SOFI (Social-Fitness)
Designing an MVP for a sports community platform

SOFI started as an early-stage idea: helping students and young adults find sports partners, join local sports groups, and stay active through community. As the sole UX/UI Designer, I helped shape the first MVP through research, prioritization, and responsive product design.

Project Overview

ROLE - UX / UI Design

LOCATION - On Site

TEAM - 1 Product Owner, 1 Content Manager, 1 Software Engineer, 1 UX/UI Designer

TIMELINE - 1 Year (Sep 2022 - Sep 2023)

SCOPE - Research, MVP definition, information architecture, UX/UI design, prototyping, responsive design, design system

Challenge: The product needed to turn social motivation into a focused MVP

Many people struggle to stay active not only because of time or discipline, but because they lack social support and workout partners. Exercising alone often leads to lower motivation and less consistency over time. SOFI set out to address this by creating a digital space where people with similar interests could connect, join sports communities, find workout partners, and stay engaged through shared activity.

INITIAL ASSUMPTIONS

#1 Social connection could increase motivation
The product started from the belief that exercising with others could help people stay more motivated, accountable, and consistent.

#2 Gamification might improve engagement
Challenges, rewards, and other motivational features were considered potential ways to make the experience more engaging over time.

#3 A simple onboarding flow could reduce friction
The first version needed to feel easy to join, with as few barriers as possible between initial interest and active participation.

EARLY PRODUCT DIRECTION

From the start, stakeholders saw location-based matching and sport type as essential ways to connect relevant users. Finding a workout partner quickly was seen as the core feature, while simplicity and ease of use were treated as key principles for the first experience.

IDEAS FOR LATER STAGES

Longer-term ideas included calendar integration, motivational content, social challenges, and reward-based features.

WHY THIS MATTERED

The challenge was not only to design a sports platform, but to identify which ideas were strong enough to shape a simple, relevant, and realistic MVP.

Research: Understanding the users

Survey with 102 participants aged 19–45

WHAT WE WANTED TO UNDERSTAND

How people exercise, what gets in their way, and what could motivate them to stay active through community.

#1 Motivation wasn't the only barrier
Users often struggled with lack of time, low motivation, and not having anyone to work out with.

#2 Most people were active, but not consistently
Most participants exercised 2–3 times per week, suggesting room for stronger routines and support.

#3 Connection mattered more than complexity
Users liked challenges, rewards, and sharing achievements, but the strongest opportunity was helping them find workout partners and relevant groups.

OBSTACLES

What got in the way

The main obstacles were lack of knowledge, bad weather, and not having workout partners.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Different ages, different needs

The main obstacles were lack of knowledge, bad weather, and not having workout partners.

UNDER 25

Preferred group sports and more social ways of staying active.

OVER 25

Preferred individual sports, struggled more with time management, and were more interested in new social connections.

TAKEAWAY

The research showed that motivation alone wasn't the problem — social connection, accessibility, and lifestyle differences played a major role.

Defining the MVP: First version focused on connection, not feature overload

Based on the research, we narrowed the product down to a focused MVP. The priority was not to build a full sports ecosystem, but to make it easy for users to discover relevant sports, find nearby people, and join or create communities with minimal friction.

PRIORITIZED FOR THE MVP

#1 Connect by location and sport type
A simple geolocation system helped users find nearby people with similar interests, discover relevant sports, create groups, or organize local activities such as volleyball games or yoga in the park.

#2 Simple onboarding
The onboarding flow was designed to be quick and intuitive, focusing on sport preferences and immediate connection without a steep learning curve.

#3 Find a workout partner and group discovery
This became the core feature of the MVP: helping users match with training partners or join group activities in a simple and accessible way.

FUTURE ADDITIONS

These ideas were seen as valuable, but were intentionally left for later in order to keep the MVP focused and easy to use.

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT

Motivational tips and wellbeing advice were considered as future features to support users beyond activity discovery.

CALENDAR INTEGRATION

Flexible planning, activity scheduling, and suggested activities were identified as useful additions for later iterations.

CHALLENGES & GAMIFICATION

Badges, rewards, and friendly competition were explored as future ways to increase engagement over time.

WHY THIS MATTERED

This helped keep the first version of the product simple, understandable, and aligned with the strongest user need: making sports more social and easier to access.

Wireframes: Desktop & Mobile

Design: The experience was designed around three key moments

Instead of treating the product as a collection of separate screens, I focused on three essential moments in the user journey: getting started, finding the right community, and supporting coordination within groups.

DESIGNING THE CORE EXPERIENCE

#1 Entry and onboarding
The homepage had to answer "What is SOFI?" immediately and help users take action without confusion. I designed a simple, responsive entry point where users could explore groups, register themselves, or create a group in just a few steps. The registration flow was intentionally lightweight, using email and OTP while showing only essential information to protect privacy.

#2 Discovering sports and joining groups
To help users find their community, the flow started with sport selection and then surfaced nearby groups by geolocation. Each group profile showed essential information such as members, level, schedule, and goals, making it easier to decide whether the group was relevant before joining.

#3 Supporting organization within groups
To make group activity more sustainable, I also designed the SOFI-Orga feature, which allowed administrators to create events, invite members, and manage attendance more clearly. This helped move the product from simple discovery into real coordination.

WHY THIS MATTERED

Organizing the experience around these three moments helped turn the product into a clearer, more connected journey — from first entry to community participation and ongoing coordination.

Iteration & Validation

User tests with 80 students confirmed the partner finder as the most valuable and differentiating feature.

Gamification sparked interest but was considered secondary for the MVP.

Feedback also revealed friction in the registration flow and confusion between groups and events.

This led to improvements in information architecture and usability, ensuring the MVP stayed focused on the core goal: helping people connect and play sports together.

Project impact

SOFI allowed us to define and develop a clear MVP, with a value proposition centered on social connection and sport-partner-finding.

The interface we created was intuitive and consistent, built to be ready for development.

Beyond the product itself, the designs and interactive prototypes became powerful tools to communicate the concept in stakeholder and investor presentations, showing the potential of the platform

Key learnings

One of the biggest challenges was market differentiation. Competing with well-established platforms like Meetup, Facebook, or Strava proved difficult, as they already had a strong user base and visibility.

In terms of segmentation, focusing solely on the under-25 group limited the project, as this audience already had convenient alternatives such as Unisport.

On the other hand, the over-25 demographic (often singles, newcomers to a city, or people practicing individual sports) emerged as an unexplored opportunity that deserved deeper research.

Finally, external limitations also played a role: the project concluded with the end of the Berliner Startup Stipendium, which had been funding SOFI.

Final thoughts: Growth as a Designer

For me, SOFI marked a milestone: it was my first professional experience as a sole UX/UI designer, which meant taking full ownership of the process.

I sharpened my skills in UX research, user-centered design, and building a fully responsive platform, while also learning how to collaborate closely with a software engineer—bridging the gap between design and development to make sure everything was technically feasible.

Through user testing and iteration, I refined navigation and structure, always balancing user needs with business goals. I also gained confidence in product storytelling, learning to present design decisions clearly to stakeholders.