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Time for a new Garmin Connect Web look?

I've been looking around the web, and to be honest I believe the Garmin Connect Web is in need of a new look. 
Some pages seemed designed from yesteryears and need definitely a more compact, more 2020-ish type of look. Some competitors have a better looking user interface.

For example: 
- Reports in the dashboards seems really old-looking.
- Training Effect graph split into two bar chart, with the same x-axis, is awful. A single bar chart with different colors for aerobic and anaerobic would be much better.
- what about dark mode?
- The daily summary has a lot of empty space on the right side of the screen that can be used to show useful metrics, instead of keep scrolling down.

I'm not a UX designer so I don't have very detailed examples to show (and not have time to think about it, TBH), but looks like the design of the dashboard could be improved.

The same goes for the mobile app (at least the iOS app).
Just wanted to leave this year to see if others have the same opinion.

  • Well, I would vote for more options/data, for example records on popular distances for each activity/month/year, and correct graphs scaling, and default gears for each activity type, and displaying stats for a part of an activity just by selecting it, and templates to easily enter the same activity's data (title, gear) just by clicking it, etc. Design itself is good enough, as long as data is available, then I don't really care about design.

  • Indeed that’s also a useful tip. I believe how data is displayed can give you a faster grasp on the training trends.

    Hopefully an update will come soon.

  • The design isn't great, but personally I'd focus more on functionality. (I guess some of the following complaints also relate to design/UX tho.)

    e.g.

    - the activities list has infinite scroll, which of course is intuitive, but there's no way to instantly jump to an arbitrary point in time, which sucks if you want to see an activity in the middle of the list. the best you can do is filter by activity type (e.g. running), then do an advanced search for a date range. modern-ish forum software like nodebb and discourse are decent examples of UIs which have both infinite scroll for very large lists (e.g. comment thread with 1000 replies) and a way to jump to any point in the list instantly (basically via a custom scrubber/scrollbar and/or an input field which lets you specify a comment # to jump to). The list of artists in the Spotify app is another example of this (albeit on mobile).

    - the calendar suffers from a similar problem. there's no way to instantly jump to given month or year. you can't even press the "previous month" button real fast since the UI waits for the currently selected month to load before responding to the button press

    - in general, anything involving long lists and/or long periods of time should have a way to navigate quickly through the list and/or jump to an arbitrary point in the list

    - also in general, the connect app/website, and the connect iq store app, are really bad at making the user wait for certain operations to finish. e.g. scrolling through months on the website's calendar as mentioned previously - you have to wait for each month to finish loading before pressing the "previous month" button. The Connect IQ store app has a similar class of problem where you can't view your list of installed watchfaces (for example) without waiting for ALL the lists of app types to populate.

    Another example is editing acitivity settings and data pages/screens in the Connect app - be prepared to spend a lot of time looking at the "running man" loading screen -- you'll see this screen when you navigate anywhere under activity settings.

    e.g. Activities & Apps > [running man] > Run > [running man] > Data Screens > [running man] > [select a data screen] > [running man]

    Like is it possible *at all* for Garmin to preload/cache/background load any of this stuff? Apparently not.

    Idk, Garmin just doesn't seem to be good at loading things in background while allowing the UI to be responsive as often as possible and to respond as quickly as possible.

    - the running pace chart on the website is still useless for workout intervals (alternating periods of fast running and very slow running / standing still), because the minimum pace displayed on the chart is way too low (e.g. 30:00/k), which means that parts of the chart where you're actually running are flattened out and you can't see any pace differences. the app is a lot better at this, as it chooses a minimum like 10:00/k and you can actually visualize meaningful variations in pace.

    - speaking of the Connect app, why does the app still lack features that the website has had for years, like the ability to search activities by name?

    Personally I hate that Connect has all this data on my runs but it isn't always the best place to go when I actually want to look at said data. e.g.

    - If I want simplicity, decent UX and social features, I use strava

    - If I want in-depth data and "power user features", I use runalyze

    The only time I open Connect is when there's some data I can't view otherwise (which to be fair, is pretty often.)

    I do think a new coat of paint might make Connect more attractive to new users, but then again, does anyone actually think "Garmin is cool"? Did anyone think that even 10 years ago? Garmin would never be able to compete with Apple head on, so I guess they're not even going to bother to compete on visual design or usability.

    Also, as far nice UX goes, I think the Stryd app is pretty nice. It looks nice but it isn't dumbed-down to the point of uselessness. Some of the ways to visualize activity/split data in the Stryd app are arguably more useful than the Connect app. It also shows certain information that Connect has but doesn't give you (i.e. it shows the actual gaps in your activity when you paused the timer.)

    Stryd also has infinite scroll for activities, but it also has a calendar which allows you to *quickly* scroll through months and years (as fast as you can physically move your finger) and open an activity on a given date. What a contrast with Garmin.

  • (TL;DR stuff as basic as adding/changing shoes for a running activity is simple in Strava and complex in Garmin Connect.)

    Some more examples of Connect UI/UX headscratchers:

    - In the app, the Gear tab for an activity (e.g. running) shows you the gear currently assigned to the activity (e.g. a pair of shoes). If you tap on an item in the Gear tab, you’re taken to the Gear settings page, which allows you to add/edit/retire/remove *all* of your gear, but it doesn’t let you select gear to be added to the current activity. Even if I added new gear to my profile using this method, it doesn’t get added to the current activity.

    If you want to change the gear for the current activity, you have to press the 3 dots menu button and select Add or Remove Gear.

    - On the Add or Remove Gear page, you’re presented with a list of gear (e.g. shoes), with a checkmark next to any gear that’s currently assigned to the activity. If a tap a different pair of shoes than what’s already assigned to the activity, both pairs of shoes are now assigned to the activity. To unassign the previous pair of shoes, I have to tap it. I mean, it’s just one additional tap, but is there any conceivable scenario where a runner needs to assign 2 pairs of shoes to the same activity? If anyone actually wants to do that, it will probably mess up their shoe mileage. (e.g. If I run a marathon and inexplicably change shoes at some point during the race, how would Garmin know how many km to assign to the first pair and how many km to assign to the second pair? It could ask me to enter the proportion of the activity mileage for each pair of shoes, but that’s too complex even for Garmin’s UI.)

    Contrast this with the Strava app:
    - The currently selected gear is visible as a dropdown in the Edit Activity page

    - If I tap on the gear dropdown, I have the ability to change gear for the current activity OR to add new gear. If I choose to add new gear at this point, then it gets added both my profile and to the current activity. Note that there’s no ability to edit/remove/retire gear from here.

    - If I choose a different pair of shoes, the previously pair is deselected. The user only has the ability to select one pair of shoes for a given activity (which makes sense, because I’ve never seen someone wear more than one pair of shoes at a time.)

    TL;DR: Looking at the example of activity gear:

    Garmin’s UI/UX: overly complex, unintuitive, gives the user too much freedom, and is too generic/flexible. Something as simple as changing gear for an activity or adding new gear requires too many steps. The UI doesn’t take into account that shoes are a special type of gear where it doesn’t make sense to have more one pair per activity.

    e.g. Change activity shoes:
    - (5 steps) Open activity, 3 dots menu, Add or Remove Gear, tap existing pair of shoes to deselect it, tap desired pair of shoes to select it

    e.g. Add new shoes to activity:
    - (10 steps) Open activity, tap Gear tab, tap existing gear (or if there’s no existing gear, tap Add Gear button which only exists in this one case), tap Add, fill out gear information (and press save), tap back button, 3 dots menu, Add or Remove Gear, tap existing pair of shoes to deselect it, tap new pair of shoes to select it

    Strava’s UI/UX: simple, intuitive, gives the user the right amount of freedom, and sacrifices flexibility (that nobody needs) for ease of use (which most people appreciate.)

    e.g. Change activity shoes:

    - (4 steps) Open activity, Edit Activity, tap gear dropdown (which shows either “Select Shoes” or your existing shoes), select desired pair of shoes (or None)

    As a bonus, the Edit Activity page is also where you set the name and description of your activity, so if you were already going to do that in addition to changing shoes, that’s one less step.

    e.g. Add activity shoes

    - (5 steps) Open activity, Edit Activity, tap gear dropdown (which shows either “Select Shoes” or your existing shoes), tap Add new gear!, fill out gear information (and press Save)

    Note that in strava, the workflows for changing activity shoes and adding activity shoes are very similar (and start out the same way.) Contrast with Garmin’s workflows, where the workflow for adding activity shoes starts out differently than changing shoes, but ends the same way, but also takes twice as many steps.

    The nice thing about Strava’s Edit Activity page is that all the stuff that‘s most commonly edited is in there: activity name, description, shoes, privacy, effort, etc. Contrast with the Connect app where all of these things are randomly scattered throughout the UI.

    One could argue that assigning multiple shoes to an activity is still a rare use case that some users would appreciate. In that case, IMO Garmin would be better off designing the default UX to make it easy to switch gear (with the assumption that most runners only use one pair of shoes per activity), and giving the user some kind of advanced functionality for multiple shoes that’s hidden behind a toggle or something. (e.g. [ ] Select multiple pairs of shoes)

  • These are all great suggestions, @FlowState. Thanks for pointing those out. I noticed some of those myself, and they are really bizarre choices (like the current option for adding/modifying the gear of an activity is so stupid). I hope Garmin is going to improve the design, but I am not sure they have any incentive for that. 

  • Yeah I feel like the Connect platform and the Connect IQ store are stuff that Garmin “throws in for free” for customers who decided to buy a Garmin product for whatever reason.

    I mean, Garmin has to have them (Connect to a much greater degree than Connect IQ), but both of those ecosystems have a ton of problems that Garmin users just live with.

    It also probably doesn’t hurt (*) that other 3rd party apps and ecosystems can sync with Connect. For example, Garmin segments and social features are terrible and nobody I know uses them, precisely because Strava exists.

    (* or help, depending on your POV.)

    I’m pretty sure there’s a ton of runners who own a Garmin, use Strava, and never open Connect.

  • I am ok with a reduced-functionality version of Connect. For example, leaving the activity sharing / community / gear details out because other apps like Strava are what actually people use. If they want to maintain less “stuff” and have a slimmer app, that’s fine.  But right now data is buried here and there and it’s hard to have a holistic view at once.

    We’ll see if something happens.

  • Fixing things and adding features would be my priority, there still isn't any useful strength training evaluation.