Comments on: Finally: The End of Food Journals? The iPhone FoodScanner Arrives

By: Idea #11: A database of how items are originally packaged « Ismail's Ideas

Idea #11: A database of how items are originally packaged « Ismail's Ideas — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:10:57 +0000

[...] this, create an index of products, similar to the indexes of foods at sites like StillTasty and DailyBurn. Instead of expiration dates and nutritional information, though, this should walk users through [...]

By: Nathan Schmitt

Nathan Schmitt — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:20:17 +0000

Heads up Tim, video was taken down.

By: Andy Smith

Andy Smith — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:44:41 +0000

Dustin,

Thanks for the comments.

Re: input… next update (should be in the store any time now) will have favorites so you can easily get to the foods you eat frequently.

Calorie breakdown in FoodScanner is coming too.

Best Regards,

Andy Smith

By: Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:37:19 +0000

Great comment. I’ll pass this on to them. Thanks!

Tim

By: Dustin Larimer

Dustin Larimer — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:55:50 +0000

I picked up this app after reading this post. I’m a UX designer and have spent quite a bit of time designing and building iPhone apps. The technology behind the scanner is great but unfortunately the project team forgot that humans will be using it.

I believe the app has potential, and I want to frame my critique as constructively as possible.

Data caching – don’t make me wait for each day to load when skipping backward or forward. This data should be cached – I mean we’re only talking about formatted text and a reference ID.

Also, your users are humans – creatures of habit – and our diets reflect this. If I have a carton of eggs in my fridge I’m going to be manually searching (or skipping backward and reloading previous data) to add ‘eggs’ every morning. I found that about 75% of my entries were duplicates. It would be great if these items were cached on the phone and offered with some sort of intelligent input method, like AutoComplete. Again, we’re only talking about some text and a reference ID. The value offsets the storage use.

My last concern is that DailyBurn has another app in the store where I can see the results of my consumption and track workout/cardio activity. I downloaded this app as well ONLY for the calorie-breakdown tracking so I can see the additive results of what I enter with the Food Scanner. It would be really nice if the Food Scanner feature were just a paid upgrade from the initial app, or if the Food Scanner atleast reused the calorie-breakdown view.

I’m not simply complaining about the design… These few simple issues are deal-breakers with regard to long-term adoption and continuance.