Exercise mode on Versa 3 unreadable

[MikeSimone]

There's a lot of companies in Silicon Valley whose UI/UX teams are clueless, but I think Fitbit takes the cake for having a UI team who not only has never used the product, but actively wants to dissuade people from using it.

I speak specifically of exercise mode on the Versa 3 (and all the previous models I've owned.) You know, that mode you go into when you want real-time stats on your distance, heart rate, step count, etc. And someone thought that "burnt orange on black" was a good color scheme for this. Sure, if your only exercise program includes doing squats in a dark closet, underground, at midnight, during a new moon, but the problem is, if a firefly lights his butt up in the next state over, that's enough light to obliterate the view.

Now, picture trying to use this to read your stats when you're doing distance work during the daytime. You have to stop, take off your sunglasses, cup your hand over the watch, and hold it up to your eye, and, even then, you'll only see about half of the information. Seriously, if anything on that UI needs to be high-contrast, it's the data screen for "at a glance" statistics during your run.

Your UI/UX managers should make the entire team run their devices in "walk" mode for a full week, and, every fifteen steps, stop and check their stats. That way, they really get to internalize the visceral hatred that everyone who actually uses this tool on their Fitbit device feels for that team, and the parents who raised them to be lackluster, useless, brain-dead blights on society. Maybe then they'll do dark color on light background, so you can see it in the daytime.

[Guy_]

Hi @MikeSimone - unfortunately Fitbit don't allow for customisation of colours to cater for colour blindness or bright lighting, but there may be a partial workaround and that is to use a clock face [or other app] that has the information displayed in such a way that you can see it.

Even adjusting the brightness setting on the watch to max may not be enough either, unless you have it set on Dim it will auto adjust the brightness to the conditions, so check that it isn't accidentally set to Dim and also check it is not set to Always On either. Swipe the watch face to the right to get to Quick Settings.

The watch will auto detect the walk after a certain time [so it will be recorded without GPS tracking] and some real time stats can be seen on a regular clock face, such as steps, distance, calories etc. which may be more visible depending on the face you choose.

[MikeSimone]

While I appreciate the helpful workarounds, I really want Fitbit to listen to their customer experience and fix the problem. 

Also, it doesn't give me the information I actually want on the clock face. I want to know total steps for only the exercise duration, and my lap splits. Those are the things I care about in real time, not after it uploads to the app and I review it later. 

It's terrible user interface design, conceived in an utter vacuum, without any input from people who actually use the features. You get a bunch of fat, sweaty nerds in a dark office knocking out code for something they've never done, and don't understand what the actual users would want, and, unsurprisingly, you get **ahem**ty interfaces. (And, yes, I'm not only very used to that with my own company's products, but I've been to the Fitbit offices and met with some of their coders before. Sadly, since I was trying to sell them something, it wasn't the best time to launch into, "this is why you suck.")

They need to do better.

[Guy_]

Thanks @MikeSimone - your good feedback is noted.

Unfortunately this is just a users forum so your suggestions probably won't have much impact here, even the major ones in the dedicated product feedback forum make little impact, such as catering for left handed people, better music support or dark theme Etc. Etc.

There are many passionate Fitbit fans like you, but unfortunately it seems another brand who listen to their customers might cater better for your needs.