User Centered

I imbibe the vast majority of my digital music during my workouts. When I first got my iTunes/iPod all setup on my PC, one of the very first things I did was search the iMixes for a good sampling of "workout music." Sure I had my own music I enjoy... and even a good number of it is upbeat and fast paced, but in general, the kind of music I would run too needs to just help pace me and keep me going. I'm not looking to be the next American Idol while I'm jogging through my neighborhood.

My first thought was: "Surely folks like say...workout instructors would have put up a good iMix on iTunes by now?" (incidently, my second thought was: "no they don't, and don't call me Shirley") But I never really found anything there (this was in Sep 04 and occasionally thereafter- I'm sure you could find an imix or two there now that meets this criteria, but it's still like 'Thunderdome' out there I'm sure). I would have thought it was common sense to be able to see a playlist of songs like "30 minutes running music" or playlists from the fitTV show: "Cardio Boot Camp with Kendell Hogan" ...something along those lines.

I guess the long and short of all this is that I viewed working out/running as a significant activity used with my music player and I was slightly surprised that there was not enough...what I'll call "pushing" in that direction. Apart from the stopwatch, elastic armband and a few other 3rd party gadgets- there really didn't seem to be a lot of focus on using and encouraging physical activity. More surprising since a casual glance at the gym goers shows that most of them have a music player of some sort.

So this Nike/Apple thing (read about it here-Apple.com) seems like it's been long overdue. I'm not sure how gimmicky this whole idea is, but a quick look at the sync page shows that Apple and Nike are being clever at really supporting this activity.

First- they make progress tracking Drop Dead Simple. I'd think the reason most of are thinkg "eh, so what, I'd never use it..." is because it's always a hassle, or extra devices or configuration is necessary. Maybe you'd need an excel spreadsheet or some custom piece of software. All you have to do in this case is just sync you iPod up. From what I can tell, your data is sync'd with Nike's website, so you don't have to pay attention to it at all until you are actually interested in seeing your progress. Simple- I'm not sure what hassle's and hoops you have to jump through to use the Nike website (as I don't want to register) but it appears to be pretty simple to use (albeit overly flashy). You're already going to sync your ipod, and you're already taking it to the gym. You just have to put some gizmo in your shoe, and you're off!

Second is the iTunes music store support. I'm finally seeing an abundance of choice in helping to build a good playlist for your jog:

• Sport iMixes: Professionally selected playlists designed to motivate you through the most demanding workouts.
  
• Athlete Inspirations: Playlists chosen and introduced by top athletes.
  
• Continuous Workout Mixes: Workout routines developed for use with Nike+iPod time- or distance-based workouts. Each routine offers coaching, motivational, and training tips over a continuous mix of music.
  

Regardless of how successful or useful all this is, it's still interesting to see them thinking and supporting how people use their products. Maybe I'm in the minority, but this has always seemed like a lost opportunity to help your customers (until now).


Update: Here's a MS version of this idea- but of course, being the "User Centered" blog, I'd have to say this MS offering looks like too much. I just liked the simplicity of the Apple/Nike setup. Although Jeff, this kinda looks like it has the other feature I was telling you about: (everyone else just gets to imagine)

selecting and playing music with specific features that will encourage the user to speed up, slow down or keep the pace to be on track with his/her exercise goals.

(update via gizmodo)