple Fitness, and ran a card sort. Participants wanted fitness and diet in one place — as long as the product didn’t become another time sink.

User interviews

5 sessions on motivation, current tools, and where tracking breaks down. Time pressure surfaced in every conversation.

Competitive analysis

Reviewed MyFitnessPal, Strava, and Apple Fitness with a focus on onboarding and logging, where users most often stalled.

Card sorting

Mapped how participants grouped fitness, diet, and social features, which informed the five primary sections.

5

interviews

3

competitors

20

cards sorted

  • I have a busy career schedule and don't want to spend too much time on tracking tools.
  • I don't think any tool right now has an all-in-one solution that doesn't feel too complicated.
  • If it's fun, free, and competitive, I'm in.

Danielle Carter

29 · Product Manager · San Francisco

I need something that fits into my busy schedule.

  • Stay active despite a demanding career
  • Track progress without spending too much time
  • Limited time and sporadic schedule
  • Apps feel overwhelming

Sebastian Day

32 · Occupational Therapist · Denver

I prefer minimal and intuitive tracking.

  • Stay consistent with short self-planned workouts
  • Simple routines without gym dependency
  • Sporadic schedule disrupts routine
  • Hard to stay consistent by location/time

Daniel Martinez

24 · Student · Seattle

If it's fun, free, and competitive, I'm in.

  • Build strength and improve cardio
  • Compare progress with friends
  • Gear-heavy workouts
  • Confusing or overwhelming routines
Process

Process

With a 4-week timeline, I focused early on flows and lo-fi structure, then moved into visual design once testing confirmed the foundation held up.

  1. Flows, storyboards, and lo-fi sketches
  2. Usability testing on lo-fi, then iteration into hi-fi
  3. Final prototype and a second round of testing
  • Week 1: Research and personas
  • Week 2: IA and lo-fi
  • Week 3: Hi-fi and prototype
  • Week 4: Usability testing
Architecture

Architecture

The card sort pointed to five sections — Home, Fitness, Diet, Social, and Profile — so planning and tracking stayed easy to find in day-to-day use.

  • Home → Dashboard, Activity, Progress, Goals
  • Fitness → Workouts, Plans, Exercise Library
  • Diet → Meals, Recipes, Nutrition, Goals
  • Social → Community, Challenges, Friends, Feed
  • Profile → Settings, Preferences, Devices
Onboarding
Workouts
Tracking
Diet logging
Social
Wireframes

Wireframes

I sketched the full set of flows — from onboarding through scheduling — in lo-fi first, with enough detail to validate hierarchy and task flow before moving into visual design.

PulseFit low-fidelity wireframes — full screen set
Low-fidelity wireframes across the core flows
Onboarding

Onboarding quiz

Participants wanted personalization, but lengthy onboarding reduced follow-through. I kept the quiz short — fitness level, blockers, diet goals, and key body metrics — enough to generate a plan users can begin the same day.

Time is the #1 blocker

Asking about schedule constraints early helps the plan reflect how people actually live.

Light personalization

A small set of questions is enough to tune intensity and meals without a long setup.

Clear goals

Height, weight, and a target give the plan concrete inputs from the start.

  • I have a busy career schedule and don't want to spend too much time on tracking tools.
  • I need something that fits into my busy schedule.
PulseFit onboarding — fitness level quiz
Fitness level
PulseFit onboarding — fitness blockers quiz
Fitness blockers
PulseFit onboarding — diet goals quiz
Diet goals
PulseFit onboarding — diet blockers quiz
Diet blockers
PulseFit onboarding — height picker
Height
PulseFit onboarding — weight picker
Weight
PulseFit onboarding — weight goal picker
Weight goal
Style

Style

The visual system needed to feel focused and energetic: dark surfaces for concentration, a sharp lime accent for progress, and type that remains readable on dense mobile dashboards.

Color palette

Near-black backgrounds keep the product calm. Neon lime is reserved for progress rings, primary actions, and completion states so status is easy to scan. Neutral grays support secondary information.

Void

#0B0B0B

App background

Surface

#171717

Cards & sheets

Neon Lime

#C8F53A

Progress, CTAs, highlights

Snow

#F5F5F5

Primary text & icons

Mist

#8C8C8C

Secondary labels

Typography

Inter carries most of the interface — it stays clear at small sizes across rings, labels, and lists. SF Pro appears on selected health metrics for a more native iOS feel. Hierarchy relies on weight and accent color rather than oversized display type.

Inter

UI body, labels, and data

SF Pro

System metrics & native iOS feel

Voice

Fitness. Diet. Community. — practical language tied to what the user is trying to accomplish.

Hi-Fidelity

Hi-fidelity prototypes

The high-fidelity UI uses a dark foundation with neon lime accents so progress stands out quickly. Workouts and diet stay intentionally light; social features focus on challenges and friends rather than a heavy feed.

PulseFit welcome screen
Welcome
PulseFit plan summary screen
Plan ready
PulseFit home dashboard
Home
PulseFit workout library
Workouts
PulseFit workout detail
Workout detail
PulseFit active workout
Active workout
PulseFit workout complete
Workout complete
PulseFit nutrition screen
Nutrition
PulseFit recipes screen
Recipes
PulseFit log meal camera
Log meal
PulseFit meal detection review
Meal logged
PulseFit social leaderboard
Leaderboard
PulseFit friends feed
Friends
PulseFit challenges
Challenges
PulseFit profile
Profile
PulseFit schedule and calendar
Schedule
Solution

Solution

PulseFit brings goals, workouts, diet, and a light social layer into one experience. Daily progress is framed in a way that stays achievable, even when logging isn’t perfect.

Dashboard

Rings and vitals up front so users can check in within seconds.

Workouts

Sessions shaped by onboarding inputs, with progression and brief form guidance.

Diet

Macros, recipes, and photo logging, introduced after participants cited manual entry as their biggest pain point.

Social

Challenges and sharing with friends — enough for accountability, without a heavy social feed.

Test

Testing

I tested lo-fi early to catch structural issues, then ran high-fidelity sessions in week 4 on dashboard, workouts, and diet logging — the flows users would return to most often.

  • Participants found the dashboard and workouts clear and suitably personal.
  • Structured sessions and form guidance helped less-experienced users.
  • Photo logging drew the strongest response in the diet flow.
  • Clarified personal goals on progress rings after several participants missed them.
  • Added weekly and monthly progression views.
  • Moved recipes to a text-first format for faster scanning between meals.
Impact

Impact

3

personas

5

core sections

4 wks

research to prototype

Conclusion

Reflection

The clearest takeaway was how much consistent use mattered. That influenced decisions throughout — from onboarding length to how progress is framed and what stayed out of scope.

  • Combining fitness and diet in one product without overwhelming users.
  • Designing for three personas with very different schedules.
  • Presenting progress in a personal way without overloading the interface with data.
  • Schedules are irregular, and the product needs to accommodate that.
  • Clear information hierarchy is what makes simplicity work.
  • Photo logging meaningfully reduced friction in diet tracking during testing.
  • Richer weekly and monthly progression.
  • Clearer goal cues on the progress rings.
  • A broader accessibility pass.

Taking the work from interviews through a tested prototype as sole design lead, while keeping the experience usable for time-constrained users.

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