Lark for Android first time user experience
Lark is an exercise coaching app that leverages a user’s phone to track their fitness activity and give them tips on how to be more physically fit.
The good bits
- The app leverages any activity data that is already stored on the new user’s device to provide her with immediate coaching, which gives the first time experience a personal focus.
- The app leverages a conversational format to provide a platform for continued engagement. As time goes on, the app will update its coaching, noting any improvements the user has made to her activity.
- There are many times when the app gives the user the option to learn more, instead of assuming she wants to view lengthy explanations. This choice makes the app more appealing to learners of different types.
To be improved:
- Although Lark could provide immediate coaching based simply on activity data from the user’s device, it instead forces the new user to view an intro tour and sign up for an account.
- The photography is overly abstract in the intro tour and also makes it difficult for users to read the very light text laid on top of it.
- While the conversational format is initially personable, it can become frustrating because the user can often only reply with a limited set of pre-determined responses. This is contradictory to the chat-like formatting of the coaching interface, and the user may have additional questions beyond just those the app seems willing to answer.
- The chat-like interface also can cause the new user to lose track of earlier items being explained. For example, when the app asks the new user if she requires an explanation of a chart the resulting explanation quickly pushes that chart off the screen. It might be better to enter a different viewing mode so that the chart, and explanations, can be displayed together.