this in not an april fool’s post. i really am revamping the plugin.
so wordpress recently released their latest version 2.5. the main changes revolved around the administration console, so i decided to install it into my development environment and check to see if it broke my hacker’s diet plugin functionality. luckily it didn’t (that I could tell), but while surfing around the new menus I had a bit of an inspirational moment. i visualized how my plugin would best fit in with their new look. i quickly sketched down my idea and got to work. it turned out to be a case study on usability.
since starting my job @ yahoo, my focus on the user has been amplified. generally speaking, i specialize in back-end development. that means that most of the code i write isn’t what you see, it’s what turns the wheels behind the scenes. but since my background is in web development, i sometimes like to brush off my CSS skills and make something that people will interact with. placing yourself in the spot of the user and asking “what’s the best way to give the user exactly what they need, but not overwhelm them?” is a great way to really flesh out your feature set. it requires bringing the important stuff to the forefront and keeping the less important things hidden until needed or even discarded altogether.
when i first made my plugin, the question driving my design was “what features do i need to have in order to replicate the diet plan?” this time around, i had more to draw from. namely: a year and a half (wow) of plugging in my weight every morning, and tons of feedback from users.
so what came out of my rethinking? as a user, i need a few important things right at my fingertips:
- putting in today’s weight
- finding out my current “real” weight
- seeing how that weight has changed recently so i can adjust if needed
and that’s really it! anything that doesn’t fall within those 3 items has been de-emphasized. the other features still exist, but there is no reason to have any of that stuff on the main plugin page, “above the fold”. (which means stuff you see without scrolling down) how often do you really go back and add/change a weight for a previous day? once a month, maybe? so why clutter the page with all that old stuff when what you really want is today’s information.
and of course i gave the UI a little polish. i switched out the graph to use YUI charts so that gd is no longer required and so the charts are much more interactive. round corners are still in, right? :]
look for an update “soon”. (1-2 week timeframe)
YAY! Thanks Keith. I look forward to the new version and am still your #1 fan.
BTW… this BETTER not be an April Fool’s Joke. ;)
Chad
awesome. good luck with it. i’ve been using that for a bit. works well. :)
It is a great plugin, but how may I integrate it so that I can see the graphs and charges on the face of my blog rather than only within the dashboard????
thats a good point. one of the things that i’ve had stubbed out in the code but never finished was a siderbar widget to show summary data. i think when i’ll have to save it for 1.1.0 tho since i want to get 1.0.0 out asap.
Havin a little somethin visual wise in the sidebar would be real cool. But all in all I really dig the plug-in. Was pretty excited to see that you are workin on an upgrade. Can’t wait to use it!
…and for the rest of us who still use the metric system, the unit “kg” would be nice ;)
hello im a german boy
i use your great plugin, thanks 4 your great work!
can you code the plugin to switch from LBS -> KG?
many thanks
Looking forward to it.
LOVE that you’re working on an update! I’ve just started using the plugin and I’m really enjoying it.
I’ll also put in a vote for the sidebar widget – when you get a chance!
I have a question about the plugin. Since the beginning, the math has been all wrong for me. For instance, right now my goal weight is set at 200lbs with a goal date of 2008-05-30.
Well with my current weight at 203.8, the results I get are Keep going! 8.5 lbs to go! Weekly loss: 4.8 lbs. – Daily deficit: 2388 calories.
You will reach your goal of 200 lbs on 2008-05-16. (14 days early!)
Any ideas?
are you looking at your most recent weigh-in, or your current trend weight?
your current trend weight is “what you really weigh”.
that is actually one of the most frequent questions i get, so in the new version i’m bringing more attention to the trend number and downplaying your daily weights to make it more intuitive
and i’m still working on the new version, i promise! work has been pretty hectic lately and i’ve only had time to devote to the plugin on the weekends, if that. i’ll try and keep everybody informed about when it should be ready.
Can’t wait for the update! Stop playing GTA IV and get to coding!!
+1 for lbs -> kg
:-)
next week i’m flying back home for a wedding, so i at least have 8 hours of time where i will be trapped with nothing but my laptop and no internet.
so hopefully i can get some work done then :)
Any thoughts about making it available for WPMU?
hmm…not sure what you mean by looking at most recent weighin vs. trend. What I’m wondering is, above the graph after you put in your most recent weight, it says “Keep going! 7.6 lbs to go!”, but my goal weight is 200 lbs, and my most recent weigh-in is 204.6. So basically 204.6 minus 200 doesn’t equal 7.6? The math seems goofy unless I’m not understanding something.
Anyway, that’s really a minor detail, the graphing/tracking portion of the plug-in is awesome……so I love that!
all the math in the plugin is based off your weight _trend_ not your most recent weigh in. it’s one of the core points of the hacker’s diet. in the current version i don’t emphasize that enough and it will be much more obvious in the newer version.
read more about it on the hackers diet site: http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/subsection1_2_4_0_5.html
Great Plug-in.. would really like the widget for the sidebar to show a graph… also maybe a link for ‘Inspiration’ where if someone clicks it it sends or logs some sort of note to help you stay on track.. just a thought.
Status update? :3
unfortunately, work is taking up all my time at the moment. i haven’t had a chance to finish up the new version.
Hi Keith,
I’m looking forward to the new release as well ;-)
Any news on the status?
Looking forward,
Eric
Hm, after re-reading your post I came to conclusion the plugin is already done.
So what are you waiting for to release it? :-)
Rgds, Eric
i’m not sure where you drew that from, but the plugin is not done yet. it’s been on hold due to other commitments i have that are taking up all my free time.
after re-reading the sentence “i quickly sketched down my idea and got to work.” i thought it’s saying you already implemented the code. and therefore i assumed the plugin is only awaiting it’s finish.
never mind, call it a misunderstanding ;-)
so is the plan to re-design the plugin on hold or abandoned?
it’s not abandoned, i just currently have no time to work on it
What about adding functionality for a new goal?
It’d be great to be able to keep my old goal info, including when I started and when I reached it, but then to set a new goal and to be able to track it separately without giving up on the old goal.
Hope you’re doing well. Thank you again for this great tool.
Looking forward to the update!
Me too ;-)
i’m taking advantage of the long weekend to get some more code written.
not sure if i’ll finish it, but i’m definitely closer than i was two days ago :]
Great news :-)
Thanks!
I can hardly wait for the update!
:)
Is it possible to display the graphs in an article on the frontside in the blog? would be nice… another suggestion would be to evaluate the plugin in the direction of multiple user options to create a health site or something similar… ;)
kind regards,
makkus
thanks for the suggestions :)
ppl have actually offered me money to turn my plugin into something that can turn WP into a health site, but i’m just not interested in doing that, hehe.
Do you know of a reason maybe it wouldn’t work on a local installation?
I have Wordpress installed on my personal computer (with apache and php) and I put in the Hacker’s Diet as well. All the pages load, but when I click on a date to add in the weight, it doesn’t turn into a text bar.
Sorry if this was brought up sometime earlier. I haven’t found any comments relating to it. I’ve always been very bad at searching terms, though.
there should be no issues with running it locally.
your browser is probably disabling javascript for localhost. make sure it is enabled.
Keith, Thanks for the great pluggin!
“Is it possible to display the graphs in an article on the frontside in the blog?…. ”
Actually, I came to ask the same thing. My family is using this to track ourselves & encourage each other (there’s about 7 or 8 so far, maybe more later), and it’d be GREAT for us to see each others charts (or just the amount they lost since starting). I would even be willing to help develop it if it’s not too hard.
Any updates on a newer version? I am using it on my current site and just wanted to know where the update stands
Plugin breaks when activated.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in C:\www\micro\htdocs\dave\wp-content\plugins\the-hackers-diet\hackersdiet.php on line 469
Windows Server 2003
PHP 5.2.6
MySQL 4.1.22
WordPress 2.7
Makkus / Chuck:
Displaying the chart on the frontside of the blog is really simple. The charts are just images, so you can literally just grab the url for the chart you want, and put it in a post or on a page like you would any other image url.
Check out http://mywastedlife.com/progress for an example.
Hi,
thx for a really great Plugin!
Is there any update in progress?
I will use it for me, but i need some improvements, so i will implement it when i have time.
BTW under which license is it published?
Dude, that’s really cool you’ve made this plugin. I remember reading the Hacker’s Diet like 8 years ago… I too was inspired to lose weight. He made it sound so simple, not easy. But I always thought the spreadsheets were hard to use. One thing I still have because of what John Walker wrote is a scale that has 1/10 precision. LOL. I need to lose weight again. I’m going to try out your plugin on my word press blog.
Thanks!
Doesn’t look like the plugin works properly with the last two versions of Wordpress.
The date calculations are messed up, causing the ajax update to not work properly when entering a weigh-in for a certain date (it thinks you’re entering for the day prior to what’s listed). It also projects any goal to 1970-01-01. :(
I was wondering if you’ll be coming out with an update compatible with the latest version since updates have occurred? I would really like to use the plug-in if you do!?
Thanks!
Good job btw!