FORGE: Fitness Website & Landing Page Design
FORGE needed a marketing site that felt like a premium athletic club, not a franchise gym. I designed the brand system, page architecture, and conversion path so visitors can go from first impression to membership without hunting.
- Client
- FORGE Athletic Club
- Role
- Lead UI/UX & brand designer
- Duration
- 5 weeks
- Platforms
- Web
Hero CTA click rate
+38%
Membership path drop-off
−42%
FORGE
Build your strongest self
+38%
Hero CTA click rate
−42%
Membership path drop-off
52s
Avg. time to find a plan
01 — The problem
What was broken
Most gym websites fail the same way. The hero is a stock squat, the offer is vague, and membership lives three clicks down. Visitors cannot tell why this club is different from the one two streets over.
FORGE had a real identity — serious training, expert coaches, a members-first culture — but the web experience did not carry it. Programs, trainers, and class times were treated as equal blocks, so the site never answered the only question that matters: why join tonight?
02 — Research
What I learned
Proof has to sit next to the promise
Prospects compare clubs in a single tab session. Member counts, trainer credentials, and class variety need to appear in the first screen — not in a later “about” section.
Membership is a product, not a contact form
People want to see plans, inclusions, and the next session they can book. Hiding pricing behind “call us” increased drop-off and made the club feel less confident.
Trainers close the sale
Interviews showed that coach quality was the main reason members stayed. Trainer profiles needed the same care as the hero, not a logo grid of faces.
03 — Process
How the work happened
- 01
Brand and tone
Defined a dark, high-contrast system with lime as the only accent. Type, spacing, and photography rules so the club feels premium without looking like a tech startup.
- 02
Site map for decisions
Restructured the IA around four jobs: understand the club, pick a program, meet a trainer, and join. Dropped pages that existed only because other gyms have them.
- 03
Conversion composition
Designed the homepage as a landing page: proof in the hero, programs as cards with outcomes, then membership with a single primary CTA.
- 04
Responsive polish
Mobile is where most local searches happen. I designed thumb-reach CTAs, shorter copy, and class discovery that works on a small screen.
04 — Solution
What shipped
A hero that sells the club, not a workout
The first screen leads with a sharp promise, live proof (members and trainers), and a path into membership. Photography is treated as brand, not decoration.
Programs, classes, and trainers as journeys
Each program page explains who it is for, what a week looks like, and who coaches it. Class listings and trainer profiles reuse the same visual system so the site feels like one product.
Membership without the runaround
Plans, inclusions, and a join CTA sit on their own surface. No fake “request a callback” wall — the club looks ready to take a new member today.
Scope delivered
- Dark brand system with a single lime accent and restrained type
- Homepage structured as a conversion landing page
- Program, trainer, and class templates that share one design language
- Membership path that is visible from the first scroll
- Mobile-first CTA placement for local search traffic
05 — Outcome
The result
In prototype tests, 9 of 10 visitors reached a membership plan in under a minute. The live site saw a clear lift in hero CTA engagement and fewer exits from the membership path — the club finally sells like a product, not a brochure.
+38%
Hero CTA click rate
−42%
Membership path drop-off
52s
Avg. time to find a plan