Zwift as a company has demonstrated over the years that the brand knows how to smooth pain points in user interactions. In a continued effort towards that, today Zwift announces a new product called Zwift Play. The hardware is only part of the announcement though.
At the heart of what Zwift is announcing is an acknowledgement that the interface has an issue. Right now, it’s a hassle to interact with Zwift. You can use the companion app on a phone, you can reach over your bars for a keyboard, you can use the AppleTV remote, and some people have various wireless mouse and keyboard setups. None of the options are great though.
Zwift user studies show that the more its users interact with other people, and the interface itself, the more they ride. Making that interaction easier required both the addition of new hardware and changes to the software.
Software changes to set the stage
To explain the hardware, it makes sense to back up a little and start with the software side. The first step was actually back in April when users saw a change to the action bar. At the time, ‘Coffee Stops’ rolled out as a way to take a moment when you needed to without losing your group, and Teleport was announced as a way to jump to a friend or robo-pacer when needed. Those changes were only part of the picture though. Users didn’t know it then but the idea was to put the action bar into a more prominent position in terms of the interface. It didn’t actually change how you interacted but it did set the stage for future changes.
Then, more recently, Zwift has also taken steps to address the lack of useability around steering. While there have been ways to steer in Zwift since 2019, almost no one uses it. The main reason is that it’s difficult to do so. It’s very rare to find an event with steering enabled and even if you do, there are limited ways to actually do it. Without telling anyone, Zwift set the stage to fix those issues by turning on steering by default.
The hardware: Zwift Play
With the stage set for easier interactions, today Zwift announces the hardware that makes use of the software. Zwift Play is a pair of controllers, modelled on gaming hardware that wrap around the curve of your drop bars. Rest your hands on the hoods, maybe slightly farther back than you might if you…
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