EXPLORING INTERACTIONS 2012 – Cycle 3 Bob Janssen – 1517384

HEALTHY RUNNING LIFESTYLE BY CREATING AWARENESS OF TRAINING INTENSITY

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Inhoud

Introduction........................................................................................................................................3

Design goal .........................................................................................................................................3

Interaction vision ................................................................................................................................3

Cycle 1 ................................................................................................................................................4

Research goal .....................................................................................................................................4

Research activities and topics .............................................................................................................4

Results ................................................................................................................................................5

Interview with running coach ..........................................................................................................5

First interviews with students .........................................................................................................5

More extensive interviews ..............................................................................................................5

Interview with Johan Molenbroek ...................................................................................................6

Running class ..................................................................................................................................6

Storyboard of current situation .......................................................................................................6

Literature research..........................................................................................................................7

Concept direction and first ideas .........................................................................................................8

Cycle 2 ................................................................................................................................................9

Competing products ...........................................................................................................................9

Research goal ..................................................................................................................................9

Method ...........................................................................................................................................9

Results .......................................................................................................................................... 10

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 10

Iteration 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 10

Research goal ................................................................................................................................ 10

Method ......................................................................................................................................... 10

Results .......................................................................................................................................... 11

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 12

Iteration 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 12

Research goal ................................................................................................................................ 12

Method ......................................................................................................................................... 12

Results .......................................................................................................................................... 12

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 13

Iteration 3 ......................................................................................................................................... 13

Research goal ................................................................................................................................ 13

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Method ......................................................................................................................................... 13

Results .......................................................................................................................................... 14

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 15

Detailed product concept.................................................................................................................. 15

Cycle 3 .............................................................................................................................................. 16

Final prototype test .......................................................................................................................... 16

Research goal ................................................................................................................................ 16

Prototype ...................................................................................................................................... 16

Method ......................................................................................................................................... 18

Results .......................................................................................................................................... 18

Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 19

Final design ....................................................................................................................................... 21

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Introduction

In this report research and design explorations are presented for a project in the Exploring Interactions course within the subject Moving Myself. All three cycles, from initial explorations to final design are present in this report. The project has resulted in a product and app combination aimed at jogging students which will ask them to reflect on their training intensity and fill it in during their run. Training intensity is a factor that should be closely watched to prevent overtraining, which is one of the common causes of injuries in students (see interviews with students and running coaches in Cycle 1). Athletes are often advised to do more and less intense trainings alternatingly to make sure the body has time to rest (see interviews with running coaches and applied ergonomics professor in Cycle 1). This product and app combination will help users keep track of their training intensity by use of a method inspired by the RPE (rated perceived exertion) scale. See the picture on the right for descriptors of the intensity of the activity in relation to each number range as well as the associated effect on breathing.

Design goal

The intended goal of this design project is the following:

“I want to design a product or service that ensures that students who jog in the city adopt a healthy running lifestyle.”

Interaction vision

In the intended interaction the runner is aware of what he or she is doing and doesn’t overtrain. It’s alright if someone who is running gets into a flow and loses track of time for a while, but only up to a certain point. This point past which it becomes more likely that someone will get injured differs per person, it depends on a person’s condition, body type and is also effected by external conditions like the weather (warm or cold muscles can react differently to stress). The person who can sense what this point is the best is the runner himself, but being in a flow can cause a runner not to take notice. In other cases a runner might ignore the signs from his or her body because they’re not aware of the consequences. Being in a flow can be very relaxing, so mentally it’s quite beneficial, but to make them aware of what they’re doing they need to be pulled out of this flow. This should happen in an engaging way, by pleasantly involving the user in the activity of thinking about his or her training intensity. Aside from making them aware of their training intensity and as such preventing injuries the interaction should be fulfilling in the long-term, showing users how their training intensity develops and varies over time. The product is like a guardian angel, whispering in your ear to make you think about whether you’re making the right decisions during training.

Rated perceived exertion and descriptors

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The interaction vision can be described as follows:

“The interaction should be engaging and fulfilling while provoking awareness of the body in the runner.”

Cycle 1

Research goal

Finding the answers to the following research questions:

• What motivates joggers, why do they overtrain themselves? Is it because they want to achieve results too quickly, because they don’t like schedules, because of external influences (peer pressure, motivational tools) or because they don’t listen to their body?

• What are the goals they set and their running routines? • What injuries do students who jog in the city get from jogging? Where do they often feel

pain, and what do they do if they feel pain, continue running or slow down/stop? • What factors are important for the prevention of running injuries? How can I affect and

measure these? • How can I change a runner’s behavior?

Research activities and topics

• Interview with running coach at Runner’s World store Technique, ways of training, training schedules, accessories and different shoes

• First interviews with students who jog Injuries, technique, ways of training, training schedules and motivation

• More extensive interviews with 4 students who jog and storyboard Overall goal/motivation, schedule, individual run goals, preparation, going further than your goal, overtraining and injuries/pain during running

• Interview with Johan Molenbroek, associate professor Applied Ergonomics & Design at TU Delft Body types, loading of bones, feedback and monitoring

• Running class at TU Delft sports center from a running coach Experiencing first hand, stretching and running exercises

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• Literature research Stretching, measuring training intensity, overreaching/overtraining and ways of training

Results

Interview with running coach

• Most injuries arise from overtraining • Beginners should build up training over 8 weeks, slowly start training to make your body get

used to it and to learn technique • Dynamic stretching before training is better than static stretching • Use intervals when training, this will help you improve your technique and speed more • Training 2 or 3 times a week is best, you need resting days too to recover before the next run

First interviews with students

• Beginners start with a run that is too long for them • They train too many times per week because they want to see results fast • Beginners sometimes join regular runners, which causes problems for the beginners • People who have a certain goal (10k or marathon) follow their schedule to rigorously • External factors influence them (peer pressure, motivational tools)

More extensive interviews

Girl, 24 Goal: Improve condition, lose weight Schedule: 8k each run with 1 break, goal 10k with no breaks About what she does when she gets knee pain: “No, I just continue running, I only slow down when I feel something in my shin.” (Friend of hers has had an infection in the shin from running and couldn’t go running for a year)

Boy, 21 Goal: Improve fitness Schedule: 5-6k each run About whether he ever exceeds the distance he set for himself before his training: “No, hardly ever.”

Boy, 22 Goal: Keep in shape, fitness, speed Schedule: 6-7k each run, same route each time, goal 15 km/h during the whole run About whether he ever runs further than his normal route: “I’ll just stick to my round, I’ll be tired at the end anyway.” About being a competitive 800m runner (2-3 years ago): “When I trained 5 times a week I did get over trained, now I know very well what I can and cannot do.”

Boy, 24 Goal: Stay fit

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Schedule: 5k, goal as fast as possible “I often get during my run that I’m afraid that if I start running faster at some point I will not make it to the end (his goal in distance), but when I then get to the end and still have something left I would have wanted to have run faster.”

Interview with Johan Molenbroek

• Proposed running schedules can be very different from one coach to another • Adapt training to the person’s body-type, if you’re very flexible your training should be

different than when you’re very stiff • Don’t underload or overload your bone, bone can adapt to handle certain loads, but only

gradually and to some degree • You can’t measure whether someone is near their limit and will get injured precisely, person

can feel it best themselves, body is best measuring instrument, but people choose to ignore it sometimes

• Monitor training so you don’t train when you haven’t fully recovered yet • Use more feedback loops than in current systems like Nike+ • Capture data during running, compare to past data and body characteristics

Running class

• Do dynamic stretching and running exercises before running a longer distance, warms up muscles and makes them ready to deal with the training

• After a heavy training do a light training the next day (if you do a training the next day) • With a longer distance don’t start too quick, it’s better to have something left and use it at

the end • Running in a group matters, if I wasn’t running in a group I would’ve stopped or slowed down

sooner on the way back • After training do a cooling down and static stretches

Storyboard of current situation

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Traits of the person in this storyboard:

• Wants to get fit/stay fit • Goals in speed/distance or both • Runs same route almost each time, a circle, so they generally don’t go over the goal they set

in km for each run, but this distance can still be too much • Takes phone/mp3-player with them to keep track of time/speed/distance and play music • Not well aware of consequences of joint/muscle pain, will run on when in pain • Wants to feel fulfilled after a run

Literature research

Results:

• Ten minutes of dynamic stretching before an exercise that requires power and agility (such as running) has been shown to cause better performance than ten minutes of static stretching or no stretching1.

• The intensity of a training cannot be measured by looking at the percentage of the maximum heart rate a runner is at, because the metabolic stress is not constant across runners with the same heart rate percentage2.

• Functional overreaching causes super compensation, which benefits the athlete’s performance, non-functional overreaching however does not lead to super compensation and can lead to overtraining syndrome, which is characterized by a drop in performance and changed hormone levels. Overreaching can’t be accurately detected by changes in heart rate or heart rate variability, the alterations are too small to use as an indicator3.

• The difference between continuous training and interval training with the same relative training intensity is that using interval training the increase in aerobic power (a measure of the maximum attainable oxygen usage during exercise), peak power output and exercising work rate is greater than using continuous training. Lactic acid is however less quickly accumulated when a continuous training regime has been used4.

• RPE (rating of perceived exertion on a scale of 6 to 20) performs well as a means of monitoring and regulating exercise intensity, different level of RPE show significantly different levels of heart rate, blood lactate and velocity, both when running indoor on a treadmill and when running outside in a field5.

1 McMillian, D.J., Moore, J.H., Hatler, B.S. & Taylor, D.C. (2006). Dynamic vs. Static-Stretching Warm Up: The Effect on Power and Agility Performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 20 (3), 492-499. 2 Katch, V., Weltman, A., Sady, S. & Freedson, P. (1978). Validity of the Relative Percent Concept for Equating Training Intensity. European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology. 39 (4), 219-227. 3 Bosquet, L., Merkari, S., Arvisais, D. & Aubert, A.E. (2008). Is Heart Rate a Convenient Tool to Monitor Overreaching? A Systematic Review of the Literature. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 42 (9), 709-714. 4 Gorostiaga, E.M., Walter, C.B., Foster, C. & Hickson, R.C. (1991). Uniqueness of Interval and Continuous Training at the Same Maintained Exercise Intensity. European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology. 62 (2), 101-107. 5 Ceci, R. & Hassmén, P. (1991). Self-monitored Exercise at Three Different RPE Intensities in Treadmill vs Field Running. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 23 (6), 732-738.

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Conclusions:

It is interesting that dynamic stretching can increase performance as opposed to not stretching or static stretching because the runners I interviewed mostly don’t stretch before running, while they might benefit from this.

Heart rate without taking into account other factors cannot be used as an indicator of training intensity or the occurrence of overreaching.

Depending on the runner’s goal it is better to either do interval training or continuous training. Interval training is suitable if their goal is speed and to improve their cardiovascular fitness, while continuous training is more suitable if the goal is distance or duration (because ‘verzuren’ happens later when a continuous training schedule has been followed).

The fact that RPE (rating of perceived exertion on a scale of 6 to 20) can be used as a means of monitoring and regulating exercise intensity means that runners can judge the training intensity quite well when asked to give a rating. This means that after an intense training, say 15 on the RPE scale, you can ask them to perform a less intense training for the next time they go running by suggesting to stay at 12 on the RPE scale. The good thing about this is that you cut out external factors, a 10 km run in an hour might be a 12 on the RPE scale one day, but a 13 or 14 the day after because it’s windy, by suggesting them to stick to a lower RPE rather than a lower number of kilometers you can make sure the training is actually less intense. RPE also ties in well with what Johan Molenbroek said in the interview, the runner can judge whether they are near their limit or prone to injury best themselves, the body is the best measuring instrument.

Concept direction and first ideas

The concept direction is a product that creates awareness of the body in the user by asking them what their Rated Perceived Exertion (RPE) is. They start paying attention to their body more, this can help them adjust their training if they feel it’s necessary. The “asking” the RPE can take place in all kinds of ways, different triggers of which the user knows that they now should communicate their RPE to the product. The product stores the RPE so the user can later check back and see what their training intensity was over several trainings. This can help them to keep the right balance of intensive and less intensive trainings (as advised by the running coaches). If they see their intensity has increased while their distance or speed have not changed much from one training to another this might be a signal that they’re overtraining (performance drop is one of the indicators of overtraining) or are a bit ill. As can be seen in the two design ideas below the way of triggering the user to communicate their RPE as well as the way of communicating this can be any number of things. In the first idea a change in the music from the headphones (i.e. volume drop) is the trigger and the communication of the RPE rating can be done by speech using voice recognition. In the second idea the trigger is not specified, but it could be for instance a tightening of the fabric around your arm, here the communication is done by pressing buttons on the water bottle holder, if you want to have 14 for instance on the 6 to 20 scale, you would press 5 twice and 2 twice. In the second idea the number is displayed on your sleeve (there are LEDs in the shirt), so if you’re running with friends who are more advanced than you they can see when you’re having a hard time keeping up (when their own intensity is lower than yours while you walk the same speed) and react to that.

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Cycle 2

Competing products

Research goal

Find out what products there already are to monitor runners and provide them with feedback as well as what forms they have and what features they offer

Method

I went to the Runner’s World and got two booklets with the whole range of sport watches for Polar and Garmin. Then I read through the booklets and made notes of all the possibly interesting functions and made a distinction between a low-end and a high-end sport watch, showing what to expect for what price.

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Results

Low-end (€ 50,-):

- measure heart rate (with the breast strap that comes with it) - show result of the last training you did -

High-end (€ 280,-):

- feedback after training - GPS for route, speed and distance - analyse walking efficiency - share results with friends - show heart rate zones to train at right intensity (with the breast strap that comes with it) - up to 99 training files to review

Other interesting features some competing products have:

- fitness test to show progress - training programs based on goals, setting weekly goals - virtual opponent to race against - past data of yourself to race against - wireless transmission to computer if you are near or an USB port - setting up interval trainings - letting you know when you have a personal record - alarm/vibration when you reach a certain heart rate/distance/speed - touchscreen

Conclusions

The variety of sport watches available suggests that this market is already quite full, so it shows me that I’m going the right direction by not measuring an indicator of intensity such as heart rate (like nearly all the watches do) but rather asking the runner’s themselves how they feel. This means that my product/service can be differentiated from the competing products. With the function of asking and keeping track of runner’s intensity through RPE the product should be in the low-end range, because its functions are comparable to that of the cheaper models by Polar and Garmin.

Iteration 1

Research goal

Find out which kind of output from the product/service should trigger the user to start evaluating their perceived exertion

Method

Five different ways of triggering a user to start thinking were generated:

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1. With headphones in a song on the mp3-player fades out, then fades back in after 5 seconds of silence

2. Same as 1, but now a voice asks “What is your rated perceived exertion on a scale of 0 to 10” 3. Same as 1, but now a short buzz-like sound plays 4. Same as 1, but now a short ding-like sound plays 5. A vibration on the wrist

Five participants tested each of these options in an informal interview setting after first being explained the concept of rating training intensity during jogging. They were then asked to give their opinion on each of the options as well as their preference.

Results

Participant 1: Voice (option 2) is best, but only if you don’t know how it works yet, otherwise it is better to have a tune (option 4). Maybe it could use the voice in combination with the notification sound (option 4) at first and then later only do the notification sound when you’re used to it.

Participant 2: Voice (option 2) is best, but if you know it a sound like option 3 or 4 is fine. I’m distracted when the music goes off, I pay a lot of attention to the music while running, so if it goes off I will notice. However only music going off would not be clear enough, because it could be the case that the song has simply finished. When the music goes back on I want to run again.

Participants 2 and 3 during the test

Participant 3: Best would be a combination of vibration and softer music (option 1 and 5 combined). Voice/sounds (options 2 to 4) are annoying and might make me stop walking to deal with it. If I’m used to the device I will start thinking about intensity as soon as music goes off and I might get distracted if a sound then plays. Vibration is less invasive, though you mostly notice it through hearing the vibration in the device more than feeling it on your arm. Music going off does signal to me that something is expected of me, silence makes sure you can think and reflect. Depends on which song would start again after this silence whether I would be motivated to run again.

Participant 4: Voice (option 2) is best, clear and you know what you have to do. The tune in option 3 is not nice, while the one in option 4 is. In the case I would have no headphones with me I wouldn’t mind if it simply asked me to fill in the intensity over the speaker.

Participant 5: Voice (option 2) is best, just always use voice, it’s clear and not annoying. It does distract and is better than no sound at all. I had a ringtone one time that was a piece of music and I didn’t notice that someone was calling me through the other music I was listening at the time until the music stopped. You might not notice vibration during running and if you do you think it might be from a text or something, this also applies to pling-like notification sounds, so just keep it clear.

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Conclusions

The most preferred option was option 2, a fade-out in the music and then a voice that asks you what your RPE is on a scale of 0 to 10. It was seen as most clarifying, it tells the user what is expected of them, whereas only a fade-out could be seen as the mp3/phone switching to a different song because the song has ended and certain alarm sounds or vibrations could be mistaken for messages for instance on the phone. Still there are some conflicting views, by participant 3 for instance the voice is perceived as annoying, while participant 5 explicitly states it is not annoying. Therefore maybe the voice should be the standard setting to get someone to think about their RPE, which can then be changed to something else if the user wishes this.

Iteration 2

Research goal

Find out which way to input their rated perceived exertion best suits runners

Method

Three different ways of filling in the RPE during running were generated:

1. Slider on an app on a smart phone 2. Turning wheel on a watch 3. Voice recognition in an app on a smart phone

Three participants tested each of these options in an informal interview setting after first being explained the concept of rating training intensity during jogging. They were then asked to give their opinion on each of the options as well as their preference.

Slider app model and turning wheel on watch model

Results

Participant 1: Filling in the RPE with voice recognition is fine but the app on the smartphone could work too if you can draw the number on the screen or a voice reads you the numbers while you move the slider, so you know where it is (because you can’t really see the screen of the smartphone if it’s in a pouch on your upper arm). So it would say “one.. one.. two.. three.. four” and then you would maybe confirm it with a tap on the screen.

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Participant 2: During running you move your arms and you don’t want to have to stop running to fill something in or to look close to see it correctly. Speech recognition would be a good solution then because you don’t have to take any extra physical action, though it can be a bit weird to people around you if you’re running and then out of the blue say a number. Something you can really do with one movement would be good too. The turning wheel on watch is useful, but you really have to look at it to see it and an app might be better, because you have your phone with you most of the time during running anyway.

Participant 3: An app is probably cheapest but if you’re looking at the best option the voice recognition or turning wheel are better, because it’s easier to say something or make a small physical movement than to have to look at your screen and then do something. But voice recognition is quite hard to implement and you have environmental sound so the technology is tricky and I never really walk with a watch so maybe it has to be something different.

Conclusions

There was not a really clear favorite out of the three options, this might mean that none of the three are really well suited. All three participants mentioned that it would be hard to fill in anything on an app while running, because when your smartphone is in a pouch on your upper arm you can’t see the screen. There were suggestions how to facilitate this, but it would most likely still feel a bit clumsy. In a tutor meeting where these forms of input were discussed several new insights also appeared. Maybe the scale should not be from 0 to 10 like in the RPE literature but a smaller scale, 0 to 5 (for instance like the ranges in the picture on page 2, “light activity” etc.), making it easier to fill in. Another suggestion was to couple a physical product with an app, the user could then fill in the RPE on the physical product which transmits it to the app wirelessly. This physical product could be for instance an armband with buttons/a selection system in it, this is an interesting input to combine with the voice trigger and test together. Other suggestions had to do with the whole interaction, for instance the time between moments of reflection on intensity could decrease at a higher intensity, making sure runners think about what they’re doing if they’re pushing themselves. Also the music could change depending on the RPE filled in, with songs with a faster beat being played after a low RPE has been filled in and vice versa.

Iteration 3

Research goal

Find out whether the trigger (music fading out and a voice asking you what your RPE is) and input (bracelet with numbers on it) combine well and whether it suits the intended interaction vision

Method

One participants tested this combination while running after first being informed only that it was about training intensity during jogging. The participant got an armband put on and an mp3-player with a playlist of 2 songs, the second song had the fade out with the voice message in it. The run took about 6 minutes while jogging up and down stairwells, I ran along, observing. After the user had filled in their RPE we jogged for a minute more and ended the test. The participant was then asked to give

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their opinion on whether the interaction was clear. After being shown the interaction vision the participant was also asked to what extent the current interaction suited the interaction vision.

Armband with and without participant

Results

Observation: When the fade-out of the music and the voice came the participant came to a halt and asked what the “rated perceived exertion” was that the voice was talking about (having only been told that the assignment was about training intensity). I told him that it was about training intensity (just like I had before the test) and he shifted the bracket on the armband to 7. During the run I also assessed my own RPE and I was also at a 7 at that point of the run.

From left to right: running, running, filling in RPE, RPE filled in

Participant: I had not been expecting a voice at all and the fact that it was an English voice and also a computer like one made it a bit harder for me to understand it straight away. I did understand that it was on a scale of 0 to 10. It was clear how to link this to what to do with the armband, because it has the same scale on it. I think it does create awareness because you’re distracted by it and start thinking. It is not a very relaxing trigger yet though, yes it’s not a real alarm or annoying but it’s still quite sudden, because the music fades out and then straight away this voice asks you something. You’re really in a flow during the run so this should go slower, because first you think maybe the song is going to change because the music fades out, but then quite fast something else happens. Maybe it should wait a few seconds or say “Attention” or some other trigger and then give you the voice

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message. I could imagine it would be fulfilling to see data of your training intensity over several trainings in the long run, but that’s more of a long-term assessment.

Conclusions

The link between the armband and the voice message is clear, now the message should maybe be made clearer (not mention “rated perceived exertion” in the voice message, but rather “training intensity”) and of course the language of the people you’re designing for also has to be taken into account to make it as clear as possible. Maybe the participant would have run on if he had understood the message straight away, now he came to a halt, which is not intended. What was interesting to see was that the participant preferred a longer time between the fading out of the music and the voice message. During a workshop with fellow students they preferred it to be shorter, but of course they were sitting still while listening intently to the music and they weren’t in the flow of running. Perhaps the word ‘relaxing’ in my interaction vision isn’t the correct word to use, in my vision I used it as a way to describe how the device should trigger the user, in a relaxing way, but in every trigger there is a distraction, so it is inherently not very relaxing. ‘Engaging’ is a more appropriate quality for the way to trigger the user to step out of their flow and become aware of their body. This is because I try to involve someone in the activity of thinking about their training intensity, in an as pleasant way as possible. What also stood out is that the participant and I both had the exact same rating (7) in mind at the point that it was asked, it might be a coincidence, but I think it shows that the RPE is quite congruent for people with a similar physical fitness if they do the same exercise.

Detailed product concept

The user will download an app onto his or her smartphone and buy a sports bracelet (in various colors) in the store that goes along with it. The bracelet is mostly made of rubber and has a steel closing clasp. They put their headphones in and start running, at a set moment in their run (for instance 10 minutes) the music fades out and, after a few seconds, a voice asks them what their training intensity is at that moment. The running flow is left and they experience a moment of reflection. They can think about it in silence for a few seconds and enter the number by turning to the selected number on their bracelet. This data is transmitted by Bluetooth (the same technology that is used in competing products to transfer heart rate from a chest band to the watch) to their phone. According to whether the training intensity is high or low the app will switch to a more up-tempo (if the intensity is low) or slower song (if the intensity is high) to fade back into. This is repeated several times throughout their run (depending on for how long they go running). After their run they can look back on the intensity that was recorded during their last runs by using the menus present in the app. This can be used to tune their schedule (alternating high and low intensity runs is generally recommended) and see how they felt over time.

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Bracelet mock-up

Cycle 3

Final prototype test

Research goal

Find out whether the product-app combination gets them out of their flow and whether they think the interaction over the long-term will be fulfilling.

Prototype

Model part 1: A glove was made that is a quite close likeness to the actual product, it is portable and has 4 buttons, each with a different colored LED connected to it. Below you can the training intensity table and a photo of the glove, I used these pictures to explain training intensity and the link to the glove to the participants of my final test. The buttons can each be operated be a different finger of the hand you wear the glove on.

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Model part 2:

Part 2 of the model is the music. These four files have been created:

• Test 1: Song with average bpm, fading out and asking for training intensity Avicii – Levels 128 bpm

• Test Green: Song fading in with high bpm for after low intensity has been entered Barthezz – On The Move 142 (bpm) transitioning into Basto – Cloudbreaker (128 bpm)

• Test Red: Song fading in with low bpm for after high intensity has been entered Ellie Goulding – Lights (119 bpm) transitioning into Armin van Buuren – Drowning (126 bpm)

• Test Yellow Orange: Song fading in with average bpm for after moderate intensity has been entered Basto – Again and Again (127 bpm) transitioning into Peter Luts – Cayo (129 bpm)

Test 1 is always used for the first 5 minutes, then the next song is selected according to what intensity the participants have selected, this then plays for minutes 5 to 10 of the test.

The 4 audio files

Model part 3:

Part 3 of the model is the graph to show the participant their training intensity, a photoshop file was created with which you can create all possible combinations of training intensities within seconds. This makes it easy to show participants their intensity graph straight after the test.

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Method

First I explained the principle of measuring training intensity to the participants. While running on a treadmill (participant 1) or cycling on a home trainer (participant 2) I had the users wear headphones (connected to my computer) and the prototype glove. When the sound faded out they filled in their training intensity on the prototype. I then started a new song on my computer accordingly (song with high bpm for after green was pressed, song with average bpm for after yellow/orange was pressed, song with low bpm for after red was pressed). The test lasted 10 minutes. At the end of the activity I showed them a graph of their intensity during the activity and asked them what they thought about the interaction they just experienced and whether they thought it would be fulfilling over time.

Results

Participant 1:

Makes sense that the graph looks kind of like a mountain, I also saw that my heart rate was higher the second time I entered my training intensity (this participant was on a treadmill, so could also see his heart rate sometimes). If you’re running individually I think you will see the same graph often, in a group that’s different, also because you do more different types of training then. For interval training for instance it would look very different. Most of the time I don’t reach the red intensity if I just do a continuous training and I think this is true for most individual joggers. The music was exactly in line with my walking rhythm, nice addition that the music steers you to your intensity goal. Maybe I would want to pick my own music for the higher and lower intensity. I think it really adds something to be able to keep track of your own feelings.

Participant 1 on treadmill, pressing button

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Participant 2:

The link between the music and intensity is nice, but could be made more direct by linking heart rate and the bpm of the songs. I would analyze their whole music library for bpm and the amount of bass in a song. More aggressive music (with more bass) also makes you go faster. When you’ve analyzed all the songs you can let the app automatically pick the next song from your library when you enter intensity. I still have doubts whether it’s really the best to put it on your hand, what if it’s summer, I don’t want to wear a glove then! I see it more as a motivational tool, because you mostly reflect after the training, not during the training. Measurements are not specific enough to really keep track of the improvement of your condition, for that you would need things like recovery-times and measuring heart rate.

When the music changed after he had entered green as his training intensity he said “Ah, I’m supposed to go faster?”

Participant 2 on home trainer

Conclusions

Both participants understood the prototype well and they entered their intensity in the intended way. They both noticed it when the music faded out and the question “What is your training intensity?” was asked through their headphones, this got them out of their flow but didn’t cause them to stop running like was the case in iteration 3 of Cycle 2. It was also good to see that participant 2 noticed the change in pace of the music after entering his intensity and immediately thought that he should go faster. That might also have been why he saw the product as a motivational tool rather than just a reflection tool, because he experienced it firsthand. Participant 1 pressed yellow when the intensity was asked for the first time, so for him no real change of intensity in the music took place, so he also didn’t notice it. To participant 1 I explained the fact that the music changes for different intensities after the test and both participants liked the link, though they had some comments here and there about how it should be done. In the final design I’ll include that the music library is automatically analyzed for bpm and bass by the app. In doing so the app can

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automatically pick the right songs to steer the user to the intensity goal they chose before the training. If a certain song they don’t really like comes up a lot because of this the user can remove it from their playlist, you can also still skip to the next song. There was also a remark about the fact that the user didn’t want to wear a glove in the summer, so in the final design I’ll make the product a strap. In the summer this strap can be worn on the hand, in the winter you can attach it to a special glove using Velcro. The positioning of the button for the pinky in the prototype wasn’t entirely comfortable for both users to press, so I shifted this button a bit closer to the other buttons in the final design. For some, like participant 2, asking training intensity is still not specific enough, they want to see measurements, for them there are however already lots of products (as can be seen in Cycle 2 under competing products). I think tracking training intensity can be very fulfilling for people who want to keep track of how they feel.

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Final design

The product and app combination can be described in the 9 steps of use:

1. Download app + buy product

The user downloads the app on his or her phone and buys the strap and gloves in a store. The strap and gloves are made of black textile, the buttons are made of translucent rubber in four different colors, they have LEDs underneath. When the app is installed on their phone it analyzes the songs in the user’s library for the bpm and bass levels.

2. Put on the product

Depending on the weather the user puts the strap on his or her hand or uses velcro to attach the strap to the glove.

3. Set up new training in app

Before the user goes running they start up the app and enter the training type and intensity goal in the ‘new training’ menu.

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4. Put on headphones and start music

Then the user puts their phone in their pocket or in their armband phone holder, put their headphones on and start the music.

5. Start running

6. Reflect on training intensity

Based on whether they entered continuous or interval training the music fades out at a certain moment and asks what their training intensity is (for continuous training this is every 10 minutes, for interval training it is after every interval). Then the user reflects on their training and enters it using the buttons on the strap, this data is then transmitted to the app by Bluetooth

7. Listen to music change

The next song that fades in changes according to the difference between the current intensity and the user’s intensity goal. If they for instance entered green as the intensity goal at the start of the training and the user is at yellow at a certain point, the next song that comes on is one with low bpm and less bass. This helps steer them to their goal.

8. Finish running

9. Look back on this run as well as previous runs in app

After the training they can reflect on their run using the intensity graph. They can also look back on previous runs by clicking dates in the ‘calendar’ menu. This can help users keep track of their training intensity over time and make sure they alternate between more and less intense trainings enough (as the running coaches in Cycle 1 advised).

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