Making ClassPass Social- General Assembly Project 2 Report
Project Overview
During this second project, my team was tasked with integrating feature(s) into the ClassPass app to help increase member bookings while creating a comunity feel. We worked for two weeks covering all steps from user interviews to presenting the final, hi-fidelity prototype.
My role
UX Designer, UI Designer, UX Researcher
Timeframe
Two Weeks
Limitations, Parameters, Resources, and Materials
The team was given an initial prompt describing ClassPass’s desire to increase member bookings while creating a community feel. We followed the Double Diamond design process set fourth by the GA instructional team.
Initial Problem Statement
Given the initial problem statement of increasing member bookings through creating a community feel, the team and I went into user interviews aimed at determining whether ClassPass members were interested in meeting others in the community, limiting connections to friends and family, or a mixture of both. Narrowing in on the language in the problem statement, we limited our research to members connecting with other members rather than increasing ClassPass memberships on the whole.
How did you confirm or refine your initial assumptions?
Through our research, we found that ClassPass members were excited to connect with both current friends and potential new friends on the app. We also uncovered many pain points in how members currently communicate with friends to coordinate taking classes together, and relied heavily on all of the reserach insights in our designs.
User Interviews
As a team, we conducted 5 interviews of current ClassPass users, both male and female, ranging from 22–29 years old. Four of these users primarily live in New York City, while one travels often to various places throughout the country and uses ClassPass in all of them. We screened for these users in a Google Forms document to ensure we were only interviewing our target audinece. The below questions served as our guided interview script.
INTRO QUESTIONS
- Tell me about your workout routine.
- Walk me through the process of booking a class on an app
- Who do you tend to go to fitness classes with?
- How do you decide who to go with?
- Describe to me the most recent time you took a fitness class with a friend.
- How did you decide to take the class?
- How did you communicate about the class?
- How did you ensure you were both signing up for the same class?
- Has there ever been a time when you wanted to take a class with someone but couldn’t?
- Walk me through what happened?
- How did you try to find people to take the class with you?
- Now let’s talk about ClassPass specifically.
- How did you hear about ClassPass?
- What is your primary reason for using ClassPass?
TOPIC SPECIFIC
- How do you decide who to go with?
- Tell me about your experience with ClassPass
- Tell me about the last time you used ClassPass
- Why do you use ClassPass?
- How often do you use ClassPass?
- Why do you keep using ClassPass?
- Have you tried any other fitness class booking apps? If so, tell me about your experience with them. How does it compare to ClassPass?
- Tell me your thoughts on the price of ClassPass
- Tell me about your social experience on ClassPass
Sketches
The original wireframes shown below were designed after the team synthesized the reserach findings using an affinity map, created a primary and secondary persona, ran a design studio, and completed both a Feature Prioritization Matrix and a MoSCoW Map.

Usability Tests and Resulting Iterations
Going into usability testing, we focused on three tasks to test the three main feature changes.
- Scenario: You are interested in having more friends on ClassPass. While searching the app, you notice a recommended connection with a woman who attends the same barre class as you. Task: Add your friend from barre class.
- Scenario: You’re interested in connecting with other people who enjoy the same ClassPass classes as you. You often take spinning classes and would love to meet other members to book classes with who also love to spin. Task: Join a recommended spin group.
- Scenario: You want to take a class but don’t want to go by yourself. Task: Book a class with a friend who is looking for a workout buddy.
From these tests, we found that:
- It took users a few tries to add a friend from barre class. They did not see the “add friends” button clearly.
- Joining a group follows the same logic as finding a friend, which is why users were able to quickly navigate the second task.
- All users looked to the feed for finding a class with a workout buddy
Based on these findings we iterated our designs and created hi-fidelty versions. In this next iteration, we made the add friend button in a clear blue color, hoping the pop would help users find it. We also changed the “home” button on the tab bar to be a “feed,” as that more accurtely depicted the social nature of the screen. Lastly, we added a section on the feed page for “Friends looking for a buddy” so users could see at a glance if they wanted to join any of their friends. In the same light, we removed the “Find Buddy” icon from the class list screen as no users understood it. Instead, we added in smaller profile pictures of friends and added signifier text articulating how many friends were attending the class and how many, if any, were looking for a buddy. They also could tap on the notification from the feed page and be taken directly to the class reserve screen, ensuring they were signing up for the proper class. Ensuring friends were all signing up for the same class was a major pain point found in the user interviews.

After implementing the changes, the team conducted another round of five interviews with different ClassPass users in our target audience. We asked the same scenarios and tasks.
Excitingly, all users completed the last task directly, through both paths (Feed screen and find class screen). However, users still scrolled past the “Add Friends” button. We changed the button to include a rim, keeping it flat, but clarifying the signfier. We were sure to mimick any changes made on the friends page on the groups page as users found it useful that the navigational elements matched. These changes went into our final prototype.
Prototypehttps://invis.io/27NXA62UM8Q#/318553660_iPhone_8_Copy_25
Given more time, we would have included a feature where users could see individual friends’ profile off the friends page. We would have also built out the groups page to see group profiles and allow users to create their own groups.
Reflection
This was the first team project in my UX experience, and I loved collaborating with others. All of my team members brought unique ideas to the table, especially during sessions like design studio. My teammates and I practiced radical candor throughout our time together, and I was very flattered by their feedback for me. They all articulated that my contributions to the team kept us on track and referred to me endearingly as their Product Manager.
Additionally, this project was my first experience working with Sketch and InVision. I was pleased by how quickly I picked up the tools and built out each iteration of the prototype.