How would you improve the Microsoft Health app?

[RoboLam]

I've personally found the MS Health app to be lacking in many respects. But I'm curious what others think (I don't know too many people IRL that own a Band). Are you happy with the app? Is there something you wish it did? Is there something you wish it didn't do? Or perhaps did something you wish it did differently?

Full Disclosure: I'm working on an app to replace MS Health for Windows users and looking for guidance on what people besides me want in an app of this type.

 

[realwarder]

I find Health very slow. Graphs and things cannot be sized or zoomed. No data download.

Other than that it does what it needs to

 

[RoboLam]

I find Health very slow. Graphs and things cannot be sized or zoomed. No data download.

Can you elaborate on data download? By "data downloaded" do you mean viewing data downloaded in a previous session while offline? Or export to text format?

Can you explain how you would like to zoom/resize graphs? Manually set min/max range?

So my first attempt at an app is called MS Band Health. Would you mind giving it a try and telling me your thoughts? It's a work in-progress but I would love any constructive criticism and/or suggestions you may have :smile: Fitbit scale integration for weight tracking is coming in an update this weekend.



***Below is the old UI***

 

[Praxius]

I'll give your app a try and see how things go. Looks good so far.

 

[RoboLam]

I'll give your app a try and see how things go. Looks good so far.

Thanks! I look forward to hearing your thoughts :smile:

 

[realwarder]

I like the summary graphs in your screenshots - shows trends nicely.

My comment on graphing is say step chart. it only displays portrait. 3 hours is a very small gap on the graph and yet I believe we have 15 minute accuracy of data... I cannot zoom in a see detail, just an overview. Same with HR.

By Data Download I do mean export to file. Currently all data is stuck in the cloud and it would be nice to download is as CSV and play with in Excel/keep a copy etc.

On your screenshots above, might be interesting to graph any of the data items too. e.g. your sub headers... floors, UV etc. The Band records a bunch of data and doesn't visualize much of it.

Is this pulling data from the Heath website? Perhaps as a Connected app?

 

[RoboLam]

My comment on graphing is say step chart. it only displays portrait. 3 hours is a very small gap on the graph and yet I believe we have 15 minute accuracy of data... I cannot zoom in a see detail, just an overview. Same with HR.

By Data Download I do mean export to file. Currently all data is stuck in the cloud and it would be nice to download is as CSV and play with in Excel/keep a copy etc.

On your screenshots above, might be interesting to graph any of the data items too. e.g. your sub headers... floors, UV etc. The Band records a bunch of data and doesn't visualize much of it.

Yes! These are GREAT suggestions and exactly what I was looking for! Thank you! Can you rank them quickly in order of importance? Want a way to prioritize them. Also when you mean download to CSV, this is hard to do in a useful way. The data as a whole is rather "ugly" to begin with would it be acceptable to export data per section? e.g. download all step data to csv and all calorie data are separate options will no option to download together?

Is this pulling data from the Heath website? Perhaps as a Connected app?

Yes, I am pulling from Microsoft Health Cloud (the Health website). But not as a "Connected app".

 

[Praxius]

Well the app connected to the health app and got my name, age, weight etc., but all the columns are blank. I hit the refresh but nothing is showing in your app.

 

[RoboLam]

Well the app connected to the health app and got my name, age, weight etc., but all the columns are blank. I hit the refresh but nothing is showing in your app.

Thanks for letting me know. A couple users have reported a bug when downloading details from Microsoft Health that I cannot seem to reproduce with my devices/emulators. Sounds like you're having a similar problem. Just to confirm, you have previously synced data via the Microsoft Health app and not Microsoft Health Vault correct?

 

[Praxius]

Well my band is synced with the Health app. The weight, age, name etc. are what I inputted into the Health app only and your app did obtain that information. Not too sure about the Health Vault. I've only had my Band for about three weeks now. There should be three weeks of data to play with.

 

[RoboLam]

Well my band is synced with the Health app. The weight, age, name etc. are what I inputted into the Health app only and your app did obtain that information. Not too sure about the Health Vault. I've only had my Band for about three weeks now. There should be three weeks of data to play with.

Thanks for the extra data! I will look into it. I thought it might have to do with people not having 90 days of data but I tested with someone who only had 2wks of data and it was fine. I will continue to investigate. It's not fixed in the update you'll get this weekend, but hopefully in the update after that I can fix it.

 

[luv2pbal]

Does your app allow multiple accounts to sync? Also does it gather cardio minutes like the health dashboard?

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[RoboLam]

Does your app allow multiple accounts to sync?

Do you mean multiple band users? I never thought about that since I have no use for it, but it's something for me to consider now If you mean something else, please let me know as I'm always looking for suggestions!

Also does it gather cardio minutes like the health dashboard?

The app does collect this information from MS Health, but I have not found a good way to display it and therefore it's been omitted. It will likely be included in the next update. If you have suggestions regarding this I'm very open to them!

 

[Kram Sacul]

Get rid of the hamburger menu and we'll take it from there.

 

[RoboLam]

Get rid of the hamburger menu and we'll take it from there.

Thanks for the suggestion. Could you be a little more specific please? Do you mean you dislike the button icon itself? It's function is less menu and more expose the dashboard and caption the icons. I was afraid the icons may not be clear enough alone. Also on the desktop this also acts as an "At-A-Glance" dashboard, so I wanted to keep it on mobile to unify the UI across devices. (see update post below).

Would you prefer just the sidebar in it's minimized for (i.e. just the icons)? If so, how is that different from never expanding the sidebar? Thanks for your feedback! I do appreciate you sharing your thoughts so I can make this better :smile:

 

[11B1P]

Just downloaded it. Looking good so far. I look forward to testing it out over the next few days.

 

[RoboLam]

Just Updated to add Desktop Support and Additional Charts

https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9nblggh4vmkn

 

[RoboLam]

Just downloaded it. Looking good so far. I look forward to testing it out over the next few days.

Thanks for giving it a try! Please let me know what you think, good or bad. I'll do my best to fix any issues you may have.

Note: there's a known issue with the wake up time for "today" showing the sleep time instead. I have corrected the issue and it will be pushed in the next update

 

[11B1P]

Note: there's a known issue with the wake up time for "today" showing the sleep time instead. I have corrected the issue and it will be pushed in the next update

No problem, won't affect me. My Band is not recording my sleep time correctly, so I have that turned off on my Band.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Thanks for the suggestion. Could you be a little more specific please?

It's the look and function of it. I know it's an Android and now Windows 10 thing (since MS lost their minds) but placing icons at the top of the screen is just clunky and annoying. It also makes an app look more like a cheap mobile website then something that is polished and made for touch interaction. Putting the icons at the bottom of the screen in the app bar is much more user friendly.

I wish you good luck on your app though.