New App Alpha!
Putting it out there
When I wrote about the app I’ve been working on last month it was really good to step back a bit from coding and take stock enough to document and share my thoughts and progress.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect in terms of feedback though. Despite having shown it quite a few folks I happened to meet in person, and had lots of positive comments, I’d not had the confidence to share any links - even though I’ve been using it myself for 6 months, and the site’s been live and accessible all that time!
Unexpected Response
I was really surprised to see the positive reaction, with hundreds of reactions on LinkedIn and Twitter along with some great comments, DM’s and emails expressing either support, interest, or both!
I’d wanted to collect some more feedback on what people tend to cook or eat, but I really didn’t want to ask directly for some reason, so I set up a Typeform questionnaire and then just put a casual link to it at the very bottom of the previous article.
I hoped for 3 or 4 replies perhaps, just to get a sense of any interest, but was blown away to get 40 people complete the entire (somewhat onerous) form with incredible details, along with confirmation from all but one they would love to try the app.
Getting Confidence
This overwhelming support was the shot in the arm I needed to get this done. I’d been procrastinating for literally months on the issue of recipes. I’m certain that my success with losing the weight was due to having 7 or so recipes that I can make quickly and really enjoy. Therefore for other people to succeed I’m sure that’s key, so adding recipes/meals that they like is critical.
I want this to be as simple as possible initially, and came up with the form below for adding meals and snacks, and I’m quite happy with it! Especially the colour changing calorie slider.. :D
Using this simple form you can add meals and snacks very quickly and have the calorific values become part of your daily meal plan. I’ve added the capability to add complete recipes and nutritional values but these are optional and hidden for now.
Final Touches for the First Release
There are so many things I want to change and so many things that can be improved and bugs to be fixed, but now is the time to take the leap and get some honest feedback! If you want to take a look yourself you can access on the web at 1500cals.com.
The iOS App brings a lot more value because you can connect to Apple Health and then calories burned from walking or running workouts will automatically be sync’d. If you want to help and be an alpha tester of the app, drop me a line to hello@1500cals.com and I’ll invite you via Test Flight!
If you’re one of the lovely people who responded to the survey and offered to test the app, I’ll be sending you the Test Flight invitation this week. Thanks!