Web/Mobile App Critique

Hello Everyone,

In this post, I will be writing a review of a web application called Fitbit.  I am a user of the Fitbit application and somewhat familiar with the application.  However, reading the course resources made me realize how much goes into an application.  Fitbit is an application that works with a watch made by the same company.  The watch monitors physical activities using pedometers, gyroscopes, altimeters, and other sensors.  These sensors monitor heart rate, ECG, altitude changes, motion patterns, skin temperature, etc.  Together these sensors deliver information regarding physical activity and health metrics such as heart rate, breathing rate, and Oxygen saturation (SP02).

This application is compatible with Android, iOS, and Windows.  Most users use their mobile phones for a quick overview of their statistics.  However, this application can very well be used with a windows computer.  Upon opening the application on a mobile device, you immediately get a quick overview of your day’s activities and status.

As you can see, you will need to scroll down to get all the tabs and information from the application.  Perhaps this was done this way for two reasons: to make the screen easy to read and to make the application load faster.  The content of this application loads fast via 4G cell phone wireless and a 200Mbps internet connection.  The artwork and images are elementary, and there are no high-resolution pictures or videos on the main page.

The Fitbit application also works on a windows computer using most web browsers.  When opening this application on the google web browser, you can see all the icons and different tabs.

 

The application keeps historical records of previous days, making me believe that some database is running in the background.  Also, I have not experienced crashes or issues.  This application was well-built, and maintenance is essential for this company.  I will now go into the details of each tab of this application.  One of the tabs is the Today Tab.  

  You can easily see your goals for the day.  It also shows if you have completed any of your goals and if there are any still not satisfied.  My goal is to do 10,000 steps each day.  The application shows that I have done 7,370 steps.  It also offers an orange color indicating that the goal has not been satisfied.  Under the calories burned for the day, I have completed that goal.  The circle is green and shows as closed.  The same goes for the miles and active minutes.  However, on the floor tab, it shows that I have not achieved this goal.  This is done on purpose to make the user complete the fitness goal.

               Besides keeping track of daily activities and logs from previous days, this application also logs food and water intake. 

I partially use this portion of the application.  I sometimes track my water intake.  However, tracking everything I eat and trying to find the correct calories make it a bit complicated.  Besides, no one wants to be reminded of how many calories the chocolate cake has.  In addition to this, there is a very useful tab.  This tab tracks your sleep and puts a score on it.

Unfortunately, the windows web application’s main dashboard does not give the full details.  However, you can quickly see the total hours of sleep.  You will need to open the application via your mobile device to get the score.  This is how the Fitbit application is mainly used.  Below is the screenshot from the mobile application.

This tab gives you a lot of information.  It gives you the number of hours you slept and the quality of it.  This helps me explain why sometimes you sleep more and still feel tired.  This is because you didn’t sleep well.  The scores indicate the quality of your sleep; less than 60 is poor, 60-79 is fair, 80-89 is good, and 90-100 is Excellent.  My sleep score for last night was 87, a good score indeed.  My worst night was November 24^th, with a 56 (poor) score.  Perhaps the turkey and excessive drinking mean poor sleep.  Also, to explain the difference between the hours of sleep and the score, on Friday, September 16^th, I scored 92, which is excellent, and I only slept 6hr and 21mins.  I slept less than yesterday but had a better quality sleep, which correlates with my sleeping heart rate being below the resting rate for a more considerable percentage of the night.

               This application is well-developed.  However, it could use some improvements.  Usability is good, and it does what it needs to do.  I could recommend the ability for the user to choose the landing page or main page.  As mentioned, the default page is the Today status page.  The design is okay.  Perhaps the developers decided on superb usability rather than a fancy design.  However, giving the design a more vivid and lively look may improve the user’s visual experience.  And lastly, the functionality is excellent; I feel Fitbit can improve on its ECG sensor reading, which often gives me an error.  However, I believe this has to do more with the device than the application.  The Fitbit application is well-developed, with good usability, okay design, and great functionality.