[Jemaclus]

FIrst of all, the app looks fine. It's not super polished or anything, but it's functional and does exactly what it says it does.

My problem with this is that most fitness apps are on mobile -- designed for mobile first -- and since I take my iPhone with me when I run, it not only tracks the fact that I'm running, but how far, how fast, and my exact route. I don't have to think "Hmm, I ran 12.6 miles" and then type it in somewhere else. It already knows that and tracks that for me over time.

A real groundbreaker would be if I had an app that knew I was doing pushups and counted them for me, knew I was doing crunches and counted them for me, knew I was riding my bike and tracked my velocity and route for me.

There are a million apps out there for tracking what exercises I've done today. Other than running and cycling, everything else is done manually. THAT is the real pain point. My phone should be smart enough to KNOW that I'm exercising -- and how. Fix that, and you've got a multi-million dollar app.

[shail]

Hey Jemaclus

I agree with what you said. Its what anyone would expect from an app like this.

Warning: what comes next is very opinionated :) Let me put my perspective and I am aware its a bit different. And its a bit difficult to explain, so hear me out totally.

The point about exercising is all about staying healthy. Its about consistency with which you exercise. Now let me give you an example where an automatic tracking was not helping me. An expense tracking app. Now I am talking about actually improving my expensing habits and start saving for rainy day. There are lots of app which connect to your credit card and automatically know when you spent what and gives you pretty graphs. The problem with that most of the time it happens so automatically that it does not change your behavior. Changing spending habits requires those restrains which you put on yourself everytime you put your hands in the pocket for fetching your card. Thats when I found that really tracking it myself (and not automatically by some third party) is the only way be aware of your expenses.

Same goes with exercising. Thats why this app only supports "yesterday" and "today" button. So its forces to record as soon as you ran. This forces a habit. And I believe in habits.

I know its counter-intuitive and may be its just me. But thats what I am trying to verify :) Thanks for the reply though. Loved it.

[Jemaclus]

So I think my use of the word "automatically" was a bad one. I think I meant "super easy". For instance, when I step out the door, I open my Strava app, and I hit "Start Running", and then I start running. When I'm done, I hit "Finished" and it saves every stat it tracked about my run, and later after some processing, it tells me even more things, like whether this run was better than other runs or whether I ran a new route or whatever. The point being that I don't have to remember anything other than hitting "Start" and "Finish". For an app like yours, I have to go back to my computer or actually type a button in.

I read an article this morning -- I can't remember which one, sorry -- but the author basically suggested that any time you can eliminate typing on a mobile device, you should. If you can make everything tappable in a few seconds on a mobile device, you're golden.

That said, I think this particular activity is in need of new solutions -- not Yet Another Tracker.

Anyway, good luck. Hope this works out for you! Like you said, exercise is all about being healthy, so if this works for you, great! I'm purely offering advice from a business standpoint (as in, I would pay for this product if _____)

[shail]

Thanks a lot for the thoughts and insights.

> About going back to computer...

This app is mobile ready and can be "Added to Homescreen" for easy access.

My quest currently is to understand that do we really need all that details about the running (like paths, comparison with other runs etc.) because more data brings more complexity. I feel, in many cases, being simple is a feature in itself. Just my thought.

I am actually targeting that section of the users who want really simple apps.

For full-fledged requirement, I agree, MapMyRun, Runkeeper apps do the justice.

Thanks again for all the inputs. I really appreciate.

[Jemaclus]

Good luck.