Show HN: Exercises you can do at work, emailed Mon-Fri

9 points by raivo 14 years ago | 15 comments

http://www.exercisesatwork.com/

I evolved this service over several months and since June it's in a state where I can show it to the public.

The service is built on Google App Engine - an interesting experience on how the restrictions of the platform make you focus on the scalability of your app.

Edit: wanted to add details as this might be interesting to HN.

The challenge was to be able to get the emails and the associated timezones AND know what the time it is right now in that particular time zone. Then, I would have to email those records that would match the time, all this in 30 seconds.

I ended up using MapReduce for this. Still have a haunting feeling there's an easier way for it...

So every hour I create a task that runs MapReduce that then cycles through the emails and checks the timezones and times in them.

My understanding is that Mapreduce creates sub tasks that basically make it possible to run all emails in 30 second chunks. We will see how this works as the number of emails grows.

I've noticed that occasionally all of my Task API is consumed by the Mapreduce library trying to start tasks.

The daily exercise is set by another task, once a day, and is then passed along into MapReduce.

Feedback welcome.

Edit 2: removed the <a> around the link.

olegious 14 years ago |

Good idea. Some criticisms about the execution:

1. I'd like to see an example of the email.

2. Reduce the amount of writing on the landing page. We all know why we should do exercises at work, you really don't need to sell that concept, use that space instead to sell your service- why should I give out my email? What makes you different from other similar products?

A good start.

JoeCortopassi 14 years ago | |

I would agree with ^this. My first thought, when reading this, was "Thats cool! I would like to find some ways to get exercise at work. But why should I sign up for a (potentially) spammy email list, when I can probably just google 'office exercises'?"

olegious 14 years ago | | |

raivo:

I don't think you need to explain that you won't spam us. If you decide to give an example email, make sure an "Unsubscribe" link is clearly visible somewhere in the email. That will help build trust.

I would also be curious as to where the exercises are coming from- you may have included this info in the text, but I didn't read it because it was too long...

raivo 14 years ago | | |

Joe and olegious thanks for the feedback - good points!

I will add the sample email, and a paragraph about why you should sign up.

To quickly answer it here, you should sign up because an email will serve as a reminder for you to exercise.

Now, I'm not sure how to explain (and be believed) that I won't spam you?

olegious 14 years ago |

Just got my first email (Pile Squats), some feedback:

1. the stickfigure exercise illustration is a fun idea

2. how do I know the number of reps that I need to do or how long I need to do the exercise?

3. what will this exercise do for me (how will it help me)?

4. what is the thought process behind recommending a specific exercise- is there a program that is being followed, will tomorrow's exercise build on today's? etc.

Some of these questions (like the programming and where do the exercises come from questions) can be answered on the main site, but this needs to be done in as little words as possible (or maybe in a separate FAQ section).

raivo 14 years ago | |

Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback - really appreciate it! These are all great points that I will try to utilize.

mike-cardwell 14 years ago |

This is a really good idea. I don't usually sign up for random newsletters, but this is different. I have just signed up.

I assume you're going to place health/office related adverts in the emails, and Like/+1 links?

You could perhaps add a link that people can click once they've completed a task, and maintain a running score for them or something? Turn it into a game.

raivo 14 years ago | |

Eventually there will be a relevant and non-obtrusive text(?) based ad in the email.

There already is a Like link there...but that needs a little tinkering to get it to behave like I envisioned. Will need to add +1 since that's getting popular. Another one I've been contemplating is to add Twitter link as well.

I think your idea of turning this into a game like experience is brilliant. One thing I've noticed with emails of this nature is that after a while you start to ignore them. Letting readers keep score of the reps/tasks completed would hopefully entice them to keep opening the emails and, more importantly, keep them exercising.

And thanks for signing up!

pkamb 14 years ago |

I signed up... but the timezone list seemed very non-standard and hard to figure out. Can't you begin with an IP lookup or something?

JonLim 14 years ago |

Like this idea - my office could always use more exercises to do at work.

What do you use to send out the emails?

raivo 14 years ago | |

I use the App Engine's Mail API to send the emails.

noahth 14 years ago |

Loved the idea, signed up to try it out. Why did I get the same email 4 times?

raivo 14 years ago | |

If you don't mind, could you reply to those emails please - that will send them to my inbox, will need to take a look.

I suspect there's an issue either with the MapReduce library processing your email more than one time or there's something with App Engine's email service (Mail API).