Overview
Designing a walker-first digital experience for a social fitness movement that brought together 5,000+ participants across Mumbai.
#JustWalkIndia was built around a simple belief: walking is the most universal form of movement, yet most walkathons treat it as just another event instead of celebrating the walker behind it. Rather than building a one-time event platform, we wanted to create a long-term relationship between walkers and the movement itself.
Role: Product Lead / Product Designer
Focus: Product Strategy, UX Design, Operational Workflows, Identity Systems
Existing Walkathons Were Built Around Events, Not Walkers
As part of our research, our entire team participated in existing walkathons to understand the experience from a walker’s perspective. What stood out immediately was how fragmented the ecosystem felt.
Timing data came from one vendor.
Photos came from another.
Event communication came from somewhere else.
And once the event ended, the relationship with the walker ended too. Even repeat participants were treated like completely new users every year, with no connected history, identity, or continuity across events.
Designing a Walker Identity System
One of the biggest gaps we noticed was that walkers never truly had an identity within existing walkathon ecosystems.
To solve this, we introduced a persistent profile system where every participant received their own unique account and dashboard inside #JustWalkIndia.
We also introduced a permanent alphanumeric bib system where a walker retained the same bib identity across future #JustWalkIndia events, helping transform participation into a longer-term relationship with the movement.
Unifying the Event Experience
Most walkathons relied on multiple external vendors to manage different parts of the experience.
One vendor handled timing data.
Another handled event photography.
Communication often came from separate systems altogether.
As a result, walkers had to jump across multiple platforms just to access their event information. To solve this, we redesigned the experience around a single centralized dashboard inside #JustWalkIndia.
Using external APIs, we mapped timing data, event photos, and participation history back to each walker’s unique profile, creating one connected experience instead of several disconnected ones.
Reducing Registration Friction
As registrations opened, we started analyzing user behavior recordings through MS Clarity and noticed a major problem: users were taking nearly 22 clicks just to complete registration.
The biggest source of friction was that walkers first had to create a #JustWalkIndia account and then separately register for the walkathon itself. This two-step onboarding process created significant drop-offs during registration.
To solve this, I redesigned the flow by merging platform onboarding directly into the walkathon registration journey.
Instead of forcing users through a separate sign-up experience, the system silently created their #JustWalkIndia account in the background while they registered for the event.
This reduced the registration journey from nearly 22 clicks to almost 3 clicks and helped us scale to 5,000+ registrations within 3 months.
Designing Expo Day Operations
Expo Day was one of the most operationally sensitive parts of the entire event experience.
Thousands of walkers had to physically collect their bibs before Walk Day, and volunteers needed a fast, reliable way to verify participants and distribute the correct bibs without creating long queues or confusion.
To support this, I designed a lightweight verification workflow where volunteers could identify walkers using:
their permanent bib number
registered phone number
or a pre-shared QR code
Once verified, the system instantly marked the bib as collected and automatically triggered a confirmation email to the walker.
The goal was to make the entire handover experience feel fast, organized, and trustworthy for both volunteers and walkers.
Building Community Beyond Event Day
We didn’t want #JustWalkIndia to feel like a one-day event that disappeared once the walk ended.
To extend engagement beyond Walk Day, we introduced Walkipedia — a walking-focused knowledge hub exploring the culture, history, science, and stories around walking.
The initiative also supported long-term SEO and organic discovery by helping us build a growing content ecosystem around walking and fitness-related searches.
The goal was to make walking feel less like a temporary activity and more like an ongoing identity and community.
Exploring Future Product Directions
Once the first event was successfully completed, we started exploring ways to deepen engagement and make the overall experience more personal for walkers.
One concept I worked on was special or vanity bibs, where walkers could purchase meaningful bib combinations like their name or favorite number patterns and retain them permanently across future events.
To support this safely, I designed an AI-assisted filtering system that checked generated bib combinations and flagged unsafe, offensive, or restricted patterns before assignment.
We also explored a paid home-delivery flow for bibs, allowing walkers to skip Expo Day entirely and receive their kits directly at home.
These explorations helped us think beyond event registration and toward building a longer-term product ecosystem around the walking community.
