Branded Mobile App

For

In

Product Design, UX, UI, Research

Creating a Customizable, Scalable Mobile Platform for Fitness, Beauty, and Wellness Businesses

Overview

Mindbody’s Branded Mobile App provides fitness studios, beauty salons, and wellness centers with a fully customizable, white-label mobile platform. This solution enables businesses to offer seamless booking, class scheduling, video content access, and branded engagement features, all within a single app.

As the Principal Product Designer, I worked closely with developers, a product manager, UX researchers, and product marketers to create a highly intuitive and flexible product. The goal was to streamline booking experiences, increase engagement, and enhance brand control while maintaining scalability.

A key part of this work included developing a tool that helped our developers automatically apply a studio’s brand colors while ensuring WCAG compliance. This allowed studios to personalize their apps while maintaining accessible contrast ratios for readability and usability.

The results were transformative:

46% decrease in user time on task, improving efficiency and usability.
250% increase in user acquisition, demonstrating higher adoption rates across businesses.
Significant improvements in customer retention and revenue

Role: Principal Designer | UX/UI | Accessibility | Research | Product Refinement

The Challenge

Lack of Customization and Fragmented Experiences

Before the Branded Mobile App, businesses using Mindbody had limited options for customization. Most fitness studios, beauty salons, and wellness centers had to rely on generic third-party apps that lacked branding flexibility, integrated content, and direct customer engagement tools.

Key Problems Identified:

Lack of Personalization:

Businesses needed an app that reflected their brand identity rather than a generic booking platform.

Disconnected User Experience:

Customers had to switch between multiple platforms for scheduling, payments, and video content.

Low Adoption Rates:

Businesses hesitated to invest in mobile solutions due to complex onboarding, poor UI, and limited control over customer engagement.

Accessibility Challenges:

Many custom-branded apps lacked WCAG compliance, making them difficult to use for customers with visual impairments.

Process

Research-Driven Design Thinking

We began with comprehensive user research to deeply understand business needs and customer pain points:

Research Methods:

Stakeholder Interviews: Engaged with fitness studio owners, salon managers, and wellness practitioners to identify business challenges.
User Testing: Observed how clients navigated existing third-party booking apps, pinpointing areas of confusion and inefficiency.
Competitive Analysis: Assessed existing white-label solutions, benchmarking feature gaps, onboarding experiences, and engagement strategies.

Key Findings:

Customers struggled to complete bookings quickly. They needed a simplified, one-tap experience to reduce friction.
Business owners required greater branding control. They wanted a turnkey solution with color, logo, and layout customizations that aligned with their identity.
Navigation issues caused high drop-off rates. A significant number of users abandoned bookings due to complex workflows and unintuitive menus.
Color contrast and readability were inconsistent. Many businesses applied brand colors that did not meet WCAG contrast standards, creating usability issues.

Design & Prototyping

The design phase focused on creating an intuitive, visually appealing, and highly flexible mobile experience while ensuring scalability across different business types.

Customization Without Complexity

We designed a modular system that allowed businesses to easily apply logos, colors, and layouts while maintaining a seamless user experience. A live theme preview helped users visualize branding updates instantly.

Performance & Accessibility Enhancements

To ensure fast load times and WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, we:

Implemented lightweight UI components to improve performance on older devices, reducing app load times by 35%.
Integrated automatic color contrast adjustments to ensure text remains legible against any custom brand colors.
Designed a tap-based navigation system with larger touch targets and clear hierarchy, reducing accidental taps and improving accessibility for users with motor impairments.

Prototyping & Testing

The prototyping and testing phase was critical in refining the usability, performance, and engagement of the Branded Mobile App. Through iterative design validation, we identified and resolved pain points before development, ensuring a seamless experience for both businesses and end users.

Internal Design & Product Testing

Ran heuristic evaluations and internal walkthroughs to refine the information architecture.
Identified navigation friction, leading to a simplified tab-based structure for quicker task completion.

Pilot Group Testing (Early Adopters & Business Partners)

Selected 10+ fitness studios, salons, and wellness centers to test the app in real-world conditions.
Key insights led to improvements in onboarding flows and customizable branding elements.

A/B Testing on Key Engagement Metrics

Experimented with different booking workflows, call-to-action placements, and checkout experiences.
Measured task completion time, conversion rates, and drop-off points to fine-tune interactions.
Resulted in a 46% decrease in booking time and higher conversion rates in branded app experiences vs. third-party solutions.

Accessibility Audits & Compliance Testing

Conducted contrast validation, screen reader compatibility checks, and touch target optimization.
Iterations led to better readability and usability for users with visual impairments.

Key Takeaways

Through our iterative design process, we discovered three fundamental principles:

Balanced Customization:
Effective personalization requires the right balance between flexibility and usability. Our solution of pre-configured themes with smart defaults allowed for brand expression without overwhelming complexity.
Accessibility as Engagement:
WCAG-compliant interfaces ensure all users can navigate seamlessly, improving adoption across diverse demographics. Our contrast validation and real-time optimizations reduced barriers while preserving brand integrity.
Data-Driven Refinement:
Iterative A/B testing on key flows eliminated friction points and led to measurable improvements in task completion speed and user retention.

Book a Class Flow

Book an Appointment Flow

Results & Impact

Empowering Studios Through Seamless,
Branded Digital Experiences

Clear outcomes from product adoption, proving how brand ownership, ease of use, and performance improvements lead to real business results.

User Growth & Engagement:

+ 0 %

Increase in new user acquisition across branded apps after launch

0 % Faster

Task completion time dropped significantly due to optimized booking and navigation flows

Customer Satisfaction & Retention:

2.7 ⭑

Client satisfaction score rose from 2.7 to 4.7 in under a year

0 %

Of businesses reported improved retention after switching to branded experiences

Revenue & Business Expansion:

+ 0 % Revenue

Studios saw average revenue growth from memberships and pay-per-class options.

0 % Retained Apps

Majority of businesses continued using their branded apps post-pandemic, citing long-term value

Lessons Learned & Future Roadmap

Key Takeaways:

Customization must be effortless. Smart defaults and branded templates helped reduce setup time for business owners.
Accessibility and speed drive retention. Fast load times and WCAG-compliant design improved usability across all audiences.
Integrated experiences outperform third-party tools. Centralizing booking, payments, and content in one app led to higher engagement.

Future Enhancements:

Brand analytics dashboard with insights on user behavior and app performance
Enhanced push notification tools for promotions and reminders
AI-powered booking recommendations based on client behavior
Localization support for multilingual studios

Conclusion

The Branded Mobile App for Mindbody effectively met businesses’ growing demand for a customizable, scalablemobile solution, enhancing usability, engagement, and customer retention. By prioritizing flexibility and intuitive design, we created a platform that adapts to businesses’ unique needs while ensuring a seamless experience for their clients.

Through extensive UX/UI refinement, accessibility enhancements, and research-driven decision-making, the app empowers businesses to elevate their mobile presence with ease. Our focus on usability resulted in a streamlined interface that simplifies navigation and interaction, fostering higher engagement and long-term customer loyalty.

A key innovation was the integration of the WCAG compliance tool, which allows businesses to maintain brand consistency while ensuring accessibility for all users. By bridging branding and inclusivity, this feature sets a new industry standard, reinforcing our commitment to creating equitable, user-friendly digital experiences.

With a foundation built on adaptability, innovation, and user experience, the Branded Mobile App continues to evolve—supporting businesses in their growth while redefining what’s possible in mobile engagement.

“Before switching to the Branded Mobile App, we struggled with client retention because our booking process was clunky. Now, everything is seamless—our students book classes in seconds, and our engagement has never been higher. We saw a 40% increase in returning students within the first six months!”

“We wanted an app that felt like our brand, not a generic third-party tool. The customization features made that possible, and the best part? Our members actually use it. We’ve seen a 65% boost in online class bookings since launching the app!”

“Having our own branded app gave us a major competitive advantage. Clients can book appointments, manage memberships, and even receive personalized reminders—all in one place. We’ve seen fewer cancellations and a noticeable increase in repeat bookings.”

“The biggest challenge for us was streamlining payments and scheduling while keeping everything user-friendly. This app solved that. Our members complete bookings 46% faster than before, and we’ve increased membership renewals by 30%.”

“I was worried that moving to a digital platform would make my client experience feel impersonal. But the app’s integrated video content and push notifications have actually brought me closer to my clients. Now, I can engage with them beyond just appointments, and they love the convenience!”

“We went from using multiple disconnected tools to having one fully integrated solution. Now, our clients can book personal training sessions, access exclusive content, and get notifications about special offers—all from our app. This has been a game-changer for both our operations and revenue growth!”