Consolation Prize

I thought I would follow up my previous post on Wii Fit [1], but this time present you, dear reader, with those annoyances, irritations, and small niggles that set in after the initial honeymoon period has ended and Wii Fit is used as a regular fitness aid rather than a humorous folly.

For the Sake of Health and Safety

Okay, I realise that Wii Fit was designed to appeal to a large demographic with varying levels of fitness, and I suppose intelligence; but is it really necessary to notify the user every session with the following messages:

• Feel free to support yourself on other people or objects it you don’t feel stable
• Clear the space around you and make sure you warm up before exercising

Although they may seem considerate during the first few weeks, displaying these messages every time I just want a quick workout - sometimes even multiple times per session - and forcing me to press “A” to move past them becomes very irritating after about the fiftieth occurrence.

I appreciate that Nintendo are primarily taking precautions to ensure any thoughts of legal action against them due to injury or misuse or negated, but isn’t this just a case of taking things just a step too far? Wouldn’t it have been better to adopt a model where the frequency of the messages is scaled down in direct relation to the number of “Wii Fit” minutes logged? Or is this really just a sad reflection of the state of affairs of the world we live in, where common sense is disregarded and personal accountability seems to be teetering on the precipice of extinction?

Balance Board Recalibration

With the exception of a few Yoga stances and muscle training routines, it is required that the user stand on the board at the commencement of each exercise. I can only assume that this is necessary to recalibrate the weight and balance distribution of the user in order to ensure any movement is tracked as accurately as possible. This is understandable for those routines where the user will be stood completely on the board throughout the exercise, but what about those where the board is only partially used, like the “press up & side-stand” and “jackknife”?

It may seem like I’m being negative for no apparent reason, or with little justification, but I’m talking usability here, and if you consider that some users, like myself, will want to group similar exercises together – for example “press up & side-stand” followed by “jackknife” and finishing off with the “parallel stretch” – then why have this necessary inconvenience. Surely it would make more sense to recalibrate the board based upon the positions of each exercise.

Custom Routines

The biggest feature missing from Wii Fit is the ability to create custom workout routines based upon a user defined selection of exercises. At present the user will have to choose each exercise in turn, returning time-and-time again to the selection screen, when in reality most users want one exercise to flow seamlessly from one to another.

Wii Fit has a casual stab at achieving this by recommending a series of exercises, but this doesn’t really take things far enough. The next logical step would be to allow the user to create and save personalised routines based upon manual selection of exercises, or alternatively come bundled with predefined programs. It would be more useful if I could simply choose “shape up your body and balance” and be launched straight into the appropriate exercises.

Activity Diary

Wii Fit allows you to record external activity via the “activity log”. However, in reality the functionality offered is only limited, and it will only record a total amount calculated using a simple formula based upon the type of exercise (light, moderate, or heavy) and the duration.

To fully integrate Wii Fit into a health and fitness regime, the activity log needs to act more like a fitness diary that will allow me to enter the type of exercise undertaken, and the duration for any given date, not just the current date. But importantly, I need to be able to name, or tag, that exercise, because without identification that historical data is useless.

And Finally…

Although I am an advocate of Wii Fit, regular use does reveal problems that effect its usefulness and thus its longevity as a fitness aid. Given the success of Wii Fit I would suspect a follow up is being prepped, and I sincerely hope it builds upon its foundations to provide a more complete package that is more than just a passing fancy.

[1]
Wii Fit and Me

Yep. I pretty much agree. I like WiiFit, but would quickly WiiFit 2 if it fixed these issues. I’ve even tried other fitness programs for the Wii just to see if they are better, but so far none have been.