

Daytum: beautifully-designed site for tracking personal statistics - unalone
http://www.daytum.com

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mcav
To give some context to this: Nicholas Felton is a graphic designer who has
been known for creating annual reports -- very specific graphic design
productions that include minutiae about his life over the past year. You can
see 2008's report here:
<http://feltron.com/index.php?/content/2008_annual_report/>

Some time ago, he partnered with a coder to create Daytum, which is an easy
way for people to track other statistics about themselves in much the same way
that Nicholas Felton does in his reports.

Yes, the details people track in Daytum are usually trivial, unnecessary, etc.
Yes, it's a bit of a novelty. But it's certainly unique, and sometimes it's
cool to have something like this to track random statistics, even if only for
entertainment value.

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yangyang
That's fair enough, more art than utility. Thanks.

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s3graham
Hard to read, main page has no lower case.

Without signing up, I don't understand how it works. Do I have to manually
enter all my stats into a spreadsheet, or is it better than that?

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bbgm
Not exactly the same goals, but <http://your.flowingdata.com/> is simpler and
quite useful for things like tracking weight, etc.

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yangyang
But seriously, who needs to know how many hotels someone's slept in over the
last month, or what baked goods you've got in your house? Surely the novelty
wears off pretty fast.

There are some things that I want to track (running data from my Garmin watch
for example), but something as general as this isn't going to be much use for
that.

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unalone
I think it's more for the entertainment than it is for productivity. It's a
Feltron production—he's the guy with the ridiculously specific annual
statistic reports.

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huhtenberg
If it's more for the entertainment, I wonder whom they envision paying for
this service ?

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unalone
Maybe they don't? Felton's a professional graphic designer who makes money as-
is. Not every web service needs a business model.

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huhtenberg
They have a $4/mo pricing for premium accounts. That is what I was referring
to.

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jakarta
Ehh - having to watch a Vimeo video to understand how this works and how to do
things on Daytum is extremely annoying. More work should be done on the ease
of use end.

I get the idea that it's cool to present minimalist designs, but they should
seriously considering adding some clear on screen instructions for new users.

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coconutrandom
It looks nicely laid out. But I cannot read it. Perhaps a slightly darker
shade of grey could help with the contrast.

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joao
This type of applications reminds me a bit of the Moodstats —
<http://moodstats.com> , from way back in 2001 (if I recall correctly).

Built by the Cuban Council - <http://cubancouncil.com> \- in Macromedia
Director.

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diN0bot
uses google charts to generate charts. that's what i use on a similar project
(also flot). i was hoping to see something with a little more javascript
interaction. i have the same problem exploring Felton's reports: jumping
around is jarring. would rather see mouseovers and zoom ins. ultimately,
looking at a really big poster, one that makes sense at different scales when
standing 20ft away and 2ft away, is probably the best experience. i want to
capture that through a web browser somehow. ideas...?

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unalone
I get what you're saying. Felton's primarily a print designer; his report is
designed for print purchase. I didn't have the same problem with this site,
though—what did you find jarring?

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californiaguy2
I don't know if this is "beautifully designed" - more like "sparsely and
starkly designed, which conforms to someone's particular idea of beauty".

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unalone
I'm sorry. I will never use an adjective again. For the record, I don't think
the design is sparse or stark. For me, sparse is something like NowDoThis, and
stark is something like Daring Fireball. But if it conforms to your particular
ideas of sparsity and starkness...

The front page isn't the wow factor here. The profiles are absolutely
beautiful. Check out <http://www.daytum.com/feltron>. Then check out the bar
graph on <http://www.daytum.com/feltron/page/10835>, and see what happens when
you hover over elements. There are a few dozen different output options
available, and they're all displayed terrifically. The interface for the
logged-in user is similarly unique and beautiful. It's a perfect example of an
interface that's interesting and singular not because it's trying to be
particularly aesthetic but because its goals require a unique approach.

~~~
californiaguy2
The use of words instead of numbers to indicate integer values is especially
annoying to me.

