Design Details: reviewing Seven
By: Sander Vandroemme
Tags: Apps, Lifestyle, Seven, Workout

March 2, 2020.

About Seven

30 million users doing a 7 minute workout a day. That’s 210 million minutes working out per day around the globe. Since its launch, Perigee’s Seven has been a success, motivating users to work out 7 minutes a day benefiting your physical strength and mental wellbeing.

Featured on Men’s Health, The New York Times, Glamour and USA Today and crowned with several App Store awards, Seven lets you interact with friends while building a healthy habit.

The first time on Seven

Firing up the app for the very first time you will have to set up a workout plan. You’re not on your own on this one as there is a character that feels just like a personal trainer to help you through the process. The progress bar built around this character helps you feel like it is only a small mandatory process.

Starting the app for the very first time.

Setting up your workout plan

Setting up your workout plan happens in 4 stages. You will have to add your goals first. It is only possible to add one goal, although this can be changed deep into the settings later on after signing up. After choosing a goal the continue bar lights up.

Step one in setting up your workout plan.

During the second step you will have to choose when to work out. As an unprepared user this felt overwhelming but motivational to start working out asap. The selection of the days wasn’t entirely flawless due to the confusion of the already selected days. A tool to help is the popping up of the amount of selected days.

Step two in setting up your workout plan.

The third time is adding a time. This felt strange as it is not always possible to make the same time on every day. However this is a clever step as this is where a pop-up appears asking your permission for notifications. A user is tempted to agree to these notifications as a banner on screen says that people who set reminders are 5x more likely to workout regularly.

Step three in setting up your workout plan.

Unfortunately, the last step is buying a subscription. 7 day free trial included. Once done setting up your workout plan, the app rewards you with several achievements.

Personalised experience

Creating a profile

Although Seven doesn’t show this on the landing page of the app (which is reserved for workouts only) you will have to make an account in order to experience the benefits of the app to the fullest.

Making an account is a fairly easy process bearing in mind a user is always signed in into his iPhone using iCloud. This is a process Seven has adopted in order to simplify the process of making an account. Only a username still has to be picked by the user. It is also possible for the user to use another email but due to the design of the buttons, people tend to use their Apple ID.

Micro interactions such as realtime showing whether or not a username is available make for a comfortable user experience.

Making a profile on Seven.

Your profile

Your profile houses a lot of information divided into three tabs: Journey, Stats and Challenges. A playful animation lets the user switch between these tabs. It is however not possible to swipe your screen anywhere to switch between these tabs as you must press the tabs themselves.

Journey shows the user a timeline. He or she has easy access to when a workout was completed and an achievement was rewarded. The information is designed in a way it is easy for the user to get a chronological overview. Achievements and workouts are clickable for yourself and others and everyone is able to leave a like and a comment to get that “social network” vibe. These animations are playful as well and make it fun for others to drop likes and comments.

The social network feel of Seven

On the tab Stats a user can see how much he or she has worked out. A total of workouts are displayed as well as calories. The playful style of animations is found in how information is shown using emojis and delightful images making the entire atmosphere easy accessible. Seems more accessible than a physical gym… Stats also shows the overall achievements a user has gotten so far which adds motivation to the scene.

Track all your data and achievements.

Last but not least is Challenges, which provides a platform for users to challenge his or her friends, added through Facebook or Contacts.

Challenge friends in the Challenge tab.

Let’s work out

Discovering the library

Navigation through the entire app happens through the navigation bar on the bottom of the screen. That is where a user finds the tab ‘Library’, the tab where the user will spend the most of the time spent in-app. It’s here that the workout often starts. Information is shown in a logical way and the — again- playful icons make everything approachable and understandable. Seven 2, physical gym 0. On the Library tab the user finds various sections of content from which he or she can choose to start working out.

Starting with ‘Challenges’, the app provides various programmes that the user can choose from whether it’s a full body challenge or a core challenge.

Right under the challenges is where a user finds categories once again made approachable with cartoonesk images. Trying to get your summer body or working on mobility? This is where to start.

Rather focus on your lower or upper body? There is a place for that as well in the library right above the top 10 most popular workouts.

As an extra, a user can complete challenges in order to get new instructors. Starting with the basic instructor, the user can choose an army drill sergeant or a mobster in more advanced levels.

The library from which a lot of workouts start.

The amount of exercises can be sometimes overwhelming for a user. Which exercises to do and which are yet too advanced? Seven’s easy to use filter options help the user guide through the different options.

Finding workouts through Seven’s filter.

Start a workout

Let us work on our beach body and see what Seven has in store for us. Navigating to a detailed workout and back happens very logically, as a user always knows where he finds him- or herself. Navigating back happens through a backlink.

Knowing how to workout is very approachable on Seven. Clicking on an exercise brings to user to a detailpage where a 3D personal trainer does the exercise. Adding to this is a detailed description of what to do. Change the announcer if wanted, multiple the circuits or add the workout to your favourites before hitting the big blue button and start working out. Added favourites can be found on the app’s home screen.

A 3D animation shows you how the exercise has to been done.

While working out a user needs to hold his phone close as a timer shows how much time and exercises are left before switching to another exercise. It is at anytime possible to cancel a workout, although feeling bad for ‘giving up’. The power of design principles…

Working out using Seven.

My Plan

Remember firing up the app for the very first time and adding days on which the user would like to work out? Seven uses this data to create a personalised plan proposing workouts based on your input. Hitting the start button — this time feeling rather small compared to starting a workout through the library- starts your workout.

Your personalised workout plan.

Make a workout

Seven trying to be as approachable and personalised as possible also offers users the feature to create their own custom workout combining the pre added exercises.

Creating a custom workout.

Oops, I didn’t use Seven

Didn’t use Seven while working out? It’s possible to add another workout which will be available on the user’s profile after adding.

Add a workout even when you didn’t use Seven.

Seven and Apple

Built for iOS

Multiple times it is clear that Apple’s iOS and Seven go hand in hand, benefiting the user experience. Using the iPhone 11’s Haptic Touch it is possible for the user to see his stats while not even going into the app.

Seven using the iPhone 11’s Haptic Touch.

Being a workout app it is useful for Seven to know all about your body. Luckily it is possible to transfer your Health app data to and from Seven. Starting a workout using Siri? Not a problem.

Starting a workout using Siri.

A health app on my wrist

Seven also features an AppleWatch app, working seamlessly together with its phone counterpart. Favourite workouts can be started through the wrist, syncing to the iPhone app when connected.

Working out from your wrist.