I used the Fitplan app for guided exercise plans. As a user, I select a plan, which is a collection of single workouts, and it provides a list of exercises to perform each day.
What I liked about the app was that every exercise includes a short instructional video clip of a real human doing the exercise. The app even allows me to download all exercise videos for the day before I head out to my retro gym that still doesn’t have WiFi.
The problem
The interactive element that supports this process of downloading videos is a toggle. Users tap the toggle and it instantly toggles over and turns to green.
Is the download of 4, 8, 12 videos done in 1 second? Probably not.
Is there any indication that a hefty download happened? Nope.
And now am I nervous that I’m going to head out while the download is in progress in the non-visible background? You bet.
Now about this toggle. Toggles best represent that an element is activated, like turning on dark mode, not that an action was completed.
Moreover, are users expected to go back when they’re done with the workout and undo the toggle to delete the video downloads?
The psychology
A visual indicator that takes a few seconds to complete would match the mental model of this task in the users’ mind. We know that downloads don’t often happen instantaneously. This visual indicator would help support the feedback loop.
In addition, seeing a progress bar or loading animation creates a visual representation of the “work” being done behind the scenes. This perceived effort can subconsciously increase the perceived value of the eventual outcome, even if the actual work involved might be minimal. This is called labor illusion.
The exemplifiers
There are a few apps that come to mind when I think about having the option to download or stream media from my device.
Looking at Pocket Cast, the app allows users to download a podcast episode in a number of ways: download a specific episode, auto-download new episodes of your favorite podcast shows (look at that excellent use of a toggle!), or select multiple episodes to download at once.
Onward to Spotify, which has a download feature that would greatly help Fitplan. When downloading a group of songs, the progress is tracked for the collection of songs AND each song. Fitplan could track the downloads for the videos for the entire workout as a whole and each exercise.
The conclusion
I couldn’t help but borrow some ideas from Pocket Cast and Spotify, and add my own touch to improve the UX and UI.
Left: Current FitPlan app, Right: my quick redesign
I have shifted items around so that the bottom half focuses on the exercise/video list and equipment needed. Initiating a download would pause your ability to begin the workout and show the progress in a circle loading diagram until each upload is complete. Now I can head to gym and know I won’t be adding any MBs to my data usage. Now, let’s hit the gym!