Introducing Streaks to spark spring adventures

I created the visual language for komoot’s Streaks campaign and supported a launch that reactivated 38.6% of past explorers, the strongest comeback since 2021.

Brand Design

Visual Design

Growth

Introducing the brand new Streaks feature

Each winter, outdoor activity drops and many new users don’t return in spring. With this recurring drop-off, spring 2024 became a key moment to rebuild habits.

I led the visual design for komoot’s Streaks campaign, partnering with copy and product teams to launch a feature that inspires weekly outdoor activity.

The challenge of bringing users back after winter

The goal was to pull users out of hibernation and back into exploring. Newcomers were especially vulnerable after their first winter, with returning actives dropping 55% in 2021 and 45% in 2022. Without a spring narrative, 450k of 2023’s new users were at risk of dropping off.

Targeting the right types of adventurers

We needed to understand who we wanted to talk to and what motivated them. Our data revealed a group of more than 2 million users who mostly explored between April and September, the ideal audience for a seasonal campaign that introduced the Streaks feature.

Turning motivation into a narrative

Once the segment was defined, I worked with our copywriter lead to build weekly themes from a brand survey that revealed key user motivations: mental wellbeing, nature exploration, local discovery, and active enjoyment, (aka rides and hikes planned around food stops 😋).

Building the campaign visual tooklit

The mechanics and most of the UI of the streaks feature was nearly complete when I joined the project, so my role was to build on top of it. I developed the campaign’s visual language and worked with the copy team to refine the narrative, ensuring everything came together as one cohesive experience in the product.

One visual for each week of the month

The first step was to design a set of elements for each week's theme. Using the streak counter as a reference, I created four visuals that captured the campaign’s narrative topics: nature, mindfulness, landmarks, and picnic pauses.

Choosing the typography for the campaign

After defining these basic shapes, I looked for a font that would complement them. Given their rounded and playful character, I chose the heavy variant of Hoss Round, a friendly-looking font with soft, rounded curves that feels approachable despite its bold weight.

Choosing the imagery and putting everything together

For each weekly theme, I selected uplifting, dynamic imagery that captured the campaign’s spirit and worked across emails, the app, and other compositions. The result is a cohesive visual set that encourages exploration and highlights the product feature.

One visual for each week of the month

The first step was to design a set of elements for each week's theme. Using the streak counter as a reference, I created four visuals that captured the campaign’s narrative topics: nature, mindfulness, landmarks, and picnic pauses.

Choosing the typography for the campaign

After defining these basic shapes, I looked for a font that would complement them. Given their rounded and playful character, I chose the heavy variant of Hoss Round, a friendly-looking font with soft, rounded curves that feels approachable despite its bold weight.

Choosing the imagery and putting everything together

For each weekly theme, I selected uplifting, dynamic imagery that captured the campaign’s spirit and worked across emails, the app, and other compositions. The result is a cohesive visual set that encourages exploration and highlights the product feature.

Integration with the app

With much of the feature already defined, my task was to integrate the campaign into the UI without disrupting the existing design, while ensuring its voice and message remained clear.

Striking the right balance

I recognized early that users needed to understand the feature mechanics at a glance without getting lost in the campaign messaging. The campaign took a supporting role within the product, complementing the widget instead of taking over the screen.

Temporary campaign module

I built on the existing feature and added a campaign module to the streak widget. This module was only meant for the campaign and would be removed after launch.

A multi touchpoint campaign

Once the widget layout and mechanics were set, a campaign UI element was added to komoot’s home feed, a high-exposure spot that guaranteed visibility, sparked curiosity, and introduced the upcoming campaign.

Weekly campaign pages

When the campaign went live, tapping the widget took users to the weekly campaign page, with new inspirational content and a CTA to the route-finding platform.

Weekly campaign emails

Emails kept users engaged throughout the campaign and introduced the weekly themes.

Striking the right balance

I recognized early that users needed to understand the feature mechanics at a glance without getting lost in the campaign messaging. The campaign took a supporting role within the product, complementing the widget instead of taking over the screen.

The discarded layout put too much focus on the campaign themes. The chosen direction led me to an integrated campaign module within the feature widget.

Temporary campaign module

I built on the existing feature and added a campaign module to the streak widget. This module was only meant for the campaign and would be removed after launch.

This module displayed the weekly badge as the campaign widget progressed, clearly highlighting the theme each week.

A multi touchpoint campaign

Once the widget layout and mechanics were set, a campaign UI element was added to the komoot’s home feed, a spot with consistently high exposure.

Campaign entry point

This spot that guaranteed visibility and sparked user curiosity, while explaining the broad concept of the upcoming campaign.

Weekly campaign pages

When the campaign went live, tapping the widget took users to the weekly campaign page, with new inspirational content and a CTA to the route-finding platform.

Weekly campaign emails

Emails kept users engaged throughout the campaign and introduced the weekly themes.

Production and roll-out

Once the key creatives were finalised and the product integration was clear, I moved into producing assets for the app, emails and social media.

Impact and results of Adventure into Spring

38.6%
Resurrected Explorers

Highest April return since 2021, surpassing 2023 (37.92%) and 2022 (32.83%), successfully reactivating lapsed explorers.

10.7%
More exploring users

April 2024 saw 2.68 million explorers, the most ever, exceeding the previous best in April 2023.

Over 22
Million users reached

The campaign delivered 50 million opens and 1.3 million clicks, driven by consistent design and storytelling.

Takeaways from this project

The Spring Campaign was our first big step in blending brand experience directly into the product. For me, it was a great opportunity to collaborate with product designers and find ways to bring the brand voice into the app for greater impact.

Connecting the campaign across emails, social media and in-app moments showed me how much stronger a design can be when it fits into a structured user journey. The Spring Campaign evolved from isolated assets into a cohesive experience, guiding users back to outdoor activity.

Santiago did an outstanding job. In record time, he turned a stats-driven feature into emotional, relatable stories that felt unmistakably on brand. His work was key to the campaign’s success and record re-activation numbers. A great collaborator, he bridged product and brand thinking with ease and showed strong user-first thinking.

Jonas Spengler

Co-founder / CTO @komoot

I was truly impressed by Santiago’s work. In a short time, he delivered the campaign design and collaborated with product to integrate branding across all touchpoints, elevating the campaign and setting a new benchmark at komoot for brand–product collaboration.

Mathijs Hoek

Growth Squad Product Manager @komoot

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Santiago Villa · Brand and Visual Designer
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