Bringing progression tracking, rink discovery, and practice support into one personalized experience.
OVERVIEW
A centralized platform that helps figure skaters discover rinks, track skill progression, and practice with confidence between lessons. By combining rink information, personalized training tools, and AI-assisted practice support into one experience, Glide simplifies the fragmented skating journey for beginners and growing athletes.
THE PROBLEM
The information required to learn how to figure skate is more fragmented than it needs to be.
Most beginner skaters only spend one hour a week with a coach, leaving the rest of their training dependent on memory, scattered online resources, and inconsistent rink information. From skill progression and practice planning to rink schedules and lesson logistics, the skating experience is spread across dozens of websites, calendars, and social media pages.
Glide was designed to centralize these disconnected resources into one personalized experience that supports skaters both on and off the ice.
USER RESEARCH
I interviewed fellow coaches, recreational skaters, and Learn to Skate students to understand the biggest challenges between weekly lessons.
Rather than assuming what skaters needed, I spoke with members of my local skating community at the LeFrak Center and SkateQuest to understand their routines, frustrations, and unmet needs.
Three themes consistently emerged:
1. Students forget what they're learning.
Many Learn to Skate students only attend one lesson each week, making it difficult for them and their parents to remember the skills they're working on between sessions.
Three themes consistently emerged:
1. Students forget what they're learning.
Many Learn to Skate students only attend one lesson each week, making it difficult for them and their parents to remember the skills they're working on between sessions.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
“How might we help skaters navigate a fragmented ecosystem of training resources, rink information, and skill development tools through one personalized experience?”
DESIGN GOALS
1. Centralize Information
Bring rink schedules, pricing, lesson information, and skating resources into one place.
1. Centralize Information
Bring rink schedules, pricing, lesson information, and skating resources into one place.
2. Support Independent Practice
Help skaters practice intentionally between coaching sessions through personalized guidance and AI-assisted feedback.
3. Track Progress
Track milestones, skills, badges, and progression to motivate continued learning.
Analyzing existing skating platforms to identify gaps in progression tracking, rink discovery, and practice support that informed the design of Glide.
DESIGN PRIORITIES
User Flow
Mapped onboarding, rink discovery, skill progression, and practice flows to understand how skaters would navigate the platform from finding ice time to building confidence between lessons.
Wireframing
Created low-fidelity wireframes to explore navigation, information hierarchy, and core user flows, iterating on layouts that simplified rink discovery, skill progression, and independent practice support.
Visual System
Established a scalable design system including typography, color, iconography, navigation patterns, and reusable components to create a consistent experience across the Glide platform.
FINAL UI SCREENS
Personalizing your experience
The onboarding experience personalizes Glide from the start by asking users about their skating level, goals, and preferred rinks.
This information tailors recommendations, skill progression, and dashboard content to create a more relevant experience from day one.
Centralizing your journey
The home screen provides a personalized overview of the skater's journey, surfacing upcoming sessions, recent progress, practice recommendations, and nearby rink updates.
Designed as a daily starting point, it helps users quickly pick up where they left off and stay motivated between lessons.
Track your progress
The progress page tracks completed skills, milestones, practice history, and earned achievements as skaters advance through Learn to Skate levels.
Visual progress paths and personalized goals help maintain motivation while giving parents and skaters an easy way to monitor long-term development.
Supporting
Personalizing your experience
The onboarding experience personalizes Glide from the start by asking users about their skating level, goals, and preferred rinks.
This information tailors recommendations, skill progression, and dashboard content to create a more relevant experience from day one.
Centralizing your journey
The home screen provides a personalized overview of the skater's journey, surfacing upcoming sessions, recent progress, practice recommendations, and nearby rink updates.
Designed as a daily starting point, it helps users quickly pick up where they left off and stay motivated between lessons.
Centralizing rink discovery
The discover page centralizes rink information across New York City, allowing users to browse nearby facilities, compare schedules, pricing, and session types, and quickly navigate to official rink resources.
Community updates help skaters stay informed about changing ice conditions and busy times.
Community updates help skaters stay informed about changing ice conditions and busy times.
Track your progress
The progress page tracks completed skills, milestones, practice history, and earned achievements as skaters advance through Learn to Skate levels.
Visual progress paths and personalized goals help maintain motivation while giving parents and skaters an easy way to monitor long-term development.
Supporting
independent practice
The learn section organizes skating skills into structured progression paths, providing descriptions, tutorials, drills, and common mistakes for each element.
AI-assisted practice support offers additional guidance between coaching sessions while reinforcing, rather than replacing, instructor feedback.
AI-assisted practice support offers additional guidance between coaching sessions while reinforcing, rather than replacing, instructor feedback.
REFLECTION
Schedules change because of hockey sessions and events, but people don't always realize until they arrive.