Introducing Count It Off
Update, Count It Off is now available in the App Store here.
Count It Off is my new web and iPhone app for simple calorie counting and weight tracking.
I’ve been trying to not be as large as I am for a few years now. I’ve tried a handful of ways to diet and have recently concluded that calorie counting is the best solution for me (everyone’s different). I started by using a Google Docs spreadsheet, but that got old fast. Then I tried a couple web apps and they all tried too hard. I didn’t want them to attempt to tell me how many calories were in my breakfast. I wanted to calculate it once, record it with a useful name, and then log it by that name the next time I ate it. It was during WWDC 2008 that the idea for Count It Off, a calorie counter for the iPhone, came together.
The week after WWDC (Jun 16th-ish, 2008) I was flying to Spain to visit the MakaluMedia guys who I’ve been (and still am) doing contract work for. The extra long flight from San Francisco to Spain gave me plenty of time to think about Count It Off. Here are the sketches along with some commentary and the final 1.0 screens:
Food Log
This is the first page the user sees when they open the app. A good bit changed here in 1.0. I didn’t like the Today: 1100 calories header that I sketched out. I played with a few ideas and settled on a Today – XXXX left header along with a progress bar as the first cell in the ‘today’ entries. I also summed up previous days’ consumption and apply a green check mark if you were within 200 calories of your goal. This makes it easy to see how good/bad you’ve been.
Weight Log
The weight page in 1.0 is a simple log that shows how many lbs or kg are left to lose before reaching your goal. This is an area I want to improve on.
New Food Item
The odometer style picker I sketched wasn’t going to work. The number pad entry is much better. In the sketch, you might have noticed that I was going to allow users to capture images of the food they are eating. This isn’t in 1.0 because I’m not really convinced it’s useful. I just wanted to have a reason to use the camera on the phone.
New Log Entry
The “Pick | New” segmented control was also a bad idea. The assumption with Count It Off is that you eat a lot of the same foods over and over. So by default it brings up the searchable ‘pick food’ view shown above:
Progress
This progress page doesn’t exist in 1.0 but it is something I still want to do.
Somewhat surprisingly, the sketches from June are pretty similar to version 1.0 of the iPhone application. Those sketches have a few good ideas that didn’t make it into the first version and some bad ideas that didn’t make it in.
Now, those sketches are four months old and I didn’t submit the application to the App Store until Nov. 8th, 2008. Did it take me over four months to build this app? Nope. I played with the iPhone SDK for a few nights back in June, but then things got busy and I shelved the idea when I got home. Then in early October I unexpectadly found some free time (that’s another story 
). On October 14th I was still larger than I wanted to be, so I decided to make Count It Off a reality.
I first completed the web app and expecting to announce that before the IPhone version (they sync of course). But before I got the web version to a point where I liked it enough to talk about it, the iPhone version was well under way. I resisted announcing these either project until they were both ready. That day is today!
I’ll blog more about this journey later this week and will let you know when the iPhone app is available in the store.
feed
Concentrate
rooSwitch
Goal Tender
Count It Off
November 10th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
You should get together w/ http://www.groceryzen.com/GBCB, shopping app also dev’d in Boise by some friends of mine. There are probably some similar UI paradigms related to selection of foods.
November 10th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Thanks Wade, I sent them an email. I would never have guessed there were other iPhone/Mac devs in Boise. Very happy to be mistaken! looks like a nice app.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Dude, this is awesome. I’m going to check out the paid version immediately!
November 10th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Oh, one quick suggestion: Separating entries into “breakfast, snack, lunch,” etc.
Also, the ability to set reminders to eat too would be amazing!
So, two suggestions. I’ll be blogging about this app tomorrow once I’ve used it a bit. First impression: amazing.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Pat, thanks so much for the purchase, comments, and the feedback, it’s all appreciated!
November 10th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Any chance of 2.0 including exercises (minutes * calories/minute or similar) subtracting to show net intake?
November 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
B.H., yep, that’s on my radar
In the web app you can actually enter exercise as negative calories…but that’s a little awkward I know. Thanks for the feedback.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
This is excellent. Free suggestion for a future release: allow tracking of macronutrients: protein, carb, fat.
Counting calories alone is generally insufficient for establishing a healthy diet (though it may be enough to lose weight—which may include a significant amount of muscle).
November 10th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
One suggestion, when you get around to the “Progress Chart” — can you add a trendline a la the Hacker’s Diet weight tracker?
https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/HackDiet
November 10th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Off to download it now. Further to Cameron’s suggestion, how about an alert that lets you know when you are under for a certain macronutrient for the day?
[e.g., by lunch time, you've racked up calories from salads, fruit, and cereal ... alert around dinner would tell you to choose a dinner with some protein, because you are under your 75 g allotment.]
I’ve long wished for an app or device that (I guess through blood or saliva test) could tell us exactly what mineral, vitamin, nutrients we are deficient in so we could plan our next meal accordingly. Imagine!
November 10th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Cameron: Thanks for the suggestion. I really wanted to keep the 1.0 simple, but I’ll take that into account as I make updates. Thanks!
Lisa: Also thanks for the suggestion. I’ll check that out, thank you for the pointer.
Chelsea: Again, thanks for the feedback and suggestion. Not sure about the saliva test
but if I do get into the macronutrient stuff that’s a great idea and I’ll definitely keep that in mind! Thanks
November 10th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
This looks like something I could use. However, I’m too lazy to keep track of what specific food I ate. I just want to add calories as the day goes. For example, for breakfast, I had a light yogurt and a banana, I just want to be able to enter 100 calories (for the yogurt) and 150 calories (for the banana) and get the total calories I’ve eaten so far for the day. I don’t want to have to enter the specific food. I just want a tool to help me calculate how much more calories I can consume the rest of the day to stay within 1200 calories.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I know people like using weight as a measure of success because it’s easy to measure (just step on the scale). But I must say a better measure of success (imho) is how tight my jeans fit. I don’t want to lose weight. I want to change my body composition, less fat, more muscle, same weight. Just wanted to share my two cents about that…
November 10th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Damn you for making the app i had sketched out!
Even down to the graphing! But thanks for showing your workflow, the more transparent the community is i think the better the development community will become and the better the quality of the iPhone’s apps will be. “A rising tide lifts all boats” as they say
November 10th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Just downloading the app. Looks well worth $4.99. I’d second suggestions for counting macronutrients in the next version, but this is good enough for me right now. I think coupling calorie counting with a general principle of “eat healthy foods” is a good philosophy.
November 10th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
This looks great. I may even buy an iPod Touch to use this.
I like that it says how much is left rather than how much is gone. It’s a glass half full kind of indicator.
Simplicity is ultra important in this kind of app, so I hope that you ignore most suggestions for additional features, and also ignore suggestions about catering for different ways or things to measure.
I’ve tried a bunch of diets too, and recently came to the conclusion that although there are many factors, ultimately, it’s calories in versus calories out that matters for people who are genuinely large rather than just need to lose 10 lbs and tone up.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Brain,
Great idea!
Got time for another project? Have an iPhone app idea and you’d probably be the perfect coder for it!
Thx Christian
November 10th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
You should integrate with FitBit (http://fitbit.com)! It’s launching in Dec – and this would be the perfect companion. They state they have an “extensive XML and JSON API”, so it should be easy, right? right?
<3
November 11th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Looks like a nice application, however, calories count virtually serves no purpose to loose weight. Although you might loose some pounds due to the fact that you’re consuming less calories, you can easily regain them after you resume your “normal life”. More important is that you eat a balanced amount of nutrients (even some saturated fats are ok). The metabolism is a complex process and subject of many books, but in essence, it has been demonstrated that it’s best to to keep your insulins levels low, to reduce the boost the Pancreas will trigger to compensate sugar levels in the blood. Eat a little bit less, eat healthy, don’t skip meals, forget potatoes, coke, cooked carrots, and stuff that rises insulin levels too fast and contains bad nutrients. There are books about this subject.
For what is worth, the app looks nice, but if you google a little bit, you’ll see that since Calories started to be counted, the number of fat people grew by 400% (we’re talking about the sixties, seventies, etc..).
Good luck!
November 11th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I just downloaded the app and so far I love it – it looks like a great replacement for what I’ve been keeping in Excel. The one request I have is some way to have quantities/units when inputing foods. For example, if I eat two granola bars, I want to be able to put a 2x multiplier instead of putting it in twice. Or if I have a half cup of milk with my cereal, or five ounces of pasta, I want to be able to put that in instead of having separate food items for half cup, full cup, three-quarters cup, etc. The way I implement this in excel is a column for calories per unit (cup, gram, tablespoon, whatever) and a column for number of units; then it calculates the total calories. So in your application, the number of calories per unit (and which unit is chosen) would be constant; the number of units eaten would be input each time you have the item. I know a lot of people wouldn’t want this level of complexity, so perhaps this can be an option. But I make a lot of my own food instead of buying pre-measured portions, and unless the quantity will matter, I’ll subconsciously inflate it, driving up my calorie intake.
Thanks! Otherwise, I love the app.
November 11th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Nice job. Big question, though – has it helped you to lose any weight?
Colin
November 11th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks everyone I haven’t individually responded to for the feedback. It’s very much appreciated. I’m taking it all into account in future versions and how I can add some of these features while still keeping the focus “simple calorie and weight tracking”.
Colin: Yes, it has! I’ve been thinking about giving read only access to my profile on the web app. This would be to both be a demo to see what the app looks like and to show how it’s working for me. I’ve lost about 5 pounds since first starting on the app. Plenty to go, but it’s a start.
Having the app on my phone has been the key. I always have my phone, so I can always log my calories. Also knowing how many calories I have left in the day honestly helps me make smarter choices and prevents things like 4 cookies after dinner
Hopefully others will find similar results.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Martin, It’s a little confusing to claim that “calories count virtually serves no purpose to loose weight” when your own primary suggestion to lose weight is to “eat a little bit less.”
I don’t think most people have the time and inclination to track their intake of various macronutrients on a daily basis. I started counting calories 10 months ago (on an excel spreadsheet), and I’ve lost over 20 pounds since then. Of course I’m trying to find ways to exercise more regularly and eat a more balanced diet, but my BMI is almost within a ‘normal’ range now just because I took the simple step of tracking how much potential energy I am consuming (and then eating a little less, of course).
I’m glad that apps like this are making it easier to monitor some aspect of eating habits. I’m sure a trained nutritionist finds these kinds of tools inadequate, but for most people this is a lot better than nothing at all.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
[...] Count it Off is a simple application which tracks your daily calorie intake. Here is its design process. [...]
November 12th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Hey Brian, Got to use the app a bit more over the last few days. A lot of things I wish I had found I eventually did (side-swipe an item to delete, change the time you eat something, etc).
Here’s a few things I wish for, in no particular order:
1) Someone above mentioned including additional nutritional data. I agree. It would be awesome to be able to see a break down of how much fat, sugar, cholesterol, etc. I’m eating each day.
2) I don’t really need the bubble on the app icon telling me how many more calories I need. An option to turn it off would be cool.
3) Someone else suggested a workout tracking part. Quite honestly, I would actually suggest not including that. What you should do is release a secondary iPhone app that will manage that information, and then have the option of integrating the two into one web app. The main reason is because the best iPhone apps are the ones that do one thing and do it really, really well. You’ve pretty much nailed that already with this app, and adding another “thing to do” would dilute the experience. Also, from a business prospective it would be better to have the two income streams rather than just the one.
Just a thought
Cheers, Pat
November 13th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Looks like an excellent app, won’t be trying it till Dec for my birthday gift (Touch). However, I would also like to put in a suggestion/request for the weight graph. As above, the Hackers Diet has a nice description regarding when to weigh yourself and how often.
Essentially, every day, same time. But your tracking should do a moving average, say 3days, and keep tabs on the average, not on the individual days.
http://www.physicsdiet.com has such a setup, and it has been working great for me so far.
Artie
March 26th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
[...] For those who are interested in UI design, the creator of Count It Off described his design process in a blog post back in November. This entry was posted in blog and tagged apps, health, iphone, the-diet, weight loss « [...]
May 7th, 2009 at 6:00 am
I LOVE this application!! I couldn’t live without it. It has really helped me keep fit. I agree with other comments about adding exercise (negative calories) into count it off. If people want to lose weight and stay fit you have to exercise as well as diet. To have one place that records what I eat and how much exercise I do would be amazing and helpful.
Keep up the good work!