Jonatas Souza
PTEN

Exploring Move Dial for Movement fitness equipment

Research, exploration, and interaction design for a new experience embedded in Movement fitness equipment. The project investigated how a circular hardware interface, limited gestures, and a constrained display area would affect interaction during exercise.

Team
Auclan Design
Client
Movement
Role
Product designer
Year
2022

Context

Movement is one of Brazil’s largest fitness-equipment manufacturers. Move Dial proposed a new control panel for its home treadmills: a circular interface embedded in the equipment, operated through only two inputs, a rotating bezel and a pressable center.

Challenge

The challenge sat between hardware and software. Move Dial began with a strict hardware constraint: users would control fitness equipment through a circular device with only two interaction gestures.

Similar interactions existed in products such as Nest Thermostat, Surface Dial, and smartwatches, but in very different contexts.

Here, the user would be moving on a treadmill, with divided attention and only a few seconds to interpret and perform an action on a very limited display area.

Starting point

The key question was whether this interaction model would still make sense during exercise. Exploration began with extensive documentation that mapped gestures, hardware behavior, mechanics, and interaction hypotheses to determine which actions belonged on the dial and when they would be useful.

Gestures for increasing speed during a workout.

Alpha testing

Before the final prototype was available, we ran two exploratory Alpha rounds. Beyond capturing first impressions, the primary goal was to understand ergonomics: how people held the dial, which gestures emerged around basic functions, and how treadmill speed affected interaction.

These rounds answered the main hypotheses and produced several important learnings:

  1. The press gesture was understood immediately;
  2. Rotation showed potential but needed stronger tactile feedback;
  3. Ergonomics varied with treadmill speed and hand position;
  4. Alongside broader flow and visual adjustments, some screens needed a clearer information hierarchy;
  5. Selection states in the menu needed to be more explicit;
  6. More complex workout interfaces, such as quick start and interval training, needed to be more direct;
  7. Treadmill incline added another layer of interaction complexity.

Beta testing

After incorporating the Alpha learnings, we reached a more mature version and began Beta testing. This phase focused on validating usability in conditions closer to real use.

The results showed substantial improvement. Participants completed every scenario, most without difficulty, including the most complex tasks. Compared with a traditional treadmill panel, Move Dial required less time and fewer interactions and received higher ease-of-use ratings.

Outcome

Testing showed that Move Dial had strong potential to evolve as a product. The rotate-and-press interaction model proved simple, intuitive, and easy to understand. It also revealed opportunities to refine interface communication, interaction feedback, and support for more complex scenarios.

Closing thoughts

This project pushed me well beyond my comfort zone. Working within hardware constraints, designing for a circular interface for the first time, and validating decisions through on-site usability testing broadened how I think about products and reinforced the importance of designing from the context of use.

Thank you to Movement for the trust, especially Victor Xavier, whose contribution was fundamental throughout the project.