Crunch Fitness Case Study: Optimizing Feature Discoverability Beyond the Gym Check-In
Health and Fitness recently became one of my biggest passions! Because I'm traveling back and forth between San Francisco and New York all the time, Crunch became my go-to gym. The mobile app made checking-in a breeze but I often found myself lost trying to use the other features of the app. So, I decided to do an unsolicited redesign of the Crunch iOS app (v. 5.9.10)!
The Problem & Business Goal
A deep dive into the Crunch Fitness app reveals a lot of truly useful features for users. However, much of that core functionality is buried beneath a flurry of ads, random profile feeds, and confusing layout choices.
While the app has all the right tools to be an incredible companion for fitness enthusiasts, the current interface creates unnecessary friction for everyday goals.
Are you seeing what I’m seeing 🤫?
- Hidden Features (Discoverability Issues): Some of the most essential actions users look for are scattered deep within the app, hidden two or three taps away.
- Ambiguous Wording: Puzzling word choices throughout the app leave users guessing about what a feature actually does.
- Inefficient Use of Screen Real Estate: Much of the prime landing page real estate is taken up by features and social metrics that users don't need or look at on a daily basis.
- Redundant User Flows: There are a variety of different, competing ways to access the exact same information.
The Critical Insight
Just to make sure I wasn't letting my own personal biases run the show, I did some quick research to validate my suspicions. I dove into the App Store reviews to see if other gym-goers shared my frustrations, and I conducted two in-depth user interviews.
Outside of the recurring technical glitches (which I've luckily never experienced myself), the feedback completely aligned with my hunch: users were consistently confused by the landing page layout and found the default homepage features unhelpful. The data confirmed it wasn't just me—the app was missing a massive opportunity to support its members past the initial check-in barcode.
Refining the Layout: Moving Beyond the Check-In Barcode
After diving into user reviews and talking to actual gym-goers, "confusing" and "unhelpful" emerged as our two major themes. My goal was to untangle the Crunch landing page so users could actually use the app for its core features—not just scan their barcode at the front desk and close it.
Because we only have a split second to grab a user's attention and build trust, the layout needed to be intuitive from the very first glance. I framed my entire design process around one core question:
How Might We enhance the Crunch landing page so users can effortlessly book classes, track their fitness progress, and refer friends without the clutter?
With this target in mind, I started sketching and wireframing, focusing heavily on optimizing the "thumb-zone"—making sure the most frequent, high-priority actions were placed right at the user's fingertips.
The Redesigned Experience
- Effortless Location Switching: As someone who constantly splits time between SF and NY, this was a must. Users can now view and switch their primary gym location directly from the top right of the dashboard, cutting down a tedious three-tap process into just one.
- Frictionless Referrals: Inviting a friend to a workout shouldn't feel like a chore. I added a quick-share button directly to the home screen, eliminating the need to dig through separate account management pages.
- Live Gym Capacity at a Glance: Club capacity is now front and center on the main page. Gym-goers can check how busy the floor is before they even leave the house—no extra taps required.
- Streamlined Class Tracking: I redesigned the schedule layout so users know exactly what classes they've booked and where to go to find more. Plus, I added a feature to sync those workouts directly into native phone calendars.
- Room to Grow: By untangling the messy interface and optimizing the layout, we freed up valuable visual space for future features aimed at keeping gym-goers supported, engaged, and motivated.
Reflections & Learnings
If this unsolicited redesign taught me anything, it's that a digital product is never truly "finished." Moving from the initial confusion of the original Crunch layout to a streamlined, mobile-first ecosystem required peeling back layers of features. Every time I optimized a user flow or cleared out unnecessary visual clutter, a new opportunity to improve the experience surfaced. In UX, success isn't about hitting a static finish line—it's about committing to a continuous cycle of testing, learning, and refining based on real human behavior.
As a designer, it's easy to want to strip away every ad and promotional banner in the name of a clean interface. However, my corporate background reminded me that the app still has a job to do for Crunch as a business. The real challenge of this project wasn't just making a prettier screen; it was finding the equilibrium where business drivers (like friend referrals and location tracking) and user satisfaction coexist. True product impact happens when you use empathetic design to turn a business requirement into a seamless, helpful feature for the gym-goer.