

Show HN: Visualize Fitbit steps with Notch - eli-bryan

Hi folks, wanted to get feedback on a project before making it 'public'. It's called Notch and the idea is to create a more fun UX for personal health tracking (using data from Fitbit, Fuelband, Withings, etc).<p>The demo project is a first experiment with this. The 'private' signup page is at http://notch.me/start.html. Users go in, add their Fitbit, and it creates a personalized infographic based on their Fitbit steps, like this: http://notch.me/p/7Isumkw5k2P1WhyeUVwFmj<p>Feedback is appreciated! Feel free to email me at eli@notch.me.<p>Thanks!
Eli
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georgemcbay
Seems like a nice idea but the name is confusing for gamer geeks who will
immediately assume this has something to do with Markus Persson or Mojang.

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hornbaker
My hunch: the intersection between gamer geeks and fitbit users is not a large
one.

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tnash
That's very cute. I like it a lot, good work. Is the info randomized, or do
you get the same info every month (i.e. is it always the panama canal or are
there other things? Like walk on the moon, or around NYC, etc.)

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eli-bryan
Thanks! And yup, it changes based on how many miles you've covered.

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ZanderEarth32
Very nice, love the idea of sharing this type of graphic with friends on
Twitter.

Any plans to integrate data from non-hardware based tracking devices (like
Fitbit, Fuelband, etc.) but from other apps like Nike + GPS?

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eli-bryan
Definitely (down the road). And not just health-specific things. There's all
kinds of data that can serve as a (proxy) signal for health. e.g. physical
activity is correlated with weather:
<http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1186/1479-5868-3-21> and it's suggested
that your diet can be affected by a bunch of different things:
<http://eab.sagepub.com/content/39/1/106.abstract>

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rahul_nihalani
This is a great start. For me, staying motivated to be healthy and work out is
all about having fun while doing it, and I think you're definitely on the
right track with Notch. keep it up mate!

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ecaroth
Cool idea. Unfortunately I signed up and linked my fitbit, and it didn't load
any of my data. Though I did enjoy the "creating suspense.." loading
animation.

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eli-bryan
Ha, glad you liked that part. Right now it's setup to only show the last month
or so of data, so if you haven't tracked any steps since 3/27 it won't show
you much. (if you've logged some steps since then though, please shoot me an
email and we'll figure it out!)

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ecaroth
I use it every day, including tracking separate workouts so it should be
loaded w/ data. Now it's telling me 'something is wrong with my username' when
trying to login. Where can I find your email?

FYI - on a side note, I'm the creator of fitbolt.com, which also integrates w/
FitBit. It's cool to see the different uses of their API people are coming up
with!

EDIT: found your email.. must be friday ;-)

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ZhannaSchonfeld
This is cute idea. Seems like I would be more motivated to keep up my fitness
with this type of breakdown.

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sjs382
Signup doesnt appear to work. Chrome Dev Tools tells me: Uncaught
ReferenceError: _gat is not defined

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eli-bryan
=X good catch! will fix in the next build.

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Donito
Looks very nice... bought a Fitbit just now just to be able to try it out :/

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seltzered_
Wow. Really impressed with the design, it feels so warm!

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eli-bryan
Thanks! Bruno Barros did the original (@IlustreBOB). He's crazy talented.

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lurkinggrue
Nice but please don't insult Opera users like that.

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mhunter
I like it! I emailed you, would love to chat more.

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tristan_louis
Very cool! Keep it up. This is awesome.

