Comment by roundsquare | Hacker News Reader

Comment by roundsquare | Hacker News Reader

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Neat idea. Could be useful. A couple of thoughts...

1) I agree with everyone here about the need to streamline the process. Once screen for entry, etc...

2) What does each term mean? I know most of them, but whats an "exercise group?" People who don't work out a lot may not know what other things mean. E.g. reps = repetitions. Put something like "number of repetitions" instead.

3) A lot of workout programs are something like: Run a little for 4 weeks. Run a medium amount for 4 weeks. Run a large amount for 4 weeks.

If thats how I'm doing things, I don't want to enter 12 weeks worth on info, I want to enter 3 weeks and have each one repeated. I'm not 100% sure how I would redesign the interface, for this, you can try a few things out...

4) Why are the numbers in drop downs? To me, thats very unnatural (others might disagree).

5) Having it so that anyone can edit and delete a workout could be a bit chaotic.

Edit: 6) One more. After I create a workout, the link at the bottom says "Index." What does that mean? A button that says "Done" or something would be more clear.

Thanks for the feedback!

1) I agree it's difficult to use. Streamlining is a technical problem.

2) I also agree it's difficult to understand. I made up the term 'exercise group.' It's to group the different sets and repetitions for one exercise. I need to make the process more clear and easier to use. This kind of ties in to the first problem. I tried using javascript to have it all on one page in a dynamic fashion but wasn't able to piece it all together. This is the first step in getting a useful interface.

3) This is very interesting to me. I came across this issue with swimming. I looked up some swimming workouts and they looked like nothing I had seen before. I'm familiar with weightlifting. I had thought of being able to copy workouts from one to another. What about being able to copy weeks and then being able to tweak?

4) Do you feel more comfortable with fields?

5) I imagined everyone would have an account.

6) Ok, haha yeah I need lessons on design stat!

Thanks again

1, 2) Nice. Wish I could give you technical help, but I don't do any web development at all. I'm sure others here will be able to help though. But, if your having trouble, I'd suggest create something much smaller, with just text fields for example, and try to build it up slowly. Once you get used to it, you can create this interface.

3) Yeah, thats a good idea. A "same as last week" button and a "copy week" button would be great. This can only happen once you re-design the workflow though... I imagine it such that you click a "add a new week" button and then fill it in, so once you do that, you can have these buttons.

4) Yeah. A warning if someone enters something thats not a number/integer, but a field is better (I prefer red text saying "this should be a number" that comes up next to the field, but thats up to you).

5) Even still. If I put up a workout, who will be editing it? How do I know they'll be editing it in a way thats really in the spirit of the original workout. What if a professional weightlifter comes in and starts making the workout more hard core? It might be "better" but not really good for a certain kind of audience?

This is not to say you can't find a way around this. You may want to consider how people get "access" to a workout. If you do restrict access though, a discussion page would be good. I don't see this as an immediate issue, but something you should keep in the back of you mind and think about as you go forward.

6) :) Its just the fact that your a "computer person" so an "index" is something you think about.

P.S. Its good that your taking all the feedback positively.

Cool thanks for sharing your thoughts, much appreciated.

1,2) No worries, I'm in no hurry and I imagine learning web development is a slow process. I'm not sure how I'll improve from this point. I could use text fields for everything on a single page but there are dynamic aspects that are hard to get around. For example how do I enable it to take programs with varying number of weeks.

3) I really like the idea of a drop down boxes of the already completed weeks and a "copy week" button next to it; thanks for the inspiration on that!

4) Okay I just thought fields would be easier because you can use your keyboard and press the digit and tab to the next item. The whole site tabs well, which is how I've been using it. I should mention that!

5) Sorry I wasn't clear. I meant that workouts wouldn't be editable and be tied to a user's account. I imagined that anyone could do variations of a workout easily.

6) I guess lol. 'index' is in 'link format' and there's no button was my subconscious reasoning for everything's done I guess.

Yah I'm taking the criticism so well because I care about the final result ;) Thanks for the extended input!!!

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