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April Zero v3

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Re: April Zero v3

#41

Post by hunvreus »

morgante wrote: post #17
hunvreus wrote: post #6

Looks sharp, definitely a lot of great work on design. I just can't seem to see the value in it; what actionable or information do you get out of this? I've tracked my movements with OpenPaths [1] in the past and had fun building a couple data visualizations out of it (I love the fact that others can request access to anonymized data collected by OpenPaths). I just have no anecdotal or empirical evidence of users put…

I agree that the quantified self movement needs to do more work on tying data to motivation. In many cases, it's too easy to just look at the data but not act on it. That being said, I do think that having the data is a prerequisite for improving. The times where I've tracked my food intake, I've inevitably eaten healthier, partially but just knowing how much i'm actually eating. > If anything, folks I've seen using…

I didn't mean to imply causation. What I meant is that most people I've seen adopting these tools just don't correct their behavior in the long run.

They do marginal changes to their diet, go run for a couple more weeks and then end up going back to their former self. Same as the New Year's resolutions athletes who are gonna hit the gym in January and gone by end of February.

Re: April Zero v3

#42

Post by DiabloD3 »

My only problem with Gyroscope is there is still no alternative logins. I don't use Facebook, and I don't want to make a login for them just to use it.

Re: April Zero v3

#43

Post by trobins »

hunvreus wrote: post #6

Looks sharp, definitely a lot of great work on design. I just can't seem to see the value in it; what actionable or information do you get out of this? I've tracked my movements with OpenPaths [1] in the past and had fun building a couple data visualizations out of it (I love the fact that others can request access to anonymized data collected by OpenPaths). I just have no anecdotal or empirical evidence of users put…

Say 10 people all die on the same day, all showing the same unusual markings/indicators, well maybe if they were using this tool the authrorities could get and correlate the data to discover all of them drank a specific coffee that's new on the market which triggers a reaction only when heart rates are highly elevated within a small time frame afterwards and exposed to lots of sunlight - far fetched I know, but only when you have an abundance of such data can you hope to discover such circumstances.

Of course privacy concerns will always be there, but I for one am ok with judicious use of data to further such advancements.

Re: April Zero v3

#44

Post by nkozyra »

samstave wrote: post #24
rbinv wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. This is the problem with pretty much all "health trackers": how actionable are the data and visualization? Yes, you need to measure stuff to improve it, but still, a step counter is like a website hit counter and has little actionable value in and of itself.

What if you made a white labeled incentive health tracking app that can be used by schools to set contests for activities each week. You can have prizes or incentives set for people individually and as groups. "Who ran the farthest?" "Who lost the most weight over the school year" "Who is eating the best" And allow competition groups in each between friends as well, e.g. A competition for all students to run or bike,…

I've encountered quite a few of these already, I'm not sure how much incentive it actually provides by simply gamifying it.

To make it useful, there needs to be a carrot and stick. Some companies do this by way of competitions but then it becomes a resources / management issue.

Re: April Zero v3

#45

Post by Glyptodon »

Looks cool and useful, but I'd never want a 3rd party to have that dataset. Could care less about privacy policies. (They're meaningless.)

On a different level, it's very much not clear from the site itself what hardware you need to have to get all the various metrics it's displaying.

Re: April Zero v3

#46

Post by arscan »

Cshelton wrote: post #9

I was just thinking about the UI on a lot of shows/movies and how rarely we see any UI like it in the real world. Even those 'FBI databases mainframes...' that a character hacked into do not look anything like that in real life. This is pretty cool and fits in well in 'Hollywood'. Now I want to find a project that I can actually use a similar UI on haha.

I love the 'Hollywood' look as well, and a recent hobby of mine has been to recreate some of my favorite ones for the web. It has been a great learning experience.

Tron Legacy: http://www.robscanlon.com/encom-boardroom/

Guardians of the Galaxy: http://www.robscanlon.com/about/

Wargames: http://www.robscanlon.com/github-wargames/

It's interesting how certain techniques seem to come up over and over again... like they almost always use complex intro/exit animations for every element and additive blending over dark backdrops.

Re: April Zero v3

#47

Post by mahyarm »

hunvreus wrote: post #37
aprilzero wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it has served a similar purpose to the dashboard in a car or plane. This latest design also slightly reflects that visually. When you're driving a car, you're not staring at the speedometer, or constantly checking the gas meter, but they're still useful tools. Especially when things start to go wrong. If you're almost out of gas or in the redline, then it becomes much more useful. The other thing to note is t…

The best interface is no interface. Don't get me wrong, I find the work you do stunning and well thought through. But I fail to see any actionable value in it. I could see down the line how measuring continuously vital signs and blood work could help us detect or prevent illnesses or risky behaviors, but the complexity of its analysis will demand something a lot more intuitive than a dashboard. As of now though, thes…

During a stressful 4-6 months of college, a girlfriend who took up baking, moving countries and getting a new job I gained 40 lbs. Part of the reason why I gained so much so fast is because my scale was lost, I wore loose clothing and I was too busy to buy another scale. It took a year or two of on and off dieting to lose it all.

That is why you want these kinds of metrics, because shit like this can sneak up on you. And losing weight is way more work than gaining weight, at least for me.

Re: April Zero v3

#48

Post by [deleted] »

hunvreus wrote: post #37
aprilzero wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it has served a similar purpose to the dashboard in a car or plane. This latest design also slightly reflects that visually. When you're driving a car, you're not staring at the speedometer, or constantly checking the gas meter, but they're still useful tools. Especially when things start to go wrong. If you're almost out of gas or in the redline, then it becomes much more useful. The other thing to note is t…

The best interface is no interface. Don't get me wrong, I find the work you do stunning and well thought through. But I fail to see any actionable value in it. I could see down the line how measuring continuously vital signs and blood work could help us detect or prevent illnesses or risky behaviors, but the complexity of its analysis will demand something a lot more intuitive than a dashboard. As of now though, thes…

[deleted]

Re: April Zero v3

#49

Post by samstave »

nkozyra wrote: post #44
samstave wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you made a white labeled incentive health tracking app that can be used by schools to set contests for activities each week. You can have prizes or incentives set for people individually and as groups. "Who ran the farthest?" "Who lost the most weight over the school year" "Who is eating the best" And allow competition groups in each between friends as well, e.g. A competition for all students to run or bike,…

I've encountered quite a few of these already, I'm not sure how much incentive it actually provides by simply gamifying it. To make it useful, there needs to be a carrot and stick. Some companies do this by way of competitions but then it becomes a resources / management issue.

Agreed. I would see success in gamification on the younger user base. Get this into middle school PE and drive through highschool

Re: April Zero v3

#50

Post by jcheng »

chejazi wrote: post #10
hunvreus wrote: post #6

Looks sharp, definitely a lot of great work on design. I just can't seem to see the value in it; what actionable or information do you get out of this? I've tracked my movements with OpenPaths [1] in the past and had fun building a couple data visualizations out of it (I love the fact that others can request access to anonymized data collected by OpenPaths). I just have no anecdotal or empirical evidence of users put…

One of my university professors always said: "No metrics, no movement." The opportunity to add value is by intersecting the metrics. As a software engineer who likes to work in cafes, I'd like to know at which cafe I have the highest commit frequency. As a coffee drinker, I'd like to know at which cafe my resting heart rate is the highest (strongest cup!)

I don't know if this was intended to be tongue in cheek, but I started working remotely 6 years ago and found that where I was working had a huge effect on my productivity. It took a while to identify the pattern but I think it is settings that are unfamiliar or, even better, where I feel very out of place. So the first time I go to a cafe, and especially if there aren't a lot of people with laptops there, I do great. If I keep going there for a month and feel really comfortable, then my productivity falls.

I gave up on trying to understand why, and just accepted it.

(That being said, firing up Self Control[0] and a pomodoro timer provide a much bigger boost for me.)

[0]https://selfcontrolapp.com/

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