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Web Apps Fat-Off: Day 16
Today begins our in-depth look at the web applications that are part of the Web Apps Fat-Off. First up is Skinnyr. This is the most basic of the tools so this review will be short as well.
The idea with Skinnyr is that you can create a graph with your current weight. You can put the graph on any site you are associated with like MySpace or your blog. Here is a test graph I just made to demonstrate:
Pretty cool, eh? What’s nice is that you don’t need to know how to code HTML or any programming languages to get this measurement tool into your web site. You can also grab a RSS feed of the measurements which will allow you to keep track from anywhere that accepts a RSS feed.
I think Skinnyr does a good job at what it set out to do. It does not claim to be a fully-featured health and fitness site. It is an online scale. And it is a great online scale. A couple of suggested improvements would include:
- a way to add past weights, for example if I forget to add yesterday’s measure, there is no way to backdate the weight
- perhaps a converter from metric to British
- maybe look at a more friendly name than Obfuscatr :)
- more options for the graph – colors and so forth for better integration into various sites
I have spoken with the Skinnyr team over the past few weeks and they really are a bunch of good guys. They have been very open with me about the site and listen to ideas I have. And that’s what Web 2.0 is all about… creating a site for the user’s needs.
I’ve been using Skinnyr since August (even blogged about it – http://viaspire.blogs.com/weblog/2006/08/a_beta_that_mak.html) and have turned on a lot of people to this great tracker. I’d love to find out how to get the BMI (and chart) recalibrated though. Right now it says I am 72.9 BMI with a great message WTF Girl? (which I totally love!) The only problem is at 5 feet tall I would pretty much be dead with this body fat comp. I know my BMI is 24.7 now. Will these minor bug fixes be part of the graph update as well? Keep up the great work Skinnyr and don’t lose that sense of humor. We love it!
Thanks for the kind words, Allen.
As mentioned, Skinnyr is a simple site. Those are all great feature ideas, and we’ll be adding them in our next revision. That next revision should come when Skinnyr passes our FuelEmpire signups, or when I want a change of pace, whichever comes first.
Skinnyr isn’t a for-profit site, and as such the updates are a little slower than they would be if it had higher status within the company. We’ll get to it before too long though.
Also, there’s a rumor that a graph style update will be coming soon, but I can’t confirm that! :)
Hey Heather,
I didn’t know we had a BMI bug. I’ll look into it as soon as I get a spare minute. Thanks much for the heads up.
And yeah, I knew some people would test the system by putting in that they weight 324235.2 lbs, so I added messages for the super duper extremes. :)
Thanks for the kind words! Glad to see you’re enjoying the site.
Hey Jimmy — Thanks for the follow up reply! I love the fact that you thought of everyone — even the “super duper extremes.” :) Ha! I’m feeling Skinnyr already as a result of your site! :) Thanks again!