UX/UI DESIGN · WELLNESS
SOMA Re·Form: Designing an App Members Would Actually Use to Book
COMPANY
SOMA Re·Form Pilates & Wellness
ROLE
Product Designer
EXPERTISE
UX/UI Design · UX Research · Product Strategy
YEAR
2026
SOMA Re•Form is more than a Pilates studio. It’s a third space for movement, recovery, and community, with reformer and mat Pilates, yoga, dance, wellness services, and events all under one brand.
The mobile app wasn’t keeping up with all of that.
For most members, the main reason to open the app is simple: check the schedule and book a class. But the app made them dig through navigation tabs just to find the schedule. The home screen was mostly a banner, guest passes were hard to use, and parts of the app felt unfinished.
So members stopped using it. They started booking through SOMA’s website or Sweatpals instead.
That’s why this project is more than a visual redesign. SOMA already has an engaged community, and members are happy to book online. They just aren’t choosing the native app.
My goal is to figure out why, then redesign the app around what members actually open it to do.
A studio app should make it easy to go from wanting to take a class to having a spot in one. At SOMA, that path had gotten harder than it needed to be.
Booking was buried instead of front and center. Members had trouble using guest passes. The home screen didn’t show anything useful or timely. And frustration with the underlying Arketa platform added to the feeling that the app was incomplete.
On top of that, members already had easier options. They could book on the SOMA website or through Sweatpals, and once those habits stuck, cleaning up the existing app wasn’t going to be enough.
The challenge became:
How might I make SOMA’s app the fastest and most useful place for members to see what’s happening, book their next class, and manage their studio experience?
That brought up a few early design tensions:
Make the schedule easy to get to without turning the app into a booking-only tool.
Give the home screen enough value to deserve being the first thing members see.
Make repeat actions quicker for regulars while still helping them discover events, services, and everything else SOMA offers.
Win back members who’ve already learned to avoid the app.
Members aren’t against having a SOMA app. The current version just hasn’t given them a good reason to use it.
Research & Discovery
I had a head start here: members had already shown me what wasn’t working by leaving.
Instead of relying only on what people said they disliked, I could look at what they did when the app let them down. They booked somewhere else.
Early discovery combines feedback from SOMA’s owner with the complaints and behaviors members kept bringing up.
What members were telling us
The biggest theme was speed. Members wanted to open the app and see the schedule right away. The current navigation made them dig through tabs for the thing they do most often.
The home screen was the second problem. It was mostly a banner and didn’t show members anything about their own plans at the studio, so there wasn’t much reason to stay there.
Members also had trouble booking with or applying guest passes, which made it harder to bring new people into the studio.
All together, these issues added up to a bigger perception problem: the app felt unfinished.
What members were doing instead
The most telling research signal was abandonment.
Members worked around the app by booking through the SOMA website or Sweatpals, and that changed how I approached the project.
The question went from “What should be improved in the current app?” to “What would make the native app more useful than the workarounds members already prefer?”
1. The schedule is the center of the experience
Members shouldn’t have to dig into the app to answer the question they open it for: What classes can I take?
The schedule needs to be one of the most visible parts of the app, possibly right on the home screen.
2. Booking should feel nearly effortless
SOMA’s owner pointed to FS8 as a good reference. Members can scan the schedule and tap a simple plus button to join a class. That gave me an early principle for the redesign:
Reduce the distance between seeing a class and booking it.
I still need to explore and test the exact interaction, but booking should be quick enough that regulars don’t have to go through a full flow every time they reserve a class they already know.
3. Home needs a job
Right now the home screen is mostly promotional. The redesign should help members answer: What matters to me at SOMA right now?
Early ideas include:
Upcoming booked classes
Today’s or upcoming schedule
Events
Relevant studio updates
Quick access to booking
Pass or membership information
Home can become a personalized snapshot of each member’s activity at the studio, not just the front door to the app.
4. Guest passes should encourage sharing, not create friction
Guest passes serve a different purpose than regular booking. They bring someone new to SOMA.
When a guest pass is hard to use, what should be a great community moment turns into a support issue. The redesign should make it clear what the pass is, where it stands, and how to use it.
5. The app has to feel complete before members will rely on it
Individual usability issues matter, but member feedback points to a bigger problem with trust. When enough small things feel confusing, hidden, or broken, people stop seeing them as one-off bugs and start doubting the whole app.
For SOMA, rebuilding that trust means making the moments members use most feel consistent and connected, rather than redesigning screens one at a time.
Based on the early feedback, I’m organizing the project around four problem areas.
Finding a class takes too much effort.
The schedule is buried, even though it’s one of the main reasons members open the app.
Home doesn’t give members much value.
The first screen doesn’t show upcoming classes, events, or anything else that helps members decide what to do next.
Core booking tasks have unnecessary friction.
Booking a regular class or using a guest pass isn’t as simple as members expect.
The native app is losing to its alternatives.
Members already have workarounds through the SOMA website and Sweatpals, so small fixes probably won’t be enough. The app needs to be noticeably easier to use.
At this stage, the goals are about behavior, not visuals. A member should be able to open the app and quickly know:
What can I book?
What have I already booked?
What’s happening at SOMA?
What should I do next?
From there, I’ll use the redesign to explore how the app can:
Show the schedule right away.
Cut down the steps it takes to book a class.
Put upcoming bookings and events on the home screen.
Make guest passes clearer and easier to use.
Create a stronger hierarchy across the app.
Be useful enough that members don’t need to leave it for basic tasks.
SOMA specifically called out an interaction from FS8 that works well: members can view the schedule and add themselves to a class with a simple plus button.
I’m using it as a benchmark for how much effort booking should take, not as a screen to copy.
A regular member who already knows the studio, the class, and the commitment shouldn’t have to go through the same number of steps as someone making a bigger decision.
That idea will shape the booking flows I explore next.
This project is still in discovery, so I’m holding off on designing the final interface until I know more.
Next, I’ll turn the early feedback into specific user journeys and confirm where the friction actually is today. I plan to:
Audit the existing app and booking flow.
Map the current class-booking and guest-pass journeys.
Compare those flows against the website, Sweatpals, and other fitness apps.
Separate the owner’s assumptions from repeated member feedback.
Prioritize the tasks members do most often.
Define the information architecture around those tasks.
Explore a home screen centered on the schedule, upcoming bookings, and studio activity.
Prototype simpler booking interactions.
Test those concepts with SOMA members before moving into final UI.
I’m not trying to give SOMA a prettier version of an app its members already avoid. I want to understand what would make them choose it.