Integrations
Velox's goal is to pull each runner's activity data asynchronously, with no manual input. Logging every session by hand is one of the biggest pain points in training apps, and removing it is core to what Velox promises. When the APIs we depended on closed, I engineered a way around the shutdown and designed the onboarding flow that makes it usable.
The doors to the data closed
Velox planned to sync activities from the platforms runners already use. Then the two biggest ones shut us out. Garmin closed its API program to new applicants, and Strava tightened its API terms and conditions so far that any processing of the data was either useless or a breach of terms.
Without the data, Velox couldn't deliver on its core goal, and the project hit a complete roadblock.
Bridging the data through Apple Health
I found a route that gets the same data to Velox seamlessly: runners' own apps sync their activities to Apple Health, and Velox reads them from there with the runner's permission. COROS was the exception, with full integration directly through COROS MCP.
The catch: for Garmin and Strava, setting up the bridge sends runners out of Velox and back again, right in the middle of onboarding.
The workaround had a cost
The bridge solved integration, but it handed runners a long, laborious journey through someone else's app: leave Velox mid-onboarding, dig through Garmin Connect's or Strava's menus for its Apple Health setting, turn on Health sync and allow every category iOS asks for, remember to come back, then approve Velox's own HealthKit access so the data can finally bridge. Every step is another decision and another chance to get confused and drop off, and onboarding is where nuanced steps carry the highest drop-off risk.
Designing the flow
I designed a flow that cuts taps and improves understanding: simple screens that tell a clear story, so runners always know what they're doing and why.
Show the path, don't describe it
Instead of written directions through another app's menus, the screen plays a recording of the exact route in Garmin Connect or Strava. Runners see where to tap before they ever leave Velox, which takes as much of the confusion out as possible.
Go, come back, press Allow
Go signals the one action left and opens Garmin Connect or Strava automatically, cutting taps even further. When runners come back, Velox prompts the next step on its own, the HealthKit connection that bridges the data. All they need to do is press Allow, and the screen moves on to the next objective.
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