4 ms·

My weekend project: StepStats - Better Fitbit Statistics

20 points by jazzychad 14y ago

Urgo 14y ago
Cool stuff. Been a fitbit user myself for a couple years now. Seeing it pop up a lot of Hacker News lately so just made a group there for Hacker News Fitbit users to join if anyone's interested in a little friendly competition :) http://www.fitbit.com/group/229TR9 http://www.fitbit.com/group/229TR9
jazzychad 14y ago
Hi hn. I've been on a health kick lately and been using my fitbit more and more to help me be consistent about my physical activity. I wanted more information out of my fitbit data, so I built StepStats to scratch that itch. Happy to hear suggestions and feedback as I'll be making additions/improvements over time.
sebg 14y ago
likes - 1) linear story of the website from top to bottom is great. 2) great website name. 3) like the idea of scratching the itch for better data. things i thought could be improved on - 1) show us your data - let me click around and see what actually is there! 2) sell me on what better stats have helped you accomplish or realize. 3) make the stats chart clickable - i ended up clicking on it two cause it looks so clickable. great work.
- jazzychad 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! I'm working to make "public" profile pages (which are off by default, one must explicitly opt-in to expose their data) so you can eventually see my data. I've just started exercising more diligently for the past week, so I'm waiting for the stats to show me something interesting, then I can report on what I have realized :) Already the moving 7 and 30 day average lines have shown me a lot. The charts are hoverable and selectable (click/drag and it will zoom in to the selection; you can also select a timeframe from the nav bar above each graph). What would you like the graph to do when it is clicked? I'm open to suggestions.
  - sebg 14y ago
    Hey - of course - you've helped me tons in the past on the IRC channel, good to help out. Definitely interested in seeing moving averages as these help give some perspective on getting better or doing more fitness. I've used moving averages before on weight (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html) and definitely found them useful. Site seems to be down for now - though from memory what i'd like the graph to do is be able to compare data this week to last week / this month to last month...basically anything that lets me feel like i'm doing better than before.
    - jazzychad 14y ago
      good suggestions. for now, each section has a "7/30 day ave", "previous" section so you can compare the current ave to the previous period's ave. yeah, heroku is down at the moment (grrr), so i'm waiting for them to wake back up.
      - sebg 14y ago
        hey - so had a thought on what the chart should do when clicked and didn't come up with anything really interesting. Thought a modal window with the stats for that day (comparing to running avg for previous week) would be the most intuitive thing, though it isn't all that exciting. The only other thing that came to mind that was interesting was to give me a sense of how far I had come. For instance, the chart on the front page shows 300 miles. If I was walking from SF to LA how far down would I be? I ride a stationary bike most mornings and that is how I relate to how far I've been. It's fun, and easy measure and make me feel awesome knowing how close I'm getting to the other end!
martingordon 14y ago
I really like it. I find FitBit's site somewhat difficult to navigate and this provides a much cleaner alternative. One minor suggestion – allow switching to imperial units. I can do the conversion from km to mi easily, but I have a better feel for distances in miles, especially when looking at the lifetime/best stats.
- jazzychad 14y ago
  re: switching units... I'll consider that. Right now it just uses the units from your Fitbit profile settings (or if there is no setting I think it defaults to metric).
  - groby_b 14y ago
    I'm going to suggest you stick to metric, educating the parts of the world that are still in the dark ages ;) OK, fine, I probably won't get that wish. I'll retaliate by referring to all temperature values in Réaumur ;) As for your site, excellent work - and I think sticking with the FitBit profile settings is the better choice. Duplicating a setting across sites is always a painful thing for users.
ecspike 14y ago
This is awesome dude. Keep up the good work.

20 points by jazzychad 14y ago

Urgo 14y ago

Cool stuff. Been a fitbit user myself for a couple years now. Seeing it pop up a lot of Hacker News lately so just made a group there for Hacker News Fitbit users to join if anyone's interested in a little friendly competition :) http://www.fitbit.com/group/229TR9 http://www.fitbit.com/group/229TR9

jazzychad 14y ago

Hi hn. I've been on a health kick lately and been using my fitbit more and more to help me be consistent about my physical activity. I wanted more information out of my fitbit data, so I built StepStats to scratch that itch. Happy to hear suggestions and feedback as I'll be making additions/improvements over time.

sebg 14y ago

likes - 1) linear story of the website from top to bottom is great. 2) great website name. 3) like the idea of scratching the itch for better data. things i thought could be improved on - 1) show us your data - let me click around and see what actually is there! 2) sell me on what better stats have helped you accomplish or realize. 3) make the stats chart clickable - i ended up clicking on it two cause it looks so clickable. great work.

jazzychad 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback! I'm working to make "public" profile pages (which are off by default, one must explicitly opt-in to expose their data) so you can eventually see my data. I've just started exercising more diligently for the past week, so I'm waiting for the stats to show me something interesting, then I can report on what I have realized :) Already the moving 7 and 30 day average lines have shown me a lot. The charts are hoverable and selectable (click/drag and it will zoom in to the selection; you can also select a timeframe from the nav bar above each graph). What would you like the graph to do when it is clicked? I'm open to suggestions.
- sebg 14y ago
  Hey - of course - you've helped me tons in the past on the IRC channel, good to help out. Definitely interested in seeing moving averages as these help give some perspective on getting better or doing more fitness. I've used moving averages before on weight (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html) and definitely found them useful. Site seems to be down for now - though from memory what i'd like the graph to do is be able to compare data this week to last week / this month to last month...basically anything that lets me feel like i'm doing better than before.
  - jazzychad 14y ago
    good suggestions. for now, each section has a "7/30 day ave", "previous" section so you can compare the current ave to the previous period's ave. yeah, heroku is down at the moment (grrr), so i'm waiting for them to wake back up.
    - sebg 14y ago
      hey - so had a thought on what the chart should do when clicked and didn't come up with anything really interesting. Thought a modal window with the stats for that day (comparing to running avg for previous week) would be the most intuitive thing, though it isn't all that exciting. The only other thing that came to mind that was interesting was to give me a sense of how far I had come. For instance, the chart on the front page shows 300 miles. If I was walking from SF to LA how far down would I be? I ride a stationary bike most mornings and that is how I relate to how far I've been. It's fun, and easy measure and make me feel awesome knowing how close I'm getting to the other end!

martingordon 14y ago

I really like it. I find FitBit's site somewhat difficult to navigate and this provides a much cleaner alternative. One minor suggestion – allow switching to imperial units. I can do the conversion from km to mi easily, but I have a better feel for distances in miles, especially when looking at the lifetime/best stats.

jazzychad 14y ago
re: switching units... I'll consider that. Right now it just uses the units from your Fitbit profile settings (or if there is no setting I think it defaults to metric).
- groby_b 14y ago
  I'm going to suggest you stick to metric, educating the parts of the world that are still in the dark ages ;) OK, fine, I probably won't get that wish. I'll retaliate by referring to all temperature values in Réaumur ;) As for your site, excellent work - and I think sticking with the FitBit profile settings is the better choice. Duplicating a setting across sites is always a painful thing for users.

ecspike 14y ago

This is awesome dude. Keep up the good work.