— How we work

The first ninety seconds decide everything.

Most fitness apps lose half their users before the first workout. The fix is rarely more features — it's removing everything between download and the first win.

3 min readPublished 2026-05-29By AptixLabs studio
A laptop workspace, representing onboarding and activation designAptixLabs · 2026-05-29

Most fitness apps lose a large share of new users before they ever complete a single workout. The instinct is to add more onboarding — more screens, more setup, more personalisation questions. The studio does the opposite: it removes everything standing between download and the user's first real win.

Defer the friction

Account creation, notification permissions, wearable connections — none of these belong before the first valuable moment. UltraFit360 lets a new user start a workout immediately and only asks for an account when there is progress worth saving. The permission ask comes after the user has felt the value, not before.

Design for the first win

The single most important metric in onboarding is time-to-first-value — how fast a user reaches the moment the app was downloaded for. For a fitness app that is completing (or even just starting) a guided workout. Every onboarding screen is judged on whether it moves the user toward that moment or delays it.

What we measure

  • Activation rate — percentage who complete a first workout, not just sign up
  • Time-to-first-value — minutes from open to first guided session
  • Step-by-step funnel drop-off — exactly which screen loses people
  • Day-1 and day-7 return rate — the real test of whether onboarding set the hook

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