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Article in App Analysis, App Teardown categories.
Mobile App Teardown: Peloton
Every few weeks, our Product Team participates in “App Teardowns," where they analyze a mobile app's UI, UX, and other features. This week's app: Peloton.
Every few weeks, our Product Team sits down to discuss an app in what we call “App Teardowns.” The team takes a look at the app’s UX, UI and design, functionality and performance, ASO and discoverability, user feedback, and messaging. In this week’s Teardown, our team analyzed the popular fitness app, Peloton.
What is Peloton?
“Peloton uses technology and design to connect the world through fitness, empowering people to be the best version of themselves anywhere, anytime.” In their mission, Peloton primarily markets themselves as a tech company (rather than a fitness company) whose goal is to “connect the world through fitness.” Peloton connects and inspires users to become fit with various access points: in-studio classes, bikes/treadmills with a built-in tablet, mobile app, TV app, iPad app, and Apple watch app. For this Teardown, we’re going to focus on Peloton’s iOS mobile app.
iOS Mobile App Features
To analyze the Peloton app’s UX, UI/design, and functionality, we took a look at the home screen, content catalog, and class feature.
Home Screen
The first thing that sticks out to us about the app is the content presented on the home screen is very personalized to the user. When the app is launched, users are presented recommendations based on their engagement with certain instructors, past classes, and favorite categories. Rather than presenting a generalized workout, the hyper-personalized recommendations are a nice touch because it shows that Peloton is analyzing user behaviors to create a unique user experience. These recommendations are clearly driven by a comprehensive and effective data analysis strategy because content on the home screen is dynamically updated based on user engagement.
Content Catalog
Due to the many filters to choose from, the content catalog is a great feature to explore new classes or if you’re looking to target a specific type of workout. The navigation of the catalog is exemplary, which is tough to successfully execute when there is an abundance of filter parameters. While the content catalog is a useful feature, our team found they didn’t frequent the catalog because the personalized home screen presented such relevant content.
Classes
Classes are the core feature of the Peloton app, so it’s important they get this right. When a user finds a class they are interested in, they have the opportunity to decide if they want to take that class or not. Users are provided a rating, difficulty level, description of the class, and can even view the playlist for the class (which can make or break a workout experience). Users can access classes on-demand or through a live stream, which we know is a big undertaking. Live stream features are often finicky, but Peloton got it right; the live streams are seamless and technical difficulties are very rare. Overall, the user experience for classes is outstanding, even down to the live stream.
App Store Discoverability
When searching for fitness or cycling apps, Peloton is typically within the top three search results in the App Store. We also noticed that when searching “Peloton” in the App Store, a paid search promotion for the app is presented before any search results. The app has even been praised by the App Store as it has been a “Featured App” as well. Overall, it’s clear that Peloton’s discoverability and app store optimization strategies are very effective.
User Feedback
Let’s take a look at what users have to say about the Peloton app. In the App Store, the app has a 4.9/5 star rating, with over 103,000 ratings. Looking at the “Ratings & Reviews” section, there are more 5-star ratings than any other star rating, which is a significant measure of user satisfaction. In using the app, an in-app rating prompt popped up that goes beyond native functionality.
Messaging
Though there’s not much to complain about, one small qualm our team had was with the app’s messaging. We found that push notifications for reminders to workout were a little naggy or untimely. Additionally, their email marketing was a mix of relevant and irrelevant content, with no opportunity to unsubscribe from specific content types.
Key Takeaways
Our team’s favorite feature of the app is the personalized home screen. This is a great way to get users engaged from the get-go. Creating a unique experience for each user is crucial, and it is clear Peloton is keeping user engagement and app functionality at the forefront. Peloton is seeing success not only with their app but the overall business model as well. Many fitness apps have a “no equipment required” subscription, but Peloton also gains revenue with the requirement of a subscription when a user purchases a bike or treadmill. This extra subscription feature creates loyal users, which is not an easy task in the competitive app market. Like we said, our only qualm was with their messaging, but it didn’t ruin the overall experience for us. Altogether, we’re very impressed with the Peloton app and applaud the company for putting in the effort to polish the user experience.
Enough about other people's apps.
