Developing an impactful brand experience

B-long Modern Pilates is a Pilates Studio that will be opening in the summer of 2024 in Coronado, CA. The studio’s owner commissioned our design team to develop the branding and design the website, with the goal of establishing the online presence of B-Long Pilates Studio and demonstrating a high-end brand as they prepared for the grand opening. Our objective as designers was to create a positive user experience for new customers to learn about B-Long through their website and socials, and to lead them to purchase a membership with the studio.

Responsive Website + Brand Strategy

Duration: 3 Weeks Sprint (May 2024) + Ongoing

Tools: Figma, Maze, Notion, Keynote, Squarespace

Methods Used: User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Competitive Feature Analysis, Feature Prioritization, Mobile Prototyping, Usability Testing, Hi-Fidelity Prototyping, UX Writing, Brand Strategy, Social Media Content Creation

  • Create an impactful brand will attract new customers + retain existing clients

  • Differentiate B-Long’s offerings from competing studios

  • Educate clients on the benefits of pilates

  • Allow users to easily book classes + create an account

Project goals

Bringing B-long Pilates to life

Based on research, user testing, and iterating on our design we developed a comprehensive design proposal for our client. We developed + built a fully responsive website as well as the following deliverables:

  • Mobile + desktop prototypes

  • Social media content

  • Logo + brand kit

  • Value propositions + competitive differentiation

design Process

In order to develop a memorable brand and easy to use website we followed the design process below. What this process doesn’t show, however, is the many iterations and pivots that we needed to make when working with a customer that is building a company in real time. Our design team provided guidance for the customer on what information was needed in order to fulfill what customers were looking for in a pilates website, which we learned throughout our design process.

learning about the pilates space

Goal of research

Our team set out to learn more about the target audience and what motivates them to purchase memberships at workout studios. With a plethora of workouts available, we needed to gain a solid understanding of the competition in order to differentiate B-Long’s brand.

In order to establish a solid brand, we needed to understand what other competitors offer in order to differentiate ourselves on the website and with social media content. We focused on analyzing studios local to the San Diego community.  

Key takeaways: 

  • Branding was different across the websites, but all included pilates benefits and used high quality images + videos to supplement brand story 

  • Booking + first class free was prominent with a button or pop up

understanding the competition

  • Completed five user interviews with women ages 25-65 who attend workout classes several times per week

  • Goal: uncover potential pain points and insights around motivations for studio membership

  • Method: discussion guide with questions to validate or invalidate our assumptions.

Speaking to the target audience

Using affinity mapping to synthesize our interview findings, we learned:

  • Users want a seamless booking process

  • The studio's community and instructors are highly valued

  • Users like to review progress, class overviews, and instructor bios.

  • Discounts drive membership purchases

  • Users take pilates to to improve strength and tone muscle

What we learned from Interviews

Developing the intial design

We developed our design from lo-fi wireframes to a mid-fi prototype and then two hi-fi iterations. In order to develop our final prototype, we applied changes based on user feedback.

Prioritizing Features

To kick off our design and ideation phase, we used two techniques to prioritize features while keeping in mind the constraints of limited resources. These exercises helped us to understand what features were high priority vs. low priority, and what already existed within the app.

Must Have Features

  • Homepage

  • Instructor Bios

  • Schedule (booking system) 

  • Pricing & Packages

  • Contact Form 

  • About Page

mapping out how the users will navigate the website

User flows helped us to understand what features a user would use when they move through different actions such as booking or finding an instructor.  

  • We developed the POVs and actions through the information we gathered during user research and use cases that were business focused such as booking a class or buying a membership

  • A site map provided guidance on what pages we needed to build within Squarespace

  • Our design team developed the color palette, typography, logo and wrote key value props that would be used on the website + social media posts

  • We created a monochrome palette that would evoke a relaxed San Diego vibe, but still align with the founders’ vision for a high-end brand

  • Font within the logo and on the website  was selected because it was easy to read, modern, and had clean lines 

Establishing a visual identity

We created several iterations of logo until we finally decided on a “B-long Modern Pilates” to align with the founder’s mission to differentiate from a “traditional” pilates practice. Although we initially liked the weights incorporated into the logo, we pivoted to a simple dot to better align with the actual offerings of the studio when we learned weights wouldn’t be used as heavily in the practice.

Developing the Final logo

  • Using the style guide, we developed initial social media content that aligned with the value props of the company and existing brand aesthetic that we developed

  • It was important for us to create social media content in order to ensure a consistent brand experience across various channels

Creating social media content

Implementing the design + launching the Brand

Implementing the website design

  • After going through the design process, we built out the functionality and our proposed design within Squarespace and tested the design on various devices and browsers to ensure compatibility and a consistent user experience.

Post Launch Success

  • Due to an informative and intuitive booking system, all Founding Memberships sold out prior to the formal launch of the studio.

  • Tested + optimize SEO to drive new users to site, resulting in an optimal bounce rate, 2.5K visits per month, 1.5k unique visitors per month since launch.

  • Built out social media presence through consistent branding and strategy resulting in a growing and engaged following.

  • Our comprehensive brand strategy influenced the design of the physical space and merchandise with the use of logo, typography, and color scheme being used throughout the studio.