Gym Location Experience Optimisation

Reframing the Membership Journey Through Research, Strategy & Conversion Optimisation

Overview

This project began as a request to improve how Price Per Day membership pricing was presented across Nuffield Health’s gym location pages.

Rather than immediately redesigning the pricing component, I stepped back to understand whether pricing was genuinely the issue or whether it highlighted a broader opportunity to improve the overall membership journey.

Using behavioural analytics, customer research, session recordings and stakeholder insights, it became clear that pricing wasn’t the primary problem. Users were making rapid decisions based on limited information, while much of the page remained largely unseen.

What started as a tactical pricing enhancement evolved into a broader optimisation initiative focused on improving how prospective members discovered information, evaluated membership options and progressed confidently towards joining.

This shift transformed the project from a UI improvement into a strategic redesign of the membership decision-making experience.

The Challenge

The Gym Location page had evolved over time into a content-rich experience containing:

  • Membership pricing
  • Facilities
  • Membership benefits
  • Personal Training
  • Swimming
  • Classes
  • FAQs
  • Calls to action

However, behavioural analysis suggested customers weren’t consuming the experience as intended.

While commercial metrics remain confidential, analytics consistently showed that users spent relatively little time engaging with the page, with the majority of attention concentrated within the hero section.

Pricing disappeared once users began scrolling, while valuable content further down the journey was rarely influencing decision-making.

The challenge, therefore, wasn’t simply making pricing more visible.

It was about helping customers answer their most important questions earlier, reducing friction and aligning the experience with how people actually evaluate and choose a gym.

My Role

As UX/UI Design Manager, I led the project from discovery through validation, collaborating with Product, CRO, Engineering and business stakeholders.

Responsibilities

  • UX Strategy
  • Discovery & Behavioural Analysis
  • Adobe Analytics & Microsoft Clarity Analysis
  • Information Architecture
  • CRO Strategy
  • User Journey Optimisation
  • Wireframing & Interactive Prototyping
  • Unmoderated User Testing
  • A/B Testing Strategy & Experiment Planning
  • Stakeholder Workshops
  • Developer Collaboration
  • Accessibility
  • Design QA & Optimisation Roadmap

Research & Insights

Competitor Research & UX Audit: Key Insights and Patterns

Discovery & Insight

Rather than beginning with design, I focused on understanding customer behaviour and validating the assumptions behind the original brief.

Research combined evidence from multiple sources including:

  • Adobe Analytics
  • Microsoft Clarity session recordings
  • Scroll-depth analysis
  • Previous CRO experiments
  • User feedback
  • Competitor benchmarking
  • Internal stakeholder workshops

Looking across these data sources allowed behavioural patterns to emerge that weren’t obvious when viewed individually.

Key Insights

Pricing influenced decisions, but wasn’t the barrier

Customers wanted to understand affordability immediately, but pricing visibility alone wasn’t preventing conversion.

The wider experience wasn’t helping users understand value or compare membership options with confidence.

Customers made decisions remarkably early

Behavioural analysis suggested visitors were scanning rather than reading.

Most engagement happened within the opening moments of the journey, challenging assumptions that lower-page content was influencing decision-making.

Valuable content wasn’t supporting decisions

Facilities, membership benefits, reassurance messaging and supporting information were positioned too late in the journey to influence many users.

Different customers followed different decision paths

Some visitors were ready to join immediately.

Others required reassurance, comparison, trust signals and more information before committing.

The experience needed to support both behaviours without adding unnecessary complexity.

Reframing the Problem

The original brief asked:

“How can we improve pricing visibility?”

Discovery revealed the more important question:

“How can we help customers make confident membership decisions faster?”

That shift fundamentally changed the direction of the project.

Rather than optimising a single pricing component, the work became focused on redesigning the overall membership evaluation journey.

Experience Strategy

The strategy centred on aligning the experience with real customer behaviour rather than organisational assumptions.

Key objectives included:

  • Surface important decision-making information earlier
  • Improve membership comparison
  • Reduce cognitive load
  • Increase visibility of high-value content
  • Support both quick and considered decision makers
  • Strengthen trust and reassurance
  • Create clearer progression towards membership conversion
  • Establish a stronger foundation for ongoing optimisation and experimentation

Every design recommendation was supported by behavioural evidence rather than opinion.

Design Exploration

Strategic Design Approach

Information Architecture

Content was reorganised around customer priorities instead of internal content structures, creating a clearer journey from consideration to conversion.

Persistent Pricing & Decision Support

Pricing remained visible throughout the journey, allowing customers to compare membership options without repeatedly returning to the top of the page.

Simplified Membership Comparison

Membership information became easier to understand and compare, helping customers evaluate options more quickly.

Reduced Friction

The experience was streamlined by reducing unnecessary scrolling, improving navigation and surfacing relevant information at the right moments.

Conversion Optimisation

Several CRO improvements were introduced, including:

  • Improved content hierarchy
  • Stronger calls to action
  • Better decision-support content
  • Enhanced mobile usability
  • Improved content discoverability
  • Clearer progression towards joining

Validation

Interactive prototypes were tested before development through unmoderated usability testing.

Testing focused on:

  • Finding membership information
  • Understanding pricing
  • Comparing memberships
  • Ease of navigation
  • Confidence in taking the next step

The findings validated many of the strategic decisions while identifying opportunities for refinement before implementation.

Importantly, this early validation reduced delivery risk by ensuring investment was focused on evidence-backed improvements rather than assumptions.

Accessibility

Accessibility formed part of the overall experience strategy rather than a final compliance review.

The redesign incorporated:

  • WCAG 2.1 AA principles
  • Improved readability
  • Better visual hierarchy
  • Accessible touch targets
  • Mobile-first interactions
  • Reduced cognitive load

Business Impact

Although commercial performance data remains confidential, the project successfully evolved from a tactical pricing request into a broader optimisation initiative informed by behavioural analytics, user research and CRO strategy.

The work delivered:

  • A stronger evidence-led UX strategy
  • Better alignment between customer behaviour and page structure
  • Improved decision support throughout the membership journey
  • Reduced delivery risk through early research and validation
  • A scalable framework for future A/B testing and continuous optimisation

The project was also recognised internally through multiple High 5 awards.

Feedback highlighted:

“What began as a small update evolved into a much more impactful project.”

“Chris’s data-driven approach and insight-led decisions uncovered valuable customer insights that directly informed meaningful improvements.”

“These findings helped the team avoid investing time in solutions that may have required rework later.”

This external recognition reinforced the value of combining UX strategy, behavioural insight and collaborative delivery to solve broader business challenges rather than simply redesigning individual pages.

Reflection

One of the biggest lessons from this project was recognising that the original brief represented a symptom rather than the root cause.

Had I focused solely on improving pricing visibility, the outcome would likely have delivered only incremental gains.

By stepping back, analysing customer behaviour and challenging assumptions, the project uncovered a broader opportunity to reshape the membership journey around how people actually evaluate and choose a gym.

It reinforced an approach that continues to shape my work today:

The best UX outcomes don’t come from designing better interfaces—they come from understanding the real customer problem, aligning business goals with user needs, and using evidence to drive confident product decisions.