Inside the Process: Respira App

Date: June 27, 2025

Healthcare professionals take care of everyone, but who takes care of them?

Intro

One of my teammates, who’s over 1.90m tall, had always struggled with back pain and Pilates was essential in helping him relieve the pain and correct his posture.

Inspired by his story, we decided to thank the professionals who helped take care of him and so many others, using what we do best: design and technology.

Context

Independent Pilates instructors are usually teachers who, on top of caring for their students, also have to run their own business.

Scheduling, cancellations, and last-minute reschedules are their biggest challenges. During our interviews, we noticed a clear pattern: confusing processes, full of manual iterations and constant interruptions during class time.

Many instructors juggled replying to messages on their phones, updating spreadsheets, and managing multiple apps all while teaching their students.

Understanding this chaotic routine, we decided to focus on optimizing the scheduling flow, so that these professionals could go back to focusing on what truly matters: their students.

Solution

Respira is an Intelligent Scheduling App developed for iOS.

It integrates directly with WhatsApp, the main communication channel between instructors and students, making it easier to handle scheduling, last-minute reschedules, and cancellations in real time.

Students don’t have to leave WhatsApp: when they request a class, the system interprets and processes the request automatically. Once approved by the instructor, the update appears instantly on the app’s calendar, thanks to AI and n8n automations.

Reflections

This was my first project built entirely from scratch with the development team, we literally started at zero.
It brought me several valuable lessons:

• I strengthened my understanding of time management in design (calendars and scheduling flows are perfect for refining timing and user flow skills).
• I improved my communication and team management soft skills.
• I overcame my fear of public speaking. We presented the project on June 27, 2025, at the Developer Academy Showcase at Tecnopuc.
• And most importantly, I learned that developers and designers are on the same team solving the same problems — sometimes with different tools and processes, but always with the same purpose: building useful tools that make people’s lives easier.

Technologies & Tools

• Figma – UI Design and Prototyping
• n8n – Workflow automation and WhatsApp integration
• Swift and SwiftUI – iOS development
• Airtable & FigJam – Collaboration and organization
• Scrum Methodology – Agile project management

Credits

Team: Pedro Kosciuk Lima, Agatha Schneider, Alex Fraga, Bárbara Dapper, and Rodrigo Sandler

Research Participants: Pilates Instructors at Local Studios in Porto Alegre, Brazil