Graffed: a tool for tracking body measurements
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009The best apps, I think, are built by the people that really want to use it.
I always thought that the scales weren’t the best way to record losing weight and gaining muscle. I wanted to lose weight in my stomach, but I wanted to gain muscle too. I’m not really overweight, just the wrong shape.
A few sites would let you record measurements, but I wanted to see the measurements on an actual body as well.
So, with the help and expertise of Dan Wichett as developer, we created graffed!
What is it?
It’s basically a simple tool to track body measurements over time. You can compare any date to your goal body shape.
Why?
Honestly, I’ve loved recording my body measurements since I was about 16 or so. I haven’t got any eating disorders or anything, I just liked having a record of how my body changed as I did more exercise (and unfortunately, how cruel these past 10 years of beer and laziness has done to me!). It was fun making the charts, but there was something sloppy about doing it by hand. After all, I’m a web designer– surely I could come up with a better way to do this!
The process
I went through many many iterations of the design and the functionality, and then just hacked it all back so that the app only did the one thing: record body measurements. I also spent a few weeks working on the branding. I’ll probably go through a bit more on those processes later. Coming up with a good name, and making it memorable were very important to me!
The biggest job was to get the bodies working smoothly, and this was done in flex, and done manually. Occasionally I thought my head would explode from the math. This process is far from done, but in “Getting Real” style, it was time to get people starting using the app, so that I can get the usability absolutely perfect. Maybe we’ll even discover a better way to do it!
Let me know what you think!
We’re still putting the finishing polish on things (I hate the concept of beta, especially when companies stay in it for YEARS, but we really are in beta here)– some things still aren’t working as smoothly as I’d like, but it’s time for you to tell me how you’re using it, and what you like and mostly what doesn’t quite work how you’d expect!
For the next few weeks, we’re letting people upgrade for free, so I’d be especially keen to hear how you think all that is working. Thanks in advance for your feedback! Go to graffed!
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[...] The best apps, I think, are built by the people that really want to use it. I always thought that the scales weren’t the best way to record losing weight and gaining muscle. I wanted to lose weight in my stomach, but I wanted to gain muscle too. I’m not really overweight, just the wrong shape. Go here to read the rest: Graffed: a tool for tracking body measurements [...]