My guilty pleasure is Quora, which I dip into if a question intrigues me. Sometimes I “archive” the more interesting topics here.
“Why do you think many fitness and/or nutrition apps are not very effective? I’m writing a paper for my class and I would love to know what you think these apps are missing. What features do you like and dislike? All comments are appreciated.“
I think a lot of apps are only as effective as your capabilities allow. If you’re careful about weighing/measuring foods and reading labels, a calorie tracker will work well. If you’re consistent and attentive in your exercise, a fitness tracker will work well. So like a lot of things: they work well for people who “don’t need them” – ie, already have the skills and habits. Designing something that both provides a pleasant and useful experience for the novice and enables configuration to satisfy the expert is a classic challenge, so as a practical matter, the “best” tool might have to be replaced periodically, and unless someone discovers a deep, intrinsic motivation, that sets the stage for them simply abandoning the tool instead.
Some apps are thoughtfully designed to reinforce common psychological responses – by making a note of streaks, personal bests, and trends or by offering indicators that can be collected for activities or patterns that are typically sustained and/or repeated over time (eg, monthly threshold “step count” badges at Garmin). Some apps build in features to support advanced management of patterns outside the ordinary Western diet and mealtimes (MacroFactor app’s support for training- vs nontraining-day calorie/macro settings and for indicating fasting periods). Fitocracy was a fun demonstration of the way that using game-design techniques could encourage someone to develop consistency and also explore new activities, but it quickly ran up against the enormous need for creative design, fantastically broad subject-matter expertise, and constant updates that are probably required to keep that experience engaging.
Part of the challenge for these apps is that eating patterns and exercise patterns are highly variable, so it’s not practical to design a single app or device that will serve all kinds of users well, over and above the novice/expert issue. That means that people might never learn about the niche option that would suit them best. Selecting a product might, in essence, require knowledge a user can’t have, because so many people are seeking a product to tell them something they don’t know yet.
And many people have extremely negative feelings and experiences around food, exercise, and their relationships to social experiences such as rejection or the fear that can come with a diagnosis like heart disease. To the extent that apps (and devices) are marketed as a way to change habits, they only work if someone makes the effort to learn how to fit them into a new pattern, which is a lot of cognitive load for anyone but runs up against additional resistance in the presence of negative feelings.