Nautilus Elliptical - UX Problems
Fitness cardio equipment is notorious for horrendous user interfaces.
I'd like to draw your attention to the button selection on this Nautilus E916 Elliptical.
LEVEL: up arrow and down arrow. OK this makes sense.
STOP: Red button in middle. OK, makes sense.
CLEAR: backwards arrow. This makes sense.
QUICK START: Faint button hidden left of midline. Bit of a strange place for likely the most used button on the machine. It holds equal emphasis visually - and in fact is overshadowed by the larger - 'DISPLAY LOCK/UNLOCK' button. Which I am almost certain is NEVER USED BY ANYONE. And if it is used only proves the equipment is so poorly designed that people accidentally activate control buttons while while working out. The mere existence, placement, and text description of this button is problematic on many levels.
WORKOUT SELECTION KEYS: All have down arrows?!? What??! We already see up/down arrows being used for selecting up/down, and forward/backwards arrows being used to 'start. You can't repurpose the down arrow to mean 'select'. Plus psychologically pressing a 'down arrow' as the way you start a workout is the wrong signalling.
Clearly though wrong signalling isn't a problem for them, as when the machine boots up and asks you to choose a program - it shows you a 'backwards' (left pointing) arrow. Again, wrong subconscious signalling - a piece of cardio equipment should show forward energy & movement.
ENTER: That is a wonky arrow key, but I guess it is reminiscent of old 1970s-1990s keyboards. (Though...this is a product manufactured in the mid-late 2000s). The arrow also doesn't work, because we have already accepted the 'QUICK START' forward arrow as the acceptable means of 'selecting' / moving forward' and 'progressing'. The back arrow on the ENTER button is meant to 'select' 'choose' the channel, but a backwards arrow means the opposite of START. Plus, if the WORKOUT SELECTION buttons 'down arrows' are supposed to mean 'select', then the enter button's image doesn't fit with those either.
FUNCTIONALITY: The fact that my knees bump on the front of the machine, the stride length of the device is designed for midgets, and it is potentially the worst elliptical I have ever used is beside the point.
Retail Value: $5000 USD
