Building trust into a two-sided swimming marketplace
Redesigned Swimingo from a low-visibility listings site into a trust-first marketplace connecting swim instructors and learners.
Snapshot
Swimingo is a two-sided marketplace connecting swimming instructors with learners: discovery, booking and progress tracking in one place. The early product was little more than a listings page. Instructors couldn't get visibility, customers couldn't find trusted instructors, and neither side had a reason to stay. I redesigned it into a structured, trust-first platform and led its rebrand from SwimNGo to Swimingo.
Visit www.swimingo.comThe problem
Swimingo set out to connect swimming instructors with learners, but the original product wasn't bridging the two sides.
Instructors struggled to get visibility and manage their availability.
Customers couldn't easily discover verified instructors on schedules that fit.
No reliable, centralized platform: no standard for trust, no structure to bring either side back.
in a two-sided marketplace, if neither side sees value, neither side stays.
What success meant
- Increase instructor sign-ups and active listings
- Improve retention and repeat bookings to drive revenue
- Establish Swimingo as a trusted brand in the swimming-lesson market
- Help customers easily find safe, verified instructors
- Let instructors manage schedules and bookings with ease
- A smooth booking experience with clear communication and visible progress
Understanding the users
A two-sided marketplace has two customers with different goals, so I researched both, through competitor analysis and secondary research.
Wants flexible scheduling and, above all, safety for her child.
Seeks self-improvement and visible progress tracking.
Needs a structured program that works for diverse learners.
In this market, trust is the currency. Not price, not features. Parents valued safety over cost, and instructors needed visible credibility before they'd commit.
From uncertainty to trust
The emotional arc I designed against, mapped across both journeys. The job was to move each side from uncertainty, to trust, to long-term engagement.
Design principles
The solution
I rebuilt Swimingo into a structured two-sided platform, designed around trust and built to bring both sides back.
Trade-offs & decisions
two sides, one system.
Rather than build a full design system upfront, I prototyped the product and aligned components with stakeholder feedback as I went.
→ faster iteration, still building toward consistency.I prioritized the moments that mattered most to each side, from one consistent system.
→ equal value to both sides, without doubling the complexity.The impact
Retention and usage figures were shared by Swimingo’s founder after the revamp. Pre-revamp tracking was limited, so I treat them as directional.
Looking back
“The hardest part of a marketplace isn't the interface. It's balance.”
Every decision had to serve instructors and customers without tipping the experience toward either. Treating trust as the core design problem, not a nice-to-have, is what made it work: once both sides felt safe, engagement followed. Next, I'd invest earlier in a proper design system.
The setup
