UX of Cardio Machines (PART 2)
How LA Fitness made working out more enjoyable, then less enjoyable
You don’t have to read part one to read part two, but here’s the link if you’re interested!
I’ve gotten into a mediocre routine of going to the CU gym. Hey, it’s something. The spring semester is really ramping up and it’s been difficult finding the motivation to ride my bike up that stupid hill sometimes. But when I do go, I usually hop on the stair master for a little bit (gotta work those glutes, ya know). But I noticed something different about the stair masters when I got back from my break in January.
They had changed their main interface, once again. I thought, this is great for my RE: posts, not for my gym experience. I had to learn a new interface, and worst of all, the new interface was 100% digital. To me, this was a step back.
As a recap, here is a picture of the old interface (or the “new one” in part 1):
As you can see, it’s a smaller LCD in the center, with only the most essential physical buttons taking up the rest of the real estate. Go, stop, pause, increase difficulty, and decrease difficulty. For my use, that’s all I needed. If I want to do a more specific workout, I can go into the settings of the LCD and pick them. But other than that, the LCD displays the most information for the workout, and I can just push “Go.” I loved this interface, as it fit my needs perfectly.
This is a picture of the 2020 model that replaced it.
I had the same reaction as that boy when I first saw this. The new interface is entirely digital, in order to accommodate a TV screen and its controls. I may be biased, but I don’t want to watch TV when I’m working out. Or I at least want the option to not watch TV. I stare at screens all day, and this is a break for me. So it was frustrating that my precious data took a back seat while TV took shotgun. The interface seems to have its pros and cons though.
The main pro is that it has more capabilities. You can sign into an “account” it looked like, you can connect your phone via Bluetooth, and much more. That’s fancy and cool and all, but it’s not really something I need. I want to get in, get my workout done, and get out. Another pro might be the fact that now that it’s entirely software, LA Fitness can install patches and changes easier. Not sure if that would have to be in person, or remotely, but either way it might make lives easier instead of having to pay for entire new hardware every time they want to update a machine model.
The cons outweigh the pros in my opinion. The interface is clunky and how the user discovers features is not very enjoyable. The buttons on the screen are not clear of their function upon first use. It took me much too long to figure out how to collapse the TV, which was the only other button I wanted to push beside “go” and “speed increase”. At one point I thought there wasn’t even a way to collapse the TV. But I couldn’t think of a valid reason why they wouldn’t include that option, so after continuing to search, I eventually found it.
Lucky for you, I recorded my attempt at trying to find out how to collapse the screen for the first time. Watch till the end for relevant audio to my emotions at the time.
In my defense, I was tired and walking up a lot of stairs. Hence the cursing. You shouldn’t have to work for your information while you’re working out. It’s already exhausting enough.
I actually didn’t figure out how to collapse the screen until the next time I got on the machine. If you tap the tiny “expand” button in the bottom left corner of the UI, right above one of the data points, it causes the data to take up the entire screen. Once I did that, I was greeted with much more detailed information than the 2019 model. This, I liked. It was how I got there that I didn’t enjoy. Simple fix: maybe make the button a little more evident?
Obviously they had their reasons for it, and I’d be curious to know their design decisions. I just hope that it wasn’t following trends, and they actually took a user-centered approach. But what do I know, I’m just a user. One of thousands of data points.
