Timeline
Responsibility
Led 0-1 feature design, from IA and user flows to high-fidelity UI
Team
Juyeon Nam (Product Designer)
Dongho Ryu (Founder & CEO)
Inhoo Kim (Backend Engineer)
Context
Goal
Improve intuitiveness and usability by designing core features critical to martial arts school operations.
My Role
Redesigned platform-wide IA & user flows, established consistent UI standards
Designed core operational features: membership & event registration, AI-powered messaging
Impact
+400% growth in paid active users after redesign
Users praised the platform as "far more intuitive than competitors"
Eliminated fragmented workflows -> seamless connection between admin & member systems
Unlike fitness or beauty industries, martial arts schools require specialized operational features:
Event management (rank promotions, camps, tournaments)
Parent-led registration as primary decision makers for minor students
Rank systems with promotion tracking and certification management.
Existing solutions relied on manual processes and fragmented tools, with no comprehensive software addressing these martial arts-specific workflows.
The platform had no registration form feature, requiring schools to handle all signups manually. Schools needed flexible form functionality for diverse use cases (membership registration, events signup, leads generation, trial registration) that accommodate both existing members and external participants.
Frequently create registration forms for trials, lead capture, memberships and events. Many are not highly tech-savvy, so complex customization would create friction and slow setup.
Parents often register multiple children at once. The need a streamlined process that allows them to add each child while maintaining individual student profiles.
New participants discovering the school via marketing or referrals need to register for memberships, events, or trial classes. They require clear program details, pricing, and an easy way to create new profiles.
Given development timeline constraints, I prioritized solutions that maximize system versatility:
Many admins are not highly tech-savvy. Ready-made templates with light customization minimize friction and speed up setup.
Registration involves admins, parents and new participants. Handling them separately caused duplication and errors. A single adaptive flow by user type delivers a seamless experience.
Ready-made templates (trial sign-up, lead capture, memberships, events) with customizable fields reduce admin burden while supporting diverse needs.
Email verification identifies user types (existing member, external participants, family member) to customize registration experience for multiple family members in single session
Distinguish between decision maker (parent) and participant (child) data fields
Result & Learnings
Success
User Insight Discovered
Users didn’t immediately recognize that left-panel items were clickable to add to the form
Lacked clear visual affordances for click-to-add interactions
Future Improvement Opportunities
Schools relied on separate email and SMS tools for announcements, which created critical gaps in urgent situations (e.g., last-minute closures or schedule changes).
Operators needed an integrated solution with email, SMS, and push notifications to ensure immediate communication and consistent delivery.
Frequently send urgent messages (closures, schedule changes) but switching between tools is inefficient. Many found writing content for each channel format repetitive and time-consuming.
Require timely, reliable notification across their preferred channels to avoid missing important updates — for example, preventing students from showing up to a closed school due to last-minute schedule changes.
Started by consolidating email, SMS and push notification into a single interface. This eliminated tool-switching and established a foundation for faster communication.
During internal testing by the founder (martial arts school master), we identified that rewriting content for different channel formats is time-consuming for school operators.
To address this pain point, we decided to implement an AI assistant feature, and I designed user-friendly workflow:
delivery method selection → message topic selection → prompt selection.
This reduced operator workload while aligning with natural communication behaviors.
Single creation panel with real-time preview across email, SMS, and push notification formats.
Category-First Selection: Primary categories based on common messaging scenarios for quick discovery.
Prompt Library: Secondary level showing specific prompts within selected category.
Variable Customization: Bracket placeholders (dates, event titles) allow users to customize content directly within prompt input stage.
User Experience
The registration system became one of the most-used features, reducing manual work for admins.
Compared to competitors, MAS9 was consistently praised for its clearer Information Architecture and intuitive navigation.
Business Growth
Improvements directly lowered barriers to adoption, converting prospects into paid users and contributing to a 400%+ increase in paid active users.