DECATHLON COACH APP V2 - From GPS tracker to personal coach for millions

TL;DR

In 2017–2018, I led the full redesign of the Decathlon Coach app, transforming it from a basic activity tracker into a motivational coaching platform that continues to serve users more than 6 years later. The redesign drove sustained growth, with over 1M downloads, a 4.5+ app rating, and direct business impact through increased in-store engagement. I collaborated closely with product, engineering, business, and communication teams to create a scalable, user-centered experience that aligned with Decathlon’s mission to “make sport accessible to the many.”

Highlights

  • Contributed to shifting the product vision: from passive tracking to goal-driven coaching

  • Boosted app quality & retention: 3.2 → 4.5+ rating, +1M users

  • Embedded UX maturity: customer feedback loop, coaching personalization, scalable IA

  • Led cross-functional collaboration: UX, PM, devs, comms, R&D, and more

The Challenge

In 2017, Decathlon’s mobile app (“myGeonaute mobile”) was a GPS tracking tool for outdoor sports. While functional, it fell short on user motivation, engagement, and long-term value. The app was underperforming—its App Store rating had dropped to 3.2, and users weren’t returning after initial use.

Yet Decathlon’s broader mission—“Make sport accessible to the many”—demanded more. The app needed to do more than track—it needed to coach. Our challenge was to redefine the app’s role, turning it into a long-term companion that motivates people to move, achieve goals, and build healthy habits.

Key Objectives

  • Shift the product from GPS tracking to personalized coaching

  • Surface coaching content in a simple, motivating, and accessible way

  • Improve usability and navigation to support real-life sport conditions

  • Create a scalable foundation for future sports, content, and analytics

  • Strengthen Decathlon’s ecosystem by driving retention and store visits

The Vision Shift

This transformation wouldn’t have happened without the strategic product vision of William Sutter, our Product Manager. He challenged us early on to move beyond passive tracking and think about how the app could actually change people’s relationship with sport. His insight—that tracking is just data, but coaching is value—was the foundation that guided the entire redesign. I collaborated closely with William to translate that vision into a clear user experience: one that encourages, adapts, and helps users build lasting habits.

My Role

As Lead UX Designer, I owned the redesign from discovery to delivery. I partnered daily with PMs, engineers, and business stakeholders, mentored trainees and freelances, and led design ops like spec documentation, testing coordination, and team communication.

The team

Design Process

1. Research & Discovery

  • Ran user interviews and surveys to explore motivation and drop-off points. We chose to address key motivations:

    • Feel good: folks practising sport to feel good in their mind and body, to evacuate stress, resume sport, get healthier…

    • Feel beautiful: folks practising to feel at ease in their body, refine their silhouette, be attractive or loose a bit of weight

    • Have fun: folks practising for the fun / social aspect of sport, typically practising in group / collective sports

    • Prepare for a race: folks willing to achieve something, for example preparing for a marathon, or improving their perf for a 10k

  • Collaborated with R&D on the psychology of sport commitment

  • Created personas and journey maps for key sport use cases

  • Used SUS (Attrakdiff) to baseline existing app satisfaction and usability

    • We discovered app was perceived as efficient, but was lacking “hedonic qualities” to make it truly memorable

2. Information Architecture

  • Led card sorting sessions to clarify user mental models

  • Reorganized the app into 3 clear sections: Home, Follow-up, Settings

  • Reduced cognitive load by limiting navigation depth

3. Interaction Design & Prototyping

  • Built wireframes and interactive prototypes for new flows

  • Iterated on home screen logic to support plan discovery and onboarding

  • Designed flexible coaching plans and goal scheduling

  • Focused especially on beginner support and motivation mechanics

4. User Testing

  • Conducted multiple rounds of usability tests (concepts → final design)

  • Prioritized clarity, accessibility, and motivational reinforcement

  • After testing we considered the concept was the best to go ahead with as we wanted to encourage folks to practise and achieve their goals (future-looking) VS other concepts we tried before that were more like “feed” of old sessions (past-oriented)

  • Used insights to simplify UI and streamline plan activation

  • Discovered folks would need more flexibility in the organization of their plans (put in place advice and single coaching sessions offer as well as way to skip sessions, or shift the plan)

5. Visual Design & Handoff

  • Delivered a full UI refresh aligned with Decathlon’s sporty brand. Beyond visual aspect, we defined a tone of voice and DNA for the coach so your really feel like you have “A coach in your pocket”.

  • Created detailed visual specs, motion guidelines, and dev-ready assets

  • Designed with real-world use in mind (e.g. glare, movement, quick glances)

  • Ensured design scalability for future sports and program types

Results

Customer Satisfaction

  • App rating increased from 3.2 to 4.5+, with reviews praising usability and motivation

  • The app remains largely unchanged 6 years later, a testament to design longevity

  • App available on Apple and Android stores in 157 countries (8 languages)

  • In stores ads, paper ads -Christmas catalogue- TV add in 2020 (after I left)

  • My biggest pride as a designer was to receive very positive feedback from customers how the app impacted their life. Here are a few:

“I have never done sport in my life, not even running. I started this program at the age of 43 after a huge weight loss and I followed the sessions to the letter.”

“Started using the DECATHLON coach app and it really made a huge difference on how I do my fitness routines every day. What I loved about it are the challenges and the detailed instructions on how to do it. It made it easier for me to learn new ways on how to maximize and meet my fullest potential. Got it 5 stars for it. Definitely recommend for you to try :)”

“Worth to try. Well designed, easy to use and looks beneficial for who interested in sport activities.”

“Great app for runners and walkers 👍 Highly recommend this app. It analyzes your data and records your map 👍”

Adoption & Reach

  • Reached 1M+ downloads by 2020

  • Became a top-rated coaching app within Decathlon’s ecosystem

Business Impact

  • An internal study showed that app users visited stores more often and spent more

  • The app helped reinforce the Decathlon brand as a long-term partner in sport

What I Learned

“Alone you go faster, together you go further.”

Close collaboration with PMs, devs, and content leads was crucial for aligning goals and delivering quality fast.

“Make butter with water.”

We were a small, scrappy team—but with clear priorities, prototyping, and shared vision, we built something that scaled.

“Dream first, prioritize second, ship third.”

Ambition in the concept phase helped us design for the long-term, even if we started small.

“Respect is design fuel.”

Building mechanisms for listening—user testing, app reviews, shared feedback—made users feel heard and kept the team grounded.

Beyond the Redesign

Prototyping as Strategy

  • Used tools like Invision and Pixate to simulate video and audio coaching, helping us explore future use cases (proving the whole team we could tackle indoor sport like Pilates).

  • These prototypes drove alignment and excitement across stakeholders

Culture Building

  • Introduced weekly “voice of the user” moments to share quotes, feedback, and satisfaction metrics

  • Rotated team members to answer every app store comment, creating empathy and accountability

  • Brought in tools for UX analytics and continuous feedback tracking

Motivation & Delight

  • Added subtle motivational cues: coach pictures, hand-written messages, micro-interactions

  • Designed celebratory moments: confetti, quotes, social proof

  • Helped shape features like the “digital locker” (feature to follow the usage of your sport equipment), sharing to social media (a nice way to become more viral thanks to User Generated Content), and progress reminders