In-house work · Sleep Number
Transforming Sleep into a Personalized Wellness Platform
How redesigning the Sleep Number app created $32 million in sales and operational efficiencies while helping users get a better night's sleep.
- Organization
- Sleep Number
- Role
- Design leadership
- Project type
- Native app (iOS/Android)IoT smart device
- Business category
- B2C
Designing for sleep is deeply personal, and seeing our work help millions sleep better, while also driving $32M in ROI, has been one of the most rewarding challenges of my career.
Leadership Lens
This initiative balanced data, automation, and human judgment. I focused on shaping system-level decisions that made complex intelligence usable, trustworthy, and supportive of real user behavior.
Challenges
The existing UX was outdated and failed to support Sleep Number’s expanding smart bed portfolio, leading to a fragmented customer journey from onboarding to support. This resulted in low digital engagement, increased reliance on call centers, and missed opportunities for cross-sell and referrals. Additionally, the platform lacked the infrastructure needed to support future business models such as subscriptions and FDA-backed features.
Goals
- Modernize UI and align with brand while feeling fresh
- Increase app engagement and create habitual usage with variable rewards
- Expand application architecture to support an increased smart bed portfolio, and value-added services
- Reduce call volume to customer service and support
- Drive incremental revenue via referrals and accessory sales
- Build a scalable system for future business models
UX Optimizations: 7 Powerful Efficiencies
| Initiative | Impact |
|---|---|
| Streamlined onboarding | Cut registration screens from 20 to 6, reducing time by 50% |
| Smarter delivery & order tracking | Added rescheduling + accessory tracking |
| Guided bed setup | Personalized Sleep Number Setting flow increased satisfaction at home |
| Support article search | Increased self-service and lowered dependency on CS |
| Easier rewards redemption | Drove accessory purchases and repeat engagement |
| Easy referral | Increased shareability and customer acquisition |
Role & Team
My Role:
- Led design strategy, team operations, and stakeholder workshops
- Directed design system creation, visual language, and motion/interaction design
My Team & Partners:
- 5 Product Designers for design, design systems and motion
- 3 Product Managers for different sections of the app
- 3 Development squads aligned with the PM structure
- 2 Market Researchers to align business + user goals
Process Overview & Timeline
I employed a user-centered design approach, combining quantitative data and research to understand user needs and pain points.
- Discovery
- 3 weeksCompetitive analysis on physical products (Oura, Apple Watch, WHOOP), visual/UI trend analysis and audits → strategic design insights and benchmarks
- Concepts
- 2 weeks3 design directions tested for brand alignment and usability → concept prototypes
- System design
- 17 weeksModular design system for personalization, support, and e-commerce → scalable UI kit and component library
- Validation
- 4 weeksUsability testing + diary study on IA, comprehension, and engagement → messaging refinement and improved flows
Impact
Measurable business and user impact across revenue, support, engagement, and long-term scalability.
- $32 Million
- Incremental revenue + operational efficiencies
- ↓ Call volume
- Significant reduction in support call volume
- ↑ CSAT
- Improved CSAT and week-over-week engagement
- + Future
- Improved architecture for future innovations in subscription or FDA-approved models
The Research
To reimagine the future of sleep, we immersed ourselves in the wellness tech landscape by testing wearables, exploring mobile apps, and analyzing design trends. From data visualization to organic UI patterns, every insight shaped a more intuitive, engaging, and empowering experience for users.
Competitive & Trend Analysis
A deep analysis of other health and wellness interfaces like Oura, Apple, WHOOP and others helped us understand:
- Color palettes
- Shapes
- Illustration styles
- Over-arching themes
Key Insights:
Dark theme color palettes, organic shapes and hand-drawn illustrations were key elements across multiple brands and device types.
The Concepts
We spent several weeks working on three different concepts to understand how they would interact with brand, data sets and interaction.
I’m ready to drive similar transformational results for your organization through strategic UX design and optimization.