OVERVIEW. At first glance, our neighborhood membership-based gyms use relatively simple organizing systems. For many of us though, they are places we frequent regularly and therefore spend a good portion of our lives. What’s more, if you have ever been a member to different gyms or shopped around before you picked the right one for you, you may have noticed they are organized very differently. No two gyms are exactly alike and they can often be crowded and challenging for navigate.
It is worthwhile therefore to explore a single organizing system for gyms that can ideally be applicable, transferable and scalable across most instances of gyms that exist. Given the countless examples to draw from, this project involves an extensive scoping phase in order to arrive at a well-balanced set of resource categories that are not too granular and yet incorporate most interactions at gyms.
WHAT RESOURCES ARE BEING ORGANIZED? The resources being organized at a gym may fall into six broad categories of equipment, facilities (courts, class studios) classes offered, staff, retail items and audiovisual entertainment. Beyond the obvious physical resources grouped into the facilities and equipment categories, the remaining resources may seem potentially excessive. Upon weighing the alternatives of their inclusion however, one can see that the remaining categories of resources enable a significant range of additional user interactions that are quite important to user experience at a gym. Classes offered and staff providing training and services are a critical aspect to expanding the engagement, since many members interact with these resources primarily. Likewise, retail items for sale are often nutritional supplements, which are critical to ensuring lasting user engagement to gym for its members. Audiovisual entertainment resources, such as music playlists and television, although not primary interactions for users, are nowadays standard at most gyms and are therefore worth including. All in all, these six categories of resources aim to be sufficiently transferable across all instances of gyms, while also allowing for scalability and inclusion of new resource additions.
WHY ARE THE RESOURCES ORGANIZED? In this case, resources are being organized for the dual purpose of improving user satisfaction and establishing an organization standard common across different gyms. The careful organization of resources allows for increased resource availability, efficiency of retrieval, particularly with exercise equipment. Standardizing the organization system to align it with systems common across most gyms further improves retrievability through familiarity and also allows the system to be transferrable, either if a given gym moves to a new building facility or opens new locations where the system can be implemented. Last but not least, the improvements in resource availability and retrievability allow for a higher volume of interactions among different users, which can be meaningful in increasing capacity for number of members that can be registered and additional membership fees for the business.
HOW MUCH ARE THE RESOURCES ORGANIZED? Due to the variety of gym amenities available and the goal to create an organizing system that is as transferable as possible, the degree of organization applied here avoids a high degree of granularity. The six categories of resources can clearly be broken down further into groupings that are more precise and descriptive but this would diminish the operability of the organizing system across some different gym types. On the other hand, while there is not high granularity, there is a diverse mixture of resources. Equipment and facilities are passive, while staff can be very active , since they serve as personal trainers of the organizing system users and therefore create interactions initiated by the resource.
WHEN ARE THE RESOURCES ORGANIZED? While some exceptions can be made, for the most part resources at a gym are organized when the organizing system is first created, which would typically be when a gym first opens. At that time, the bulk of the selection, categorization and interaction design takes place. From there on, the degree of further organization varies significantly across resource categories. Weightlifting equipment may possibly never be organized further, exercise classes can be periodically organized each season, while music entertainment can be organized at ad hoc frequency depending on popularity trends.
WHO DOES THE ORGANIZING? The top-level organizing decisions made during the creation phase are typically done by experts, which in this case are corporate level managers of the gym facility, with some lower level design decision autonomy deferred to the staff team at a given gym. For example, most resources, including equipment, classes offered and even audiovisual entertainment selection are likely subject to budget and brand compliance determined at a corporate management level. During the local implementation phase at a gym location however, gym employees are likely to also have some involvement in organizing, as they adapt the broad requirements set by management to the limitations of the building facility and particular needs of local users, in order to achieve the overall interaction goals.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS? The spectrum of tangible/intangible and passive/active resources in a gym organizing system raises a range of items to consider. Among the different types of resources, maintenance and technology vary a lot. For example, simpler metal equipment has high longevity and minimal maintenance that perhaps could last for up to a decade. Staff employees on the other hand are a complex and challenging resource to incorporate and maintain. They require new hire training, continuing education and are also subject to erratic turnover, requiring them to be replaced by other individuals, who although qualified, will not fit exactly in the same way in the organizing system, as they would have varying credentials and competencies for their interactions with users. The organizing system also faces a number of challenges that are unique to gyms, such as the way scalability is affected. While the categorization in the organizing system may theoretically allow for additional resources to fit in, the physical limitations and arrangement of facilities are likely to make this less straightforward, as new equipment and retail items compete for limited space.