A Design Critique: myfitnesspal
There have been many trials and tribulations in my journey towards a better, healthier me over the years. With various stressors from college, career aspiration anxiety, personal changes, and the general “unknown,” it’s not always easy to stay on a consistent track. However, there is one thing that has remained the same in my journey, and that’s how I manage my calories, exercise regimen, physical stats, and more to help keep me and my lifestyle goals in check.
My Fitness Pal (MFP), an app owned by the fitness giant, Under Armour, allows the user to create a personal profile to track and manage the amount of foods and drinks they consume, the exercise they partake in, and *hopefully* get inspired by posts from the app about recipes, workouts tips, the latest in fitness tech, and more from MFP itself or affiliated brands.
Since first downloading this app to my phone in 2015, there have been numerous iterations to the interface and functionality of the app, as to be expected. MFP users now have access to millions more food items than before when they search by name or use the barcode scanning system. The syncing capabilities have also improved, so users now have the ability to seamlessly sync their smart device (e.g. Fitbit, Apple Watch) and/or other fitness- or health-related apps to MFP so the user has access to all of their related metrics in one place.
It’s worth noting that I do not possess the Premium version of this app, because I didn’t see the need to pay $10 per month when the free version gets the job done for my requirements. So, I understand that I’m not going to have access to the same premium content and functions as a Premium user, but there are definitely some critiques I have about the discoverability and understanding of this app, which I will elaborate on below.
Affordances
An affordance in the user-experience (UX) domain is an object or element within a product’s design, whether that be physical or digital, that offers utility. In other words, it affords a user to interact with that object or element. Affordances are discovered through a user’s prior experiences and their curious natures to find new quirks about the product they’re using.
The My Fitness Pal app is fairly simple in its design (note once again, I don’t have the Premium version, so I cannot speak on behalf of its various design elements.) The color palette is simple, with a white background and black text, with a few colors mixed in to signal the user to complete an interaction. So, there aren’t many features to interact with, and therefore, doesn’t have the same level of affordance as, say, a photo-editing app or the UX mechanics in a Tesla.
- Tapping
As with any application on an iPhone X or newer, there is no longer a need to rely on physical buttons, but rather what we can use our kinesthetic and vocal abilities to help us do.
Within MFP, the primary affordance is the ability to tap an element in a series of steps to complete your fitness log or “diary” for the day, week, month, etc.
2. Swiping
Additionally, but not as prominent as the tapping affordance, you are able to swipe up and down to view the various MFP blog posts on the home screen, scan through your lists of foods or exercises to add to your diary, and/or view the breakdown of all foods consumer in a day by its caloric makeup (i.e. proteins, carbs, fats, sodium, etc.)
3. Suggested Affordance
While it might be present in the Premium version, I think having the additional affordance of “tap & hold” to quickly see a summary of your food intake from the Home Screen would be useful. In order for me to do this currently, I have to go into my diary and tap the top bar which shows my calorie goal, calories I’ve consumed, calories burned from exercise and the remaining calories I have for the day. Only then can I see the caloric breakdown.
The “tap & hold” affordance is fairly new since mobile devices, predominantly smartphones, have shifted away from physical buttons, like the old iPhone Home buttons turned fingerprint readers turned non-existent. This affordance allows developers to integrate more access to various functions with a single interaction.
Signifiers
Affordances strongly rely on signifiers to provide a “good” user experience. They help initiate an interaction through the use of text, colors, labels, and in general, a universal understanding of the connotations of certain symbols and visual elements.
My Fitness Pal has many more signifiers related to the two Affordances listed above due to its simplistic design layout as I mentioned previously, but I will only list the most prominent and useful (in my experience with MFP.)
- Plus/Add Button
This is by far the most useful and easily discoverable element of the app. This bright blue button gives the user access to add food, water, physical metrics, exercise and status updates for friends directly from the Home screen. It’s universally understood that the “+” symbol means to add, so it’s easy for the user to understand its function.
There is also the feature to multi-add items if you are consistently eating the same foods or completing the same workouts. This feature provides the user with feedback when they tap to select the items they want to add by showing the total number of items selected so far.
2. Scan Barcode Symbol
Precision is key for my fitness goals, as it is with others who follow specific nutrition and lifestyle plans, such as vegetarian, keto, and carb-cycling. With the “Scan Barcode” function, MFP uses your device’s camera to scan the barcode placed on a food item, searches MFP’s database to find the item, and provide the user with exact nutrition metrics.
3. Sync
As I mentioned previously, while the MFP app had the ability to sync with other apps, they were primarily only apps that were also affiliated with Under Armour/My FitnessPal. Now, you can sync across numerous apps and smart devices to ensure all of your data is in one concisely, condensed location. This helps with the overall ease of use by the user.
The critique I have for this function is you have to go through a series of steps to discover it. To sync apps, the user must go to the “More” section, swipe through MFP’s list of compatible apps, then sync individually. To sync a device, like an Apple Watch, you must swipe down to the bottom of the “More” section to the “sync” button, shown in the image above.
Design Guidelines: Does myfitnesspal pass the test?
In terms of usability, this app, even in its Free version, is fairly simple and comprehensible for someone who might not know where to start on their health-metric tracking journey. My Fitness Pal is the second most downloaded fitness app with 50 million unique users over the age of 18, thanks in part to its newest partnerships with brands like Sessions, a program that pairs MFP users with personal trainers, and Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and Accel Partners, who provided the funds to improve the apps functionality, improved data sets, and marketing strategies.
The utilities and functional integrity of the app are also above average — there aren’t many elements that don’t serve a critical role in the app’s usability. Some of the placements for certain elements could be adjusted, such as putting a “Scan Barcode” button the home screen for quick, spontaneous additions while on the go (i.e. having a snack in between classes) so the user doesn’t forget later or inaccurately measure what they consumed.
Visually, the app isn’t the most compelling or innovative. It’s plain in its color palette and the overall layout at times seems to mesh together, without clear distinction between elements (i.e. the different meal sections.)
While this is one of the most successful fitness apps, its persuasiveness isn’t as prevalent as one would think — again, this might just be associated with the Free version of the app. The few elements I use that help with the app’s persuasiveness are the step tracker on the home screen to help monitor fitness progress, and the “Complete Diary” function, which allows for “closure” — what I mean by this is the user can declare they’ve completed the necessary steps towards their goals for the day and basically cut themselves off from accidentally over-eating or doing anything else unnecessary.
Other than those utilities, the app doesn’t provide motivational pushes or notifications, like for example, a notification that alerts me I’m close to reaching my carbohydrate limit for the day. While in the free version you don’t get a comprehensive breakdown of all caloric breakdowns, like macro- and micro-nutrients, I think having the experience of getting the most out of the data you do have access to is essential in a good user experience.
Suggestions for My Fitness Pals (Sketches)
Overall, this app is extremely usable and can easily meet the needs of the general population in that it offers enough functionality to meet broad fitness and nutrition tracking requirements. For someone that requires more detail and attention to detail for their critical health needs, the Premium version seems to be the best option if you can afford the $10 monthly payment.
Below I’ve included a couple sketches integrating some of the suggestions made throughout this article that would personally help me achieve a better user experience:
