UX stories > A misleading regulator
A misleading regulator
One day at the gym, I had my first experience with their machines for leg exercises. The machine wasn’t properly adjusted for my height (or shortness), so I had to adjust it. Below is a picture of the regulator.
The first attempt was to grab the knob and rotate it. The suggestion came from its shape, but it was impossible to do so.
Okay, boys and girls, my fault, because it’s a machine and I should know (really?) that the adjustment requires a mechanism to lock the height with guides, and it’s not possible to adjust it centimeter by centimeter.
The second attempt was again to grab the knob and move it to the right, the opposite side of the height indicator, but it was impossible to move it.
Okay, once more, maybe I’m the stupid one and I need to ask for help.
A (Andrea): “Excuse me, can you help me adjust the height here? I don’t understand how to do it.”
T (Trainer): “Sure, you have to do it this way.”
A: “Ah! I’m sorry, I misread the arrow.”
T: “No problem; I work here, and everyone asks for help because they misread or don’t see the arrow.”
A: “Ah… everyone?”
T: “Yes, everyone.”
Everyone?
The solution was to pull the part of the regulator where the arrow was located, using both hands: one to pull and the other to move the regulator up or down using the knob.
The fun fact, confirming that “everyone asks for help the first time”, was that the next day, one guy asked me for help with the same machine, and his two attempts were the same as mine.
The importance of details
In the following days, I observed whether other people had the same problem, and yes, they did. I took a picture to think about how this function could be improved. It’s a small detail, but there are other issues here:
It’s hard to find a trainer or an employee at the gym available to answer questions; I was lucky that day.
In this gym, trainers and employees don’t wear any distinguishing clothing to set them apart from other patrons.
It’s easy to feel the pressure of a person or people in line waiting for you to finish your exercises, and not everyone feels confident enough to ask the first person they encounter for help.
Typically, those who go to the gym follow a list of exercises, and depending on the order, some can be done with higher or lower weights. They prefer to wait rather than do something else.
I want to preserve the knob because its function is related to the entire machine, but I think adding something to the other knob that unlocks the regulator could make life easier for inexperienced users.
Using the “PULL ME” indication could help. While someone may still need assistance, this small improvement could change 'everyone' to 'someone.'
This solution was discussed a few days later with the trainer and the other guy who asked me for help, and I received approval for my suggestion. It won’t save anyone’s life, but it can make the gym experience less frustrating for some.
I want to emphasize that in a gym, it’s hard to find machines produced by different brands, and all of these machines have the same elements and instructions, so managing any of them for the first time can be frustrating.
We live in a world where the first experience is very important. We decide what is good or bad very quickly, and I don’t think it’s correct—whether normal or not—but it’s a fact. In our minds, we usually remember what was bad instead of what was good because of our expectations.
Expectations, depending on how a brand communicates with its audience, can be high or low. I think this gym has spent a lot of its budget on promotions, so expectations could be high.
Thank you for reading about my experience. I hope it was interesting and provided some food for thought.