Weekend Project: VisualizeFit.com

codebeaker 14 years ago |

Way to exclude mainland Europe through your short-sighted decision to use Imperial units.

There's simply no valid reason (and hacked in a weekend doesn't cut it) to store units in Imperial, let me choose, as as an engineer I abhor laziness in building such sites, in 2012, more than ever I18n and L17n are more important than ever, even within sites only offered in English language.

(plus the maths on converting weights is more sane with metric units, I just don't get it)

DirtyAndy 14 years ago | |

I would say the developer has thought about their own requirements and knowledge, much like you have in your comment by thinking only of Europe whereas pretty much every other country/region in the world uses metric.

Whilst creating an application that deals with different units is not a massive amount of extra work, launching a minimal viable product to 300 million people in a country that has a major obesity problem is probably not a bad start. And when I say not a lot of extra work, 2-4 hours depending on experience of units, server side and client side, data store, would be very optimistic, hundreds if you are moving towards a more complex project. Quite a bit on top of what was only a weekend project.

pvidler 14 years ago | | |

Europe does use the metric system, it's presumably the developer that doesn't (in terms of countries, just the US and sometimes the UK?). Really, supporting metric and imperial should be trivial — minutes rather than hours.

The issue I see is that you aren't going to get publicity like this twice. "We now support metric" isn't news that will show up on my radar in the same way that this announcement did; how many will bookmark this and check back later, if it doesn't work for them now?

katieben 14 years ago | | |

"We Now Support Metric!" :) Haha, just added it in about 15 minutes. Currently working on getting the user's location by IP address. Thanks for the feedback.

DanBC 14 years ago | | |

Be aware that some people in the UK want stones and pounds, with feet and inches. But others (me) would like kg and cm. So please make it an option that I can chose, even if you try to guess what I want from my IP.

katieben 14 years ago | | |

Okay, cool - thanks so much for the feedback.

rmATinnovafy 14 years ago |

Nice project.

Would post it to reddit.com/r/loseit

That is a community of people losing weight, and your app would really be a hit with them.

katieben 14 years ago | |

Ooh, cool, okay! Thanks! :)

olalonde 14 years ago |

Seems to be targeted at people who want to lose weight. It would be nice if, when you chose a target weight higher than yours, it would show someone who has gained weight through muscle (rather than fat).

katieben 14 years ago | |

I definitely want to target weight gain OR loss - or even staying the same, just trading fat for muscle - I just don't have enough stories yet so the code is pulling everything. Help me get some by sharing and telling your friends, or submitting yours! :)

olalonde 14 years ago | | |

No story to contribute myself but I bet you can find some on http://bodybuilding.com forums.

katieben 14 years ago | | |

Yeah, I could do that or MyFitnessPal - I guess I'm not sure on the ethics. People themselves want to share their photos, but is it okay to reach them through someone else's fitness site? Hacker News and non-fitness-related sites seemed kosher, but I'm not sure about those... advice?

I'm trying to think of ways to make it a win-win for everyone - maybe promote the site/product/trainer that helped a person, but in a way so that the site isn't selling a particular product. Ideas welcome.

aethr 14 years ago |

I understand the need for the social sharing widgets, but they feel really obtrusive at the top of the page. Presumably at that point of reading the page you don't yet know what it is you're being asked to share?

I dunno, this is probably my personal preference more than a professional opinion, but I would suggest moving them below the example image.

Best of luck, it looks like a great inspirational tool!

katieben 14 years ago | |

Thanks for the feedback. :) I've made it prominent for now in hopes that it's clear how people can help the project - share so we can get lots more inspirational stories, but if it gets more annoying than useful, I'll move it. Thanks! And thanks for the encouragement! :)

teeray 14 years ago | |

+1 - It was the first thing my eyes were drawn to when the page loaded

apricot13 14 years ago |

I LOVE this, seeing before/after photos is the most motivating part of dieting, for me at least!

You should include a dropdown that says whether they used a specific type of diet, 'healthy eating & exercise', 'atkins', 'weightwatchers', 'dukan', 'cabbage soup' ! it would be quite interesting to see the results.

katieben 14 years ago | |

Thanks! Thanks for the feedback! :) Haha, I love your idea, that's awesome - I'll do that. :) Thanks!

Whitespace 14 years ago |

I understand most people trying to become more fit are overweight, but I entered in 175 lbs. as my starting weight and 190 lbs. as my target weight, and I was disappointed to see that I was only show people who dropped down from 300+ to 190 lbs.

What about those of us who are thin to begin with?

katieben 14 years ago | |

Hey there - I'll be showing stories of all kinds, though right now I just don't have that much data so the code is pulling everything. I need more stories! If you guys have a story of your own or know anyone, please submit or send them my way! :)

katieben 14 years ago | | |

(and I'm in a similar boat too). I'm already healthy, but just want flat abs - I started this tool because I wanted to get a better idea of what I had to do to get that - how much weight to lose, or if I needed to be building muscle and not losing weight. I'm on MyFitnessPal, and a lot of women seemed to have that question. Working to get all types in here!

thinkdevcode 14 years ago | | |

Weight is pretty much a useless metric if you are already slim and want to find out when you are going to start seeing definition (like your abdominals for example). Body Fat % is really the only indicator for that and even then it is hit or miss as it depends on the elasticity of the persons skin (like if they just lost 100 lb''s they'll have a ton of excess skin covering their abs). Cool site, i'd just like to see BF% instead of weight.

kbadk 14 years ago |

Could be cool if you didn't only work with lbs/feet/inches instead of metres/kgs.

katieben 14 years ago | |

On my to-do list. Thanks :)

kinow 14 years ago | | |

+1 :) I'll forward this to my young brother, he really needs some motivation, but we use kg/meter here in Brazil too. Thanks!!!

1123581321 14 years ago |

Interesting idea. Two pieces of feedback:

1. I am a tall-ish person and care the most about height compatibility.

2. Add a time period option. For example, going from 220 to 190 in 60 days isn't like 180 days.

katieben 14 years ago | |

Ooh, good call. Thanks. :)

darkc0der 14 years ago |

Hi Nice project you hacked this website in a weekend? It's pretty cool

cfcosta 14 years ago |

Nice project!

katieben 14 years ago | |

Thanks! :)