ParPro

Overview

A founder reached out looking for a redesign of their vibecoded app. ParPro had great features, but they weren't coming through as stakeholders wanted them to.

Right before our first call I downloaded the app. The first thing I noticed was empty screens and a paywall, which immediately turned me off. I hate it when apps force me to pay before I even start using them. Overall, my first impressions there were low.

ParPro is a golf performance app for amateur golfers who are serious about improving their game. It tells you where you're losing strokes, builds a practice plan around your weaknesses, and connects you with coaches. The people using it play every week and want data that actually means something.

My primary role was to redesign the full iOS app, 50+ screens in Figma, and to prepare the design system so it's readable by AI tools so they can continue building the app. But before that, I had to audit the existing app and understand what was broken.

What am I solving?

Think about a golfer who just downloaded ParPro. They play every weekend and can't figure out why their score isn't dropping. Before they see a single stat, the app asks them to pay. A lot of people close it right there. I mean, I would too…

The ones who stay land on a home screen full of empty cards. Every progress bar sits at 0%, and nothing tells them what to do first. So they start tapping around. There's a tab bar at the bottom and a hamburger menu at the top, and half the items show up in both.

Once they finally log a round, the payoff should be their stats. That's the reason they downloaded the app in the first place. Instead, they get a screen that makes them work for it. The most important number is easy to miss, and the chart only makes sense after reading the legend.

The features were all there. The golfer just had to fight the app to reach them. That's what I set out to fix.

Who am I helping out?

Imagine a guy who plays golf most weekends with his friends. He's been stuck at the same handicap for years, and it bothers him. He doesn't want to go pro. He just wants to break 90 and feel like he earned it.

Breaking 90 means finishing 18 holes in fewer than 90 shots, which is a big milestone for most amateur golfers.

Until now, he's been writing his score on a paper card. That basically tells him how he played. Out on the course, he doesn't have time to play around with an app. His friends are waiting, and he wants to hit his shot and move on. If logging takes too long, he'll just stop doing it.

The worst part for him is practicing a lot and still not getting better. So when an app asks him to pay, he's probably smashing his phone to the ground.

What keeps him around is finally knowing where he's losing strokes, and what to work on next.

What I actually did?

I redesigned the whole iOS app, more than 50 screens. Instead of walking you through all of them, here are the parts that mattered most.

Getting Started

The old app asked for money before you'd even logged a round. Now sign up happens one step at a time, with a progress bar showing how far along you are. The golfer picks where they lose the most shots, and the app uses that to suggest their first practice plan. Only at the last step do they pick a plan, and it starts with a 30-day free trial, so nobody pays on day one.

Navigation

There was a tab bar at the bottom and a hamburger menu at the top doing the same job. I took the hamburger out of the header and made it the last tab, where the less important stuff lives. Play sits in the middle, so starting a round is always one tap away. Stats moved into Menu too, but your key numbers are always on Home, so you rarely need to go looking.

Home

A new user used to land on a wall of empty cards. Now the home screen changes based on where you are. On day one, it just asks you to log a round. After a round, it shows how you played. After a few more, it shows how close you are to your next goal.

Statistics

This is the reason people download ParPro, so it had to be easy to read. The important numbers are now the biggest thing on the screen. I swapped the pie chart for simple bars, sorted from your most common miss, with your main pattern written underneath. You can see if you miss left or right in a second.

Profile

For golfers, the handicap is basically who they are. So I made it the biggest thing on the screen, and added trophies you unlock as you get better.

Marketplace

Coaches sell practice plans here using credits. I moved the credit balance to the top, so you always know what you can afford before tapping anything.

Results, speak up!

ParPro is live in the US App Store.

The founder loved the redesign, and the CEO told me it made the whole app easier to use. The part he liked most was logging a round. That makes sense, because it's the thing golfers do every weekend, often with their friends waiting on the tee.

The app keeps being built with AI tools, and the design system is set up for that. The team can add new screens without me, and they'll still look like ParPro.

If I could keep going, I'd track two numbers: how many people start the free trial, and how many come back to log a second round. Those would show whether golfers actually stick around.