FACT Fitness

Driving Conversions by
Redesigning the Experience,
Not Just the Interface

Role: Product Designer
Duration: 160 hours

Skills:

User Research

UI Design

Business Strategy

Branding

Information Architecture

Team: 

Team:

Product Designer - Blake Lemons

Product Strategist - Jess Eng

Client:

Business Owner - Armand Crespo

The Setup:

A Call From the Running Community

“I need a plan and probably

a run crew. The problem is…

(gestures)?”

J.A.

Amateur Marathoner

Problem: Motivated runners can't easily access FACT's program details on their website, preventing them from joining a supportive fitness community.

Picture this, Coach Armand Crespo needs you to transform FACT Training's underperforming website into a high-performing digital presence that attracts new athletes while better serving their existing Pasadena fitness community.

FACT Site Before Redesign and Rebranding

Consultation requests had plateaued at two per month, mobile conversion was half that of desktop, and users couldn't find the essential weekly training schedule.

The challenge deepened: The stakeholder wanted to keep using Wix despite its design limitations. I focused on understanding users to inspire creative solutions within these constraints.

Define

Uncovering the Real Story

FACT has zero direct competition in East LA. Their unique angle: coach-led training with genuine community joy where members celebrate victories together, creating infectious energy.

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This insight led me to create the tagline that would perfectly define everything:

This insight led me to create the tagline

that would define everything:

Club Vibes,

Coach Led!

User Research

Five interviews with potential users, from seasoned marathoners to high school athletes, revealed patterns that completely redirected my design approach.

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The Schedule Crisis:

Every user searched for practice schedules but couldn't find them.

The Confidence Gap:

Users wanted assurance they belonged through the coach's authentic voice and community stories

The Community Hook:

Users actively seeked social proof and community connection before making contact.

The Mobile Reality:

Mobile users encountered small text, crowded layouts, and poor navigation.

Strategic Framework

With these insights, I created a three-circle Venn diagram that became the project compass:

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The overlapping sweet spots revealed the solutions: streamlined onboarding, visible coaching philosophy, and highlighted community wins in a mobile-first framework.

Personas, Problems, and Possibilities

Meet Jasmine: Our North Star User - a first-time marathoner needing accessible community support and coaching because she feels underprepared.

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How Might We give first-time marathoners like Jasmine easy access to structured coaching and a supportive community across devices?

Feature Strategy: Must-Haves vs. Dream-Big

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Building the Foundation: Information Architecture

The existing site structure created friction by not matching user search patterns. Our new architecture prioritized user flows over organizational preferences:

Old Site Map

Blake's Site Map

Old Site Map

Blake's Site Map

Old Site Map

Blake's Site Map

View Old Site Map

View Old Site Map

View Old Site Map

View New Site Map

View New Site Map

View New Site Map

Three Critical User Journeys
The Quick Convert

User Story: As an amateur athlete, I want to quickly request a free consultation, so that I can get information and ask questions in a one-on-one setting.

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The Researcher

User Story: As an amateur athlete, I want a direct path to the organization’s philosophy and testimonials, so that I feel confident and informed in my free consult.

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The Event Enthusiast

User Story: As a current team member, I want hassle-free access the events page, so that I can find race dates, locations, and general event information.

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Lo-Fi Validation

Toes in the water

Hand-drawn wireframes became our testing ground with five users, inviting creative iteration and unconventional solutions that could be tested immediately.

And that immediate feedback revealed both validation and a critical oversight.

Validation:

Users were excited about the mobile-friendly direction and community-focused tone that resonated strongly.

The Critical Mass:

Users still couldn't find the training schedule. Even in wireframes, our primary user need wasn't being met.

As one user put it:

"I still think the schedule

needs to be easier to spot.

Or are we still using Facebook?"

This feedback forced me to rethink our hierarchy: the schedule needed immediate visibility, possibly in main navigation or as a homepage feature.

When I shared this feedback, the stakeholder resisted detailed agendas but agreed to make training days and times highly visible.

The Visual Identity:

Branding For Athletes

My animation background became a superpower when FACT needed a complete brand overhaul to compete with top-tier companies: new logo, colors, and business motto: The Hollywood Makeover.

The stakeholder wanted a simple logo, but my minimal explorations felt unprofessional for competing with brands like Hoka and Lululemon. Through iteration, I developed a mark evoking fitness and speed with professional athletic brand standards.

Logo Design

Style TIle:

Emblem Design

FACT had an existing Greek gods emblem on merchandise, but the amateur execution didn't match their professional needs. I refined it to maintain mythology elements while improving craftsmanship and brand cohesion.

Blending Animation and UX

New and Established Methodologies

Atomic design was essential for FACT's complete brand reimagining, starting with design tokens and building reusable components to enable distinctive personality through cohesive branding.

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Drawing from animation, I applied color scripting methodology from animated films to plan how color affects storytelling and emotion.

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This behind-the-scenes approach may be invisible to users, but it sharpens design decisions and creates cohesive experiences by subtly guiding emotions.

A Strategic Pivot:
Bringing in Additional Strategic Insight

At this point, FACT evolved from a website refresh into comprehensive digital transformation. I brought on Product Strategist Jess Eng to handle technical roadmapping and implementation oversight beyond my core competencies.

This collaboration enabled informed technical trade-offs anchored in business outcomes while I focused on user experience and brand evolution.

High Fidelity Reality

When Prototypes Meet Users

Working with the strategist, I refocused design elements: featuring dynamic training video as hero while scaling back complex graphics, leveraging Wix's strengths while maintaining emotional impact.

Testing

Testing the polished designs with 5 users revealed clear patterns about what was working.

Consultation

Completion

Rate

Spent 3+ Minutes Reading Content

Spent 3+

Minutes

Reading

Content

Of Users

Give Overall

Design

Approval

View Blake's Prototype

View Blake's Prototype

View Blake's Prototype

However, some experience killers remained.

Only 2/5 Users

Noticed CTA

Only 2/5 Users

Noticed CTA

Reported Broken

Back Buttons

This revealed users were deeply engaged with community stories but weren't converting. The high-value content worked; our calls-to-action didn't.

The solution was simple, a tweak of color to pop the CTA gave the users the focusing that they required. All back buttons were also repaired.

A Technical Pivot:

When Beta Becomes a Nightmare

The original plan was prototyping in Figma with Wix constraints, but when Figma Sites launched, we pivoted to test it as a more seamless implementation solution aligned with the client's vision.

Beta products have beta problems.

At the time, Figma Sites had beta-level issues: no video, no carousels, limited fonts, and no custom font imports, teaching us expensive lessons about chasing promising tools mid-project.

In retrospect, we should have formalized our hypothesis before pivoting and tested Figma Sites more intentionally, considering success, failure, and limitations scenarios to enable quicker decisions.

The Return: A Wix Redemption

The Return:

A Wix Redemption

Humbled but wiser, I returned to Wix where constraints became creative challenges. We implemented critical usability insights: functional back buttons, mobile-optimized hierarchy, prominent schedule display, clear entry points, and strategic CTAs throughout.

View FACT's Wix Site

View FACT's Wix Site

View FACT's Wix Site

The Resolution:

Success Metrics That Matter

We knew that the process had led us to success when we heard from Armand just a few weeks later:

"New bookings are up!

Measuring Success:
The Numbers That Matter

Within 30 days, Wix analytics revealed steady growth with meaningful improvements that directly addressed identified user pain points.

Project Impact:


  • Streamlined user flows increased consultation bookings


  • Mobile-first design improved accessibility across devices


  • Clear brand positioning differentiated FACT in the market


  • Systematic approach to constraints turned limitations into features

Personal Growth:


  • Mastered IA through iteration



  • Developed athletic brand aesthetic expertise


  • Learned to balance innovation with practical implementation


  • Strengthened cross-functional collaboration skills

The Business Reality Check

For a local fitness business, these aren't exaggerated results but real improvements contributing to FACT's bottom line: three additional monthly consultations could mean $700+ recurring revenue from better design, not bigger ad budgets.

The website was finally working as hard as FACT's athletes.

The website was finally working as hard as FACT's athletes.

The website was finally working as hard as FACT's athletes.

Reflection

Mobile-first means mobile-first conversion:

Our 45% increase in mobile consultation bookings proved responsive design without mobile-specific user flows leaves money on the table.

User research = testing + metric validation:

Our usability tests changed trajectory, post-launch metrics proved it worked, and 73% immediate schedule findability validated our insights.

Navigation function beats visual innovation:

Users forgive imperfect aesthetics but won't tolerate broken flows, fixed navigation drove 28% consultation increase despite lower visual scores.

Scaling FACT

Scaling FACT:

The Lemonade

Finally, if I had the chance to scale this project, I would focus on developing self-updating community features like member achievement feeds and results pages, while implementing comprehensive analytics to optimize conversion funnels. Most importantly, I'd create a user-friendly system for Armand to post workouts directly on the website, finally solving the schedule visibility issue that drove users to Facebook instead of converting on-site.

Ready to stir up something fresh?

Let's Connect!

blakerosslemons@gmail.com

Ready to stir up something fresh?

Let's Connect!

blakerosslemons@gmail.com

Ready to stir up something fresh?

Let's Connect!

blakerosslemons@gmail.com

Ready to stir up something fresh?

Let's Connect!

blakerosslemons@gmail.com