

Please Criticize my Fitness Site that Stores Workout Programs - jambalaya
http://www.funniestlift.com
I want to create a site that can easily store workout programs.  This is my first version.  It would be a lot prettier but I'm learning and trying to get feedback asap
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roachsocal
What is it? What does it do? Why do I need it?

Having a meta title would be a good start to describing the site.

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jambalaya
Thanks, done! It's for anyone that wants to share their workout programs or
use others they find.

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dstorrs
Single biggest thing you did right: Got an absolute minimum product up fast,
then asked potential customers to criticize.

Things you could improve: As others said, not clear what this is. Explain it
in 10 words or fewer, make them big, bold, and centered. The interface needs
to improve...there are too many steps in creation / editing (why must I create
the wrong name first, then edit it to correct value?), there's no way to
create / modify multiple elements in one step, and it's not clear how many
steps there are, so I quit out partway through.

Good luck with it.

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jambalaya
Thanks for the input and luck!!! Okay, I will make it clear with big font on
the home page what the purpose is. I understand it's difficult to use! Haha, I
have trouble with it myself! I tried using Javascript to do it all on one page
as seen here [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/741576/need-help-with-
rai...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/741576/need-help-with-
rails-2-3-four-level-nested-form-javascript-function) This is the best I could
do with having it work at all.

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roundsquare
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.

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jambalaya
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

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roundsquare
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.

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jambalaya
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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kevinholesh
* Make the delete less prominent and don't depend on Javascript to confirm a delete. If I have it off, my workout plan disappears with a misplaced click.

* Answer "Why am I using this tool?"

* Style the table so my attention is drawn to the part that is most important, probably the table headers or the "Create program" button

* When adding a program, give me some suggestions; muse me. Give me examples like "Run 40 minutes" or "Do 300 pushups (like a boss)"

* On the main page, make the program name link to the show action. The word "display" doesn't help me at all, but linking the name shows me what the page I will click on is going to be

* Don't ever use a <font> element. It's unnecessary and inflexible. CSS is your friend.

I have more, but you're doing a great job so far. It's coming along great!

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jambalaya
Thank you for your input!!

1) Ok I'll dive into why I have javascript confirming a delete.

2) This tool is to discover workout programs or ideas you see in another
workout listed. You can also share your own.

3) Okay, I'll restyle the table to make it more clear.

4) Okay, I'll add suggestions to make it easier.

5) Okay I'll change the link show to be the program name highlighted.

6) Yeah, I need to learn some basic CSS.

Haha, thanks! Feel free to tell me whatever you want. It's in its infancy. The
more insight the better! Thanks again!

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jambalaya
Clickable link. Thanks for any advice, input, whatever!

<http://www.funniestlift.com>

The reason I bought the name funniestlift was because after doing Olympic
Lifting for a year I realized it's really hard and being upbeat about it is a
much better outlook. I want to create a fun, free, and valuable website for
programs of all types!

Hahaha the titles you guys are coming up with are making me laugh! Haha, the
reddit meme made its way onto my site!

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embeddedradical
It looked so amateur. The interface said 'hello world' to me, and then I left
within 2 seconds. Put at least some serious effort, and feel you have
something of value before getting people to spend time criticizing something
for you. I feel a bit insulted, as if being an HN reader puts my time into the
value category of someone doing cent-work on Amazon Turk. At the level of work
you've put in thus far, keep the round table of 'consultants' to your mother.

True story. Remember to add it to your notes.

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jambalaya
PG said to ship something fast and minimal.

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yesimahuman
It is really unclear what the process is when adding workouts. The only button
you have is "next", and there aren't any instructions given. Also, it would be
better to have all of the inputs available to enter at once when adding a
workout, rather than clicking "next" like a wizard might have.

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jambalaya
I completely agree with you. I was working with javascript before to do it all
on one page as seen here: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/741576/need-
help-with-rai...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/741576/need-help-with-
rails-2-3-four-level-nested-form-javascript-function) But I wasn't able to
successfully implement it. I tried to make it easier by showing the program in
progress at the bottom. I'll add instructions to make it easier, thanks a
million!

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yesimahuman
I think you're trying to over-engineer the form with the nesting. You can make
the interface for adding a workout very simple. I agree with others on here,
go check out what other workout sites are doing and see if you want to do
something different from them or make it more unique, otherwise you're going
to have a hard time competing.

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jambalaya
What do you have in mind about an interface?

Please keep listing the other sites. I didn't know of Hi-Tech trainer.

What would differentiate this site is that this isn't specifically for
trainers. It's for everyone to share their workout programs.

There are forums I'm aware of like BodyBuilding.com and T-Nation. They don't
have user generated programs. I also want to make it easy to use. I'm not
there yet.

Thanks for the input!!!

What I think I know what others may not is that there is a ton of good
programs out there just sitting on peoples' desks, not being utilized by
everyone.

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yesimahuman
I don't know. I am a weight lifter like you but I don't keep much of a log. I
tried one for the iphone but I got sick of substituting different lifts for
others because they weren't in the database. I think you have to differentiate
between casual workout-ers and more serious ones, because they will both
accept different things.

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jambalaya
Thanks a lot for taking to time to write me feedback. I really appreciate it
and it's comments like these that help me out a bunch!!!

What about if you could copy the program on the site and modify it to exactly
what's available to you! I see what you mean about casual and serious workout-
ers. I think it has to do with goals. Like, the more serious the workout-er,
the more specific the goal. "I want to add 50lbs to my squat" is a lot more
specific than "I want to stay in shape". If the goals were clearly labeled
maybe that could help.

Also, I think it's possible to find fun workout ideas in the database. I'm not
sure what, but comboing swimming and doing other stuff in one workout is fun
to me and isn't really standard.

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jambalaya
I was thinking this site would be along the lines of
[http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Training_Pro...](http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Training_Programs)
but flushed out and easy to follow

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atambo
This looks like a basic rails scaffold using nifty-generators. Also there is
no validation on any of the forms.

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jambalaya
Yes I used scaffolding to start and tied things together. I want to be a web
developer some day. I'll write validations as one of the things I need to do,
thanks!

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thedon
not clear what the goal is. If the goal is to track workouts there are lots of
better programs you should look at before expending too much effort on
something that isn't significantly different.Hi-Tech trainer comes to mind.

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jambalaya
Cool, I'm looking at it right now, thanks! The idea I had was everyone could
pool their individual program ideas. Kind of like an open database for workout
programs.

