if I type "milk" in the "food and drink" and press save, I get "NaN". It also asks for calories: shouldn't the website provide this information automatically? Does she know about http://www.mypyramid.gov/ ? It has all the info and also http://www.mypyramidtracker.gov/planner/ seems more complete, although a bit more complex to use.
EDIT: I found many other errors in the number entry validation: height: inches don't go more than 9; if I type 9999999999999 into the calories intake, I get funny values in the deficit, etc. let's hope it doesn't have some misplaced ' ;)
This is a good idea, but the execution is lacking. In particular, the data entry is really painful. There are two big problems:
1. I have to somehow know the calorie counts for every exercise I do and every food I eat. You should let me input the activity/food and calculate the calories.
2. I am not in front of my computer all day. In particular, when I'm exercising and eating I'm not. And that's exactly when I want to add data to a service like this. You need an iPhone app, not a web app.
Disagree with this if it's the only way this feature is set. I'd say making the initial default based on the user agent language preference, however, there will be people that would like to change this...I prefer metric units personally despite being in the US.
I also thought it was odd that the "you should upgrade here" balloon pointed at my status bar.
before i would sign up (and 2.99 seems fair. doubt i would pay more) i would want to see some reports, and i would want an android app that is equally as easy to use.
I know this feedback isn't very critical - but I really like it a lot. I like the design. It is really nice to have the sliders for the goals rather than putting in numbers. There is a more malleable feel to it than just crunching numbers in a spreadsheet. It does feel like it would fit a wide variety of lifestyles/goals which I think is encouraging to new users. I thought the tooltips were great for exploring the different components of the page and what they did.
I'm assuming that you will do some work to make the input for food and exercise more automated?
I like the idea, but the nutritional/exercise guidelines should be re-evaluated.
Caloric deficits don't work well for long term weight loss because the body has a tendency to move towards homeostasis.
It'd be nice to see something that tracks carbs closer and with an emphasis on hit intensity interval training (to promote GH release) with less emphasis on steady state cardio.
>Caloric deficits don't work well for long term weight loss because the body has a tendency to move towards homeostasis.
Can you cite this? I've lost a lot of weight and kept all of it off by really really drastically cutting my caloric intake.
This is something that I've never gotten: if your body could do the same work as it does with 3000 calories but only use 500, why wouldn't it do that all the time?
I'm having rendering issues with Chrome on Ubuntu. The text boxes for current weight, goal weight etc. show up under the labels instead of to their right, and are mostly hidden and hard to click on. Firefox works fine.
I'm currently using some products by your competitors ("Lose it!" iPhone app and "LiveStong") so I can definitely provide some feedback. First, it looks VERY nice, but as some others noted - a "for guys" interface option would be good.
1) This is big - needs to recognize the food and automatically enter the number of calories. I don't really know how many calories the food I'm eating has at all times.
2) Same with exercise - the site should ask me what exercise I did, and for how long.. and then based on that, plus my weight, etc, figure out how many calories I lost.
3) Autocomplete would be great for those two.
4) I think iPhone app, or a iPhone-compatible website needs to be an essential component of this for me to use. I can't wait until I get to a computer to record this stuff - I need the functionality to record this on the run.
You should also remember the choices made in the past and offer them with one-click actions. I cycle every morning and night and I often eat the same things over the course of each fortnight.
I like the idea! Looks like most of your reviews are from men, and their style advice is to lose the pink for a guy version. I agree this is a good idea, but I'd like to give a woman's perspective (even though I am not a woman). My girlfriend, her sister and my mom all recently vetoed the dark gray from my website. The male audience seems to respond to it, but the females find it dreary/oppressive. They recommended going lighter, if grey at all.
Anyway, I like the site and linked to it from the company blog. It's not much traffic at this point, however some of our cyclists will probably enjoy checking it out!
You're all so completely right about providing default food & exercise calorie totals for people, it's not acceptable to have to Google for that. But it's a lot of data to scrape and organize so I saved it for a later release. I love all of your feedback, thank you so much, I'll probably implement most of these things.
Maybe you should be more specific as to what exactly your application does. "Body management" may not be enough for some people. It might be a better marketing approach to explicitly say what your app can do. i.e. "we help you lose weight", or "gain more mass" , etc.
Not sure why I should upgrade...? I clicked the button and it took me to a PayPal checkout link. There should be some intermediate step describing the benefits. Sell me!
Seconding on the not-so-great color scheme. There is also a small bug on Chrome/Ubuntu; the pop-up that comes from scrolling over the upgrade link is transparent and the feedback link gets in the way of reading the text.
Very confusing, needs something telling me what to do! Us technical types can probably work it out but what about non-technical people? Not a chance I'd say.
Also, the "You should upgrade here" bubble just takes me to PayPal to give you $2.99/month without describing why I'd want to do that. The fact that it's the only bit of instruction on the page probably means it will be the first thing clicked on for a lot of people!
Cool idea and neat sliders and calculation execution! I agree with most others who say that it's not clear in the first 2 seconds what to do. Perhaps in the header:
h1: weight loss calculator
h2: easily plan your diet and exercise routine
I would recommend a numbered-list / stepwise approach for user input (all on the same page still), instead of the all-at-once approach (which is convenient if you know how to use it, but confusing otherwise)
Perhaps have a time indicator that says something like, "it will take 2 months for you to lose 20 lbs at this rate"
I'd recommend an intermediary step between free and subscription. Today I'll go there once to check it out and provide a review, but unless you sell me RIGHT NOW I'm gone as a customer.
Maybe it keeps track of my profile (height, weight, age, etc.), but doesn't keep a history of what I eat or what I do. That way I keep coming back to it, and it gets me hooked on using your site.
Or maybe you track my history, but doesn't let me see the reports. Until I'm invested it your site, it's Yet Another diet and exercise tracking tool. With a slick purple interface for setting up my profile.
The easy profile setup is a good way to introduce yourself. As others have pointed out, though, the food and exercise entry is the weak at best. That's the part people will be using daily, and until you have me sold on that feature I can't see myself signing up for a trial account, let committing to a subscription.
[edit] On a side note, at least have a cookie to save the user's profile for 20 minutes. I clicked on the bar graph icon to see what it does, and it promptly erased all the work I'd put in. You're not selling me on the security of my data! :-)
36 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 70.5 ms ] threadEDIT: I found many other errors in the number entry validation: height: inches don't go more than 9; if I type 9999999999999 into the calories intake, I get funny values in the deficit, etc. let's hope it doesn't have some misplaced ' ;)
That pyramid referral is the best -- the full database is there for download, awesomeness. Thank you!
1. I have to somehow know the calorie counts for every exercise I do and every food I eat. You should let me input the activity/food and calculate the calories.
2. I am not in front of my computer all day. In particular, when I'm exercising and eating I'm not. And that's exactly when I want to add data to a service like this. You need an iPhone app, not a web app.
I guess you could look at that two ways:
* The site is 'opinionated' and has decided to focus on female users.
* You're tossing half of your potential user base out the window.
I also thought it was odd that the "you should upgrade here" balloon pointed at my status bar.
before i would sign up (and 2.99 seems fair. doubt i would pay more) i would want to see some reports, and i would want an android app that is equally as easy to use.
I'm assuming that you will do some work to make the input for food and exercise more automated?
Caloric deficits don't work well for long term weight loss because the body has a tendency to move towards homeostasis.
It'd be nice to see something that tracks carbs closer and with an emphasis on hit intensity interval training (to promote GH release) with less emphasis on steady state cardio.
Can you cite this? I've lost a lot of weight and kept all of it off by really really drastically cutting my caloric intake.
This is something that I've never gotten: if your body could do the same work as it does with 3000 calories but only use 500, why wouldn't it do that all the time?
1) This is big - needs to recognize the food and automatically enter the number of calories. I don't really know how many calories the food I'm eating has at all times.
2) Same with exercise - the site should ask me what exercise I did, and for how long.. and then based on that, plus my weight, etc, figure out how many calories I lost.
3) Autocomplete would be great for those two.
4) I think iPhone app, or a iPhone-compatible website needs to be an essential component of this for me to use. I can't wait until I get to a computer to record this stuff - I need the functionality to record this on the run.
Hope that helps!
The text is too long. Shorten the tooltips to a sentence.
Also, add a slight delay to the tooltips: http://snipplr.com/view/4163/highlight-menu-on-hover-with-de...
Anyway, I like the site and linked to it from the company blog. It's not much traffic at this point, however some of our cyclists will probably enjoy checking it out!
Maybe you should be more specific as to what exactly your application does. "Body management" may not be enough for some people. It might be a better marketing approach to explicitly say what your app can do. i.e. "we help you lose weight", or "gain more mass" , etc.
Maybe I'm missing the point?
It's for tracking how much you eat and work out, right?
The tool tips where too long and I didn't read past a sentence or two.
Also, the "You should upgrade here" bubble just takes me to PayPal to give you $2.99/month without describing why I'd want to do that. The fact that it's the only bit of instruction on the page probably means it will be the first thing clicked on for a lot of people!
h1: weight loss calculator h2: easily plan your diet and exercise routine
I would recommend a numbered-list / stepwise approach for user input (all on the same page still), instead of the all-at-once approach (which is convenient if you know how to use it, but confusing otherwise)
Perhaps have a time indicator that says something like, "it will take 2 months for you to lose 20 lbs at this rate"
Maybe it keeps track of my profile (height, weight, age, etc.), but doesn't keep a history of what I eat or what I do. That way I keep coming back to it, and it gets me hooked on using your site.
Or maybe you track my history, but doesn't let me see the reports. Until I'm invested it your site, it's Yet Another diet and exercise tracking tool. With a slick purple interface for setting up my profile.
The easy profile setup is a good way to introduce yourself. As others have pointed out, though, the food and exercise entry is the weak at best. That's the part people will be using daily, and until you have me sold on that feature I can't see myself signing up for a trial account, let committing to a subscription.
[edit] On a side note, at least have a cookie to save the user's profile for 20 minutes. I clicked on the bar graph icon to see what it does, and it promptly erased all the work I'd put in. You're not selling me on the security of my data! :-)
I'd also make it more clear that you can edit the weight, goal weight, and age.
The question marks with text are helpful. But, ideally, no text explanation would be necessary.
Anyway, interesting app!