hi guys,

so i started a site, kinda similar to traineo. wanted to get some opinions?!


http://www.trainhero.com


thanks!

Interesting site; I like and hate the granular level of detail you can enter information, but I'm not nearly OCD enough to fully utilize it... it looks like a second job just to log my diet and exercise on a daily basis. I love all the extra fields you have for tracking like body fat % and max weight on the big 3, etc. but that much more information means more effort heh.

"kinda similar to traineo" Heh, if you say the names fast enough they're indiscernable!

Visually the site isn't bad, but it's kind of "kid font", everything takes a lot of real estate so it's a double edged sword, it's easier to read and easy on the eyes, but with all the detail and information you have to enter, the site requires a lot of scrolling, which isn't always favorable.

All and all, it's pretty nice, but I probably won't be an active user or make it my "main" site... I do like it though...

Trainhero is blocked under the category "games." So I can't even check it out, but I can tell you I won't be using it simply for that reason. I'll try to check it out later and give you my opinion.

Cliff - those fields in log, they arent mandatory, only if you have progress in that section that you want to record, then you can put a number in

Rachel - no idea what youre talking about

I do 98% of my web surfing at work. Many web sites are blocked. Yours is one of them. Sorry.

GET BACK TO WORK, RACH!

And, that's a pretty spanky site there, Mike. I can see you've put heaps of work into it and kudo's.

FWIW, I too find the fontage a lil on the huge side.

All the best with it, sir.

Hey Mike, I checked out the site and it looks cool. One thing I noticed that was different than traineo is how excercise is entered. Let's say I worked out for 20 minutes on an elliptical trainer and according to the machine which I put my data into, I have burned an estimated 236 calories. I didn't see a way to enter that custom data like i can on traineo but maybe I missed something. Also, it doesn't look like one can go back to previous days to enter data which is helpful if you start the workout/diet before you stumble on the site.

Brian, you can go back certain dates. On the right side on the calendar, click a certain date to go back to. To go back / forward months, click the arrows on each side of the month listed

Which custom data do you need to enter? the calories?

Dang! I am getting curios to check out this site. But it's straight up blocked, I can't even use my "quota time." Bummer.

The reason I ask for opinions is because..I want to know what people use the most on fitness sites. Is it the community forums? Articles? Actual fitness/diet Logger?

It seems community forums are what drive people to sites likes this, thus I would to change accordingly, having my forum the prominent feature, unless people most often than not track their workouts/food.

Collecting customer specifications should be the first step, before dev starts! (Yeah right, when does THAT happen? Heh...)

Without actual usability numbers, I would expect that the forums are what drives multiple visits per day, whereas logging diet/etc. are a one time shot (twice if you log weight in the morning and exercise at night like me) so you should consider the goal of your site in deciding where to focus your efforts.

On that note, forums don't typically need a lot of future dev work, once you have basic functionality (new threads, new posts, edit, delete), that's sufficient for most users... provided you have a strong community that's actually contributing. The core functionality (logging, etc.) is probably what I would expect to be in flux.

I was going to PM you this feedback since you asked, but the messaging control here breaks for me when I go all long-winded, so I'll just post it here and hopefully other people chime in.

As far as the extra fields to enter statistics into, I realize that you don't have to update those daily, but the biggest difference between your site and Traineo is that level of detail, and since I've already established my routine and data here, the biggest reason I would use your site in addition to Traineo (or switch) would be to be able to track my progress on that level of detail... but again, I'm not that OCD

That being said, you might want to consider adding a "simple" control for the logging of diet and exercise where you can quickly enter a rough estimate for the day rather than logging individual meals, etc. with a simple interface (like the Calorie slider on the Diet tab here).

Also, this is purely a nit, but the navigation of the site doesn't flow to me... I'm not a huge fan of having cascading "tabs", but you've got a "tab" style link interface for the "home", "my log", etc. then when you go into a section like "My Log" or "Calendar" you move core navigation to the right side (in the log section "My Workout", "My Diet", etc.) At first I thought that you could ONLY log exercise on your site. For the community and groups tab it wasn't as big a deal, but the layout of your site makes me feel like the right "section" is more of a "spotlight" or "more info" block (ie. the "Latest Posts" bit on the Community tab), rather than someplace I would look for core nav... but this is a learning curve thing, last night it confused me for a second, today I knew right where to look.

For the Calendar and Logs pages I would probably look at adding another set of "sub-tabs" or just plain links underneath the main navigation so you keep the important links right where the users eye is. You can use the right section for advertisements (gotta get paid somehow right?) or more spotlights to get the users to navigate around the site... That also lets you move the calendar up to a more prominent spot on the page since, again, that's more of a "drill-down" type behavior that I'd expect for that particular spot on the page.

Again, Kudos on the site, I'm not big on pastels personally, but the visual style does work and feels balanced (and happy and easter-y!) Overall the layout does work and the site is easy to look at, but I would consider reducing the default font size a couple of points and cut back on some of the white space (you can always use table borders or alternating row background colors for some of the tables to help "seperate" data, rather than extraneous white space. I could whip up some comps of some of my minor suggestions later tonight if you want.

Cliff thanks for your input! I come from the web2.0 generation where the text is made a little larger, perhaps i should tone it down.

I do believe that though i have content on the right column, the main important stuff is in the middle. for the calories, i know traineo has the estimate drag thing, but mine gives you accurate numbers, based on the time you submit.

thanks again!

Generally I think a lot of the important stuff is in the main body of the content, but on the logs page specifically I would argue that the various kinds of information you can log all share equal importance and that's kind of diminished with the current placement.

I'm not so much questioning the accuracy of the information but the ease of entry, providing users with an alternative to the granular level of detail for a "quick and dirty" entry might not be bad, then again it might not matter... just my thoughts though.

"Web 2.0"... I hate that term! Heh.

No, right, i get ya. Ill try to think of a way to make it simpler to fill in your log, and perhaps move the links into main content.

From brief browsing~
First off, good job! It looks like it took a lot of effort and you already have members c:

It looks like it's targeted at a younger audience than people who are trying to lose weight. To me, the site doesn't look streamlined and respectable, but fun and childish.
Some of your wording is a bit off. For example, under "diets," you say, "Those having tried this diet!" which sounds awkward. Maybe "Those who have tried this diet"?
I like the multitude of features you have, but you may try organizing them better. I don't know what it's called, but maybe try cascading tabs?

It looks like you have a lot of interesting features, but the look of the site is throwing me off.

Perhaps if I lower the font, it will appear more appealing. Thanks for the wording prob, ill look at it.

But i got to admit, my organization is pretty darn good

Hi this is my first post here, if some 1 buy stuff from here?
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