Project - Everyone Active

Improving the Swimming Booking Experience

A Personal Concept Redesign of a Real World Leisure Centre App

This is an personal design concept created for educational and portfolio purposes only. I'm not affiliated with Everyone Active, and all screenshots of the original app are used solely for critique and improvement demonstration. All design decisions were made using UX principles and reasonable assumptions, without access to internal data.

UX Research

UX Design

UI Design

Overview

Everyone Active is one of the leading leisure centre chains in the UK, who encourages activity bookings through their mobile app.

As an app user, I realised the app had serious usability issues—it was difficult to navigate and sometimes frustrating to use. I reached out to other users and found that many preferred speaking to the reception desk than using the app. This sparked the idea to redesign the app as a personal project, focusing on improving usability. I only focused on the swimming section because I’m familiar with that and it is a good chunk of work as a side project.

Problem

After talking to users and conducting secondary research, I discovered widespread usability issues:

Cluttering: The interface is cluttered and inconsistent.
Findability issues:
- Basic functionalities are difficult to find
- Switching accounts are challenging
- Pool information is unclear
Impacts:
- Reduced digital footprint
- Increased staff intervention at Center's Reception or over Phone
- Sales/Business goals

Solution

I decided to redesign the app using a user-centric approach and developed an alternative concept design with a goal to increase digital footprint. The improved flow has,

Simplified the swimming booking flow:
- A pool information screen
- Adding multiple people when booking for session
Supporting Business goals
- Increased digital footprint and reduced support calls and front desk queues
- Increase in prospects/sales

I believe these improvements can increase booking rates and enhance overall user satisfaction.

Users

The user base ranges from 16 to 80 years old, spanning a wide demographic of individuals who value physical activity.

Research

I started this project by using the app extensively, documenting pain points and noting areas of friction in the user experience. To supplement my observations, I analyzed App Store reviews to understand common complaints and user expectations. I also conducted a Heuristic Evaluation, which helped me uncover nine usability issues. I prioritized the three most critical areas for improvement:

Navigation - Unclear structure and inconsistent user flows
Findability - Difficulty in locating key features and actions
Consistency - Visual and functional inconsistencies across screens

This combination of first-hand experience, secondary research, and expert evaluation helped me identify concrete design opportunities despite not having access to direct user interviews or analytics.

Note: All original screenshots used are from the 2022-2023 version of the app, when I was an active user. I picked up this project again recently to reimagine it as a personal concept redesign.

Design Process

To reimagine the experience, I first mapped the app's Information Architecture to better understand how tasks and content were organized. For instance, I noticed the “Profile” section was underutilized. I proposed evolving it into a central hub for tracking user progress, accessing personal details, and managing bookings — making it far more purposeful and user-centric.

The original app is huge and complex, so I’m only focusing on a few main flows in the swimming section where I found most of the issues.

Booking regular swimming session
Accessing kid's profile and progress
Cancelling membership

Information Architechture

Leisure Centre - Information Achitecture

My messy notes

Before I designed the final screens I wanted see the user flow. This exercise helped my decision on what screens I needed and how the flow is going to be.

Key Screens - Concept Design

Home

My Concept Design

My goal was to simplify the process and reimagine the flow to create an intuitive experience for the users. With this in mind, I redesigned a unified home screen where users can find all the key functionalities like membership card details, manage booking, location change and access all available sports. This way users are going to be focused on the goal they want to achieve.

Original Screen

Profile

My Concept Design

Crucial details like progress, ratings and badges can show the growth of the young swimmers which can be useful for the parents. I added all account-related tasks to this screen as well to make sure users can find them easily.

Original Screen

Pool Details

My Concept Design

In the original app, pool-specific information is available after selecting the pool on the booking screen. So, I added a screen to clearly display pool information to help users to choose from in the session booking flow. A stepper can direct the user about the remaining steps and help the user to navigate the flow easily.

Original Screen(During Booking)

Adding Members

Leisure Centre - Add Member Screen Design

New Screen Proposed By Me

There was no clear way to add another member or non-member to a session. I streamlined the add-a-member in the booking flow, and clarified pricing changes based on membership status. This concept can provide more clarity to the users.

A child under 8 years of age cannot use the the pool by themselves and need to be supervised by and adult while using the pool. This screen will help the members to book the sessions together instead of going via 2 separate booking process.

Prototypes

High-fidelity mockups presented visual uplift and interactivity.

View Prototype

Key Take Aways

If I were part of the design team, I would have conducted usability testing with real users to deeply understand their pain points and behaviours. I also would have collaborated with developers to learn about technical constraints—what could be realistically implemented, and what might require compromises. That insight would have allowed me to adjust my design decisions accordingly.
For this project, I tested with my friends and made changes with wording like, 'Switch Account' to 'Switch to Linked Accounts'
This project reinforced the importance of user research—every decision I made was rooted in actual user needs and feedback. Without that foundation, meaningful change would not have been impossible.