When is Data Most Useful?
I have found in many situations that I care most about my data immediately or soon after it has been created. This is not always true (e.g., pictures, movies), but for many things it is. I take notes at work (via Mac Mail, fairly convenient given the built-in synchronization of IMAP) and find that I refer to them most frequently within the next week of writing them. In addition, I do a fair bit of searching in my email to recall what happened in certain work situations or what decision was made. That said, it is rare (but still happens) that I want to go beyond the last week or so of email activity to find my answer.How does this Apply to Personal Data?
I think people need good feedback to change their behavior. In school, we all got very timely feedback about how well we were learning the material (or at least, to the degree to which testing is an indicator of such). When we work, we get reviewed at least annually and more importantly get raises that recognize our increased value to our firms. The physical side of our world has few quick and easy means of providing feedback. The FitBit should be that feedback mechanism:- Quick
- Clear
- Actionable (advice?)
- Easy
How does FitBit and its Competitors Stay Relevant?
It seems to me that makers of more race oriented devices will have no problem staying relevant. Think Garmin with their GPS watches that are serving runners and bikers quite well. For companies like FitBit that are trying to fit into a more routine, they are going to have to do better in keeping people's attention. They are trying to do this now, to some degree, by providing weekly summaries of activity and badges. I think that they'll have to do better if they want to continue to grow and to remain useful for their current customers.Here are some thoughts on how they can do this:
- Add features/information to the weekly summaries: Right now my weekly summary only includes the stats for the week and little up or down arrow indicating if a specific statistic increased or decreased over the last week. Not terribly helpful. How about links that allow me to see in detail how this compares to other of my weeks / my friends week / all FitBit users' week / all weeks of all FitBit users' / all weeks of FitBit users of my rough characteristics (male, age, location?). There seems to be a profound lack of imagination on the part of the developers.
- Compare Variables: Are there any correlations in the data that have been found between certain behavior and weight or other activities?
- Better interpret activities: I've logged the fact that I'm doing weight lifting many mornings before I do some interval running. Why can't the FitBit suggest that I could have been doing this and let me log it by hitting an "ok" button rather than going through the whole logging experience on the website. I'm not sure where processing is done on the FitBit (before or after the data is transferred to the website), but in either case, it would seem that it could likely infer what I'm doing and auto-log.
- Send reminders to people: Allow synching of the FitBit to one's iCal or better Google Calendar. Meeting or other reminders could cause an "alarm" on the FitBit.
- Initiate Long Term Studies of behavior: I think the risk of losing most of its users is pretty high for FitBit and their competitors. They'd be in a much better position if most of their new devices were being sold to people upgrading (think the Apple iPhone) than to new customers (churn is a terrible thing). Studies of the persistence of changes in personal behavior and the potential medical benefits of having long term data about people's movement could be compelling to keep otherwise fence-sitters from dropping it.
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