BASICCREW
BASICCREW is a mobile app, which helps people at budget gyms find small workout groups and commit to training together.
UI/UX design
Branding
Role
UI/UX student designer
Timeline
10 weeks
team
Only me
platform
Phone
PROCESS OVERVIEW
From research to pixels
This project followed a structured double diamond process, starting with research, narrowing into a concept, and then moving into design and UI work.
PHASE 01 - COMPANY RESEARCH
Understanding Basic-Fit
Before proposing any solution, I conducted thorough research into Basic-Fit's business context, review platforms user sentiment, and competitive landscape. Strong design decisions need a strong evidence base.
1600 Clubs across 6 countries ( NL, FR, BE, ES, DE, LU )
4.5M Active memberships
€989M Revenue in 2024
9000 Employees
MISSION
"To make fitness accessible to everyone and get people to love their fitness habits."
VISION
Grow to 3,000–3,500 clubs across Europe and launch a franchise platform.
BRAND VALUES
Be Accessible Smart Inclusive Commited
Negative and Positive User Reviews, from the Basic-Fit app
Quantitative Research
I surveyed Basic-Fit users to understand how often they train alone and whether they'd be open to a group training feature
Competitors
Although Basic-Fit excels at price, assebility and equipment, no major low-cost competitor offers social features. Members go alone, trian alone and often quit alone aswell. Given that Basic-Fit's main goal is to help people "love their fitness habits," the social accontability gap creates an unexplored design opportunity.
PHASE 02 - PRODUCT PROPOSAL
From gym buddy to "BASICCREW"
Research pointed clearly to one problem: a lot of Basic-Fit members train alone, and that's one of the main reasons people end up quitting. I started with one concept and changed it after feedback from my teacher. My first idea from a 1 to 1 buddy system to small crew, made the concept in every dimension. It felt too much like a dating app, and some users found matching with one stranger a bit uncomfortable. A small group approach works better, if one person doesn't show up, the session still happens, and it fits more with what Basic-Fit already stands for.
Problem statement
A lot of Basic-Fit members, especially beginners, struggle to stay consistent when training alone. Without someone to work out with, it's easy to lose motivation and stop showing up.
Design solution
"BASICCREW" allows you to train with other people in a gym, in small groups from 2 6 people, people can browse other crews to workout with, join sessions that match your level, or create your own. Workout types range from cardio and yoga to crossfit and resistance training. Every activity also has a group chat so coordinating is easy.
User Persona
I made two personas based on my research to better understand who I was actually designing for."
Phase 03 — UX FOUNDATIONS
Mapping the experience
Once the concept was approved, I have started to built out the full UX framework: a story map, and information architecture. Teacher sign-off at each stage locked the concept before production began.
User Story Map
Information Architecture
PHASE 04 — BRANDING & SUB-BRAND IDENTITY
Building the visual identity
Alongside UX, I developed the brand identity in two parts: first documenting the Basic-Fit main brand, then designing a sub-brand.
Documenting the Main Brand
I gathered brand expressions from across websites, app, social media, advertising campaigns, and product packaging compiling these onto a Figma inspiration board. From this I extracted and documented:
Sub-Brand and Main-Brand
The sub-brand was designed to feel like a natural extension of Basic-Fit energetic and bold —while introducing its own distinct personality: warm, social, and human. I documented three key design decisions:
What I kept: The core orange as the dominant accent colour, Bold typography, I used the font "impact" for the word "BASIC".
What I changed: Introduced a black background instead of the white, changed from purple button to blue, to fit the black theme. Softer iconography, to fit human connection rather than solo performance.
Why it still fits the brand family? The Sub-brand shares the same typographiy the same primary orange color, and the same high-energy tone of voice.
PHASE 05 — UI DESIGN
UI design
With the concept locked and the brand established, I moved through 2 rounds of UI fidelity paper sketches, and high-fidelity designs with a full design system.
PHASE 06 — REFLECTION
What I learned
My initial concept was a gym buddy finder, it was simpler and safer, or so I thought. The change from 1st concept to a "BASICCREW" felt risky at first, but it made a significant difference. However, with mentorship from my teachers, I realized it was way too safe, limiting my opportunities for problem-solving. Pivoting to the new concept "BASICCREW" felt like a big risk at first, because it's much more challenging to make. By steping into a more complex problem space, It opened doors to much broader selection of features, user flows and product. It forced me to design for a richer, more realistic user ecosystem.
The speed of sktetching on paper exposed structural problems before they came expensive to fix. Although, personally it's the hardest part when pivoting from paper wireframes to high fidelity design, it requires to pay alot of attention of what you're doing and what kind of design decisions you're making. I'd never skip paper wireframes as a step in my future projects.
Ultimately, this project changed how I view the role of a designed. I didn't just learn how to navigate design software, I learned how to negotiate product decisions. I shifted from a mindset of "making pretty screens" to practicing user-centric problem solving. Taking critique from teachers, improving based on feedback, and traslating into design. I understood that great UX isn't about aesthetic perfection on the first try, it's an interative loop of testing, learning, and refining.