At Sweetspot, I owned the core app experience as principal designer, working across more than 25 projects delivered (in a bit less than 2 years), with the shared goal of turning a poorly reviewed product into something players actually loved.
After key improvements, we went from a 1-star to a 4-star App Store rating.
Here you will find a compilation of some of my work related with the Sweetspot app:
App design uplift
The Sweetspot mobile app was frequently described by players as difficult to navigate, with even basic tasks, such as changing a home club (Primary Club), requiring too much effort. Reviewers criticized the “terrible UI” and lack of in-app guidance, and players often relied on trial and error to learn how the app worked.
Visual examples of the old designs:
Landing page: Solving the browsing issue.
The browsing experience was the first pain point we addressed. It required users to make unnecessary decisions, while the venue type was buried in a vague dropdown.
The adopted solution redesigned discovery around an Airbnb-style, scrollable experience with a single “Where to play?” field. It presented the venue type as a prominent, business-relevant signal, not merely a UI tweak, but a structural improvement to how users browsed.
Detailed category filtering: Visible and scannable
A segmented tab bar made filtering visible at a glance, with icons reinforcing each category and an underline indicating the active state. This replaced the hidden dropdown while also signaling upfront that the app supported more than just courses
"Profile" view evolution
The original Profile was a flat list with no clear hierarchy, which made key tasks, such as changing a primary club, checking membership benefits, or managing payments, hard to find.
We restructured it and renamed Profile to More, creating a clearer, more scalable home for account, settings, and future features.
The idea was to add personalization so players could immediately recognize their personal information and Golf ID. We also resolved a major issue with email verification, removing ghost accounts in the process and stabilizing the new login and sign-up experience to encourage adoption.
We introduced new features such as notification dots, which guided players to check what was happening and take action. As the redesign matured, we added “My QR Code” as a one-tap action directly beneath the profile card, turning the screen from a settings dump into the fastest way to access club membership benefits.
Old screens and logic
Previously, changing a home or primary club required several unintuitive steps. Players had to know to look in Account Settings, scroll to find the right field, select a club, and save the change. Only then would the new club appear in the bottom navigation bar.
New UI/UX in place to improve flows
In the new design, the restructured menu reduced the guesswork involved in finding key settings. Primary Club was moved to Profile Settings and placed near the top, reflecting how frequently players switched between home clubs. We also grouped Club and Federation settings together because the two were closely connected (in Sweden and some other countries, golf club membership was tied to a federation).
The flow was tested and validated with players. We also added guidance explaining why federation information was needed and how the selected primary club appeared in the bottom navigation for quicker access.
Stabilishing consistent patterns
Within a home club, players could choose both where and what they wanted to play. This was especially important for larger clubs with multiple venues offering different experiences, from driving ranges and courses to Toptracer, simulators, and coaching. Mirroring the booking experience from the home page made the flow more familiar and predictable.
New "Primary club" dedicated view
Within the dedicated home club view, players could easily access memberships and passes, renew them, or purchase new ones. The new design system brought consistency to typography and components while giving the interface a cleaner, more refined look without compromising usability. It also integrated notification badges into the segmented controls.
Membership and passes dedicated view
The dedicated view for memberships and passes introduced a clearer information architecture and a more mature look and feel, aligned with the new design patterns. It also improved the visibility and accessibility of promotions and booking rules, two recurring sources of customer support tickets.
Conclusion
These changes were part of my broader responsibility for the app experience, through which I continuously worked to improve usability, hierarchy, and the overall quality of the product. While many improvements were delivered during my time at the company, this case study focused on a selection of the most impactful changes, which helped improve players’ perception of the app while significantly reducing support tickets related to everyday usability issues.
Other improvements were driven by the introduction of new features and, for that reason, fell outside the scope of this case study.
Login & Signup
Authentication was the top support issue for Sweetspot users, with players frequently unable to receive login codes, getting trapped in verification loops, or needing to log in every time they opened the app or made a booking.
The issue was structural. Sweetspot's player experience spans four platforms: native Mobile App, Web Booking, Mobile Web, and an iFrame on club websites, lacking a shared identity layer. Players to verify again when switching from the app to the web, and OTP emails were often blocked by Hotmail and Outlook accounts, leading to duplicate accounts causing check-in problems.
"The design challenge was making it feel consistent across very different contexts, from native OS sign-in sheets on mobile, to a sandboxed iFrame on a third-party club website."
What We Built
We introduced Google and Apple SSO as the primary login method across all four surfaces, giving players a single persistent identity regardless of where they interacted with Sweetspot.
A shared identity layer meant a player authenticated on the app stayed authenticated on web booking and mobile web, eliminating the re-login loop entirely.
OTP was kept as a fallback, but SSO became the default, removing the dependency on email deliverability for most users.
The Flow & Experience
Whether a player opens the native app, scans a QR code that lands them on mobile web, clicks a booking link on a club website, or accesses an iFrame widget embedded on a third-party page they hit the same login screen, the same options, and the same outcome.
First-time user
Players access the login screen and can either tap to Continue with Google, Apple, or enter their email an OTP. Most choose a provider, confirm with Face ID or device credentials, and log in instantly, no forms or passwords needed. OTP users enter their email, receive a 15-minute code, and paste it into the app, which links to their account or creates a new one if necessary.
Returning user
SSO players tap their provider and are authenticated instantly, no code, no friction.
The session persists across surfaces, so a player who logged in on the app won't be asked to log in again when they open a web booking link from the same club.
OTP players follow the same email flow, but with session persistence in place, they're only prompted when their session has actually expired not on every visit.
The iFrame context
The most constrained surface. The login UI had to work within a sandboxed embed on a third-party website, with no control over the surrounding page. SSO here relied on pop-up flows triggered from the embed, kept minimal and focused, just the provider buttons, a clear headline, and nothing else. No distractions, no dead ends.
Error states
For OTP, three clear states: code not yet arrived (retry option), code expired (request a new one), code already used (same). For SSO, if the provider returns an error, the player is dropped back to the login screen with a prompt to try again or switch method.
No dead ends, no blank screens.
