SPINning the Experience
Experience design can, and perhaps should be, applied to more activities, including group fitness. When I returned from a month on the road I knew it was time to get back into more of a fitness routine and returned to my local rec centre and the great drop-in spin classes available here. Let’s look at what happened.
Day 1, Saturday. A substitute instructor is in place. This could go either way, but let’s go! It was the worst class ever with the instruction being either “Stand up and Go!” which we would do for a song but with no other instruction about RPMs or gears, or adding or subtracting gears suggested. This was followed by “Sit down and sprint. Go! Go! GO!” and again no further instruction. This was not made any better by the song choices which veered from ACDC to Elvis – both fine artists on their own but neither ideal for following the beat. Experience = zero.
Day 2, Sunday. Yay! It’s Sunday Sonia! An excellent and thorough instructor who challenges us and provides good direction. Bonus – her fitness-beat music is all fall / Halloween themed – so on target for the spinning and fun! Experience = good.
Day 3, Monday, Sonya! I have never been to a weekday, mid-morning class before so it’s all new. It starts off with a warm-up and a 20 minute drill, so far, so good. Then for the next 30 minutes she takes us on a ride over hills, around pumpkin patches, riding up hard hills to get the the brightly lit safe house at the top of the hill, racing away from zombies and falling into a pit of… candy! She wove a story that had us working as hard as I have ever worked in a class, and riding 15% farther than any other class in distance! The experience was phenomenal and I can’t wait to go back to a Monday morning class. Experience = wowsa!
These three days reinforced for me that with a little thought for the participant experience you can indeed make a massive difference to how people feel. If it can be applied to a spin class – we can certainly amp up our events with great music and storytelling!
