Member-only story

Why companies kill great design

Lately, I’ve been wondering why the mightiest of companies, despite their elaborate 10-step interview processes, struggle to foster innovation and creativity in design. Sometimes it’s not about the design.

Olesia Vdovenko
Bootcamp
Published in
6 min readOct 12, 2023

If you used the Nike Training app a few years ago, you would have discovered unique features and excellent content.

The Nike Training app allowed you to download content, preview your exercises, skip or repeat certain exercises, track your progress based on exercises you had repeated, and provided a step-by-step view. It had a simple yet distinctive design that made you feel in control. With that design, they built a user base, and users would enthusiastically recommend the app to their friends. The interface design was a huge success.

Old nike training app screenshot, shows steps of the workout.
Nike training app (old version on the left, new on the right)

However, things have changed. Most of the features that made the app unique have been removed, and it has now adopted a YouTube video approach. You can only skip by 10-second intervals with a double tap, and you no longer see a breakdown of the exercises in each session. Additionally, there is no longer…

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Bootcamp
Bootcamp

Published in Bootcamp

From idea to product, one lesson at a time. Bootcamp is a collection of resources and opinion pieces about UX, UI, and Product. To submit your story: https://tinyurl.com/bootspub1

Olesia Vdovenko
Olesia Vdovenko

Written by Olesia Vdovenko

UX philosopher✌️ Based in Canada

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