MyFitnessPal
Hypothetical redesign of one of the top health apps in the world (2018).
C O N T R I B U T I O N S
Web Design • UI/UX
O V E R V I E W
With nearly 180 million users, it’s main focus is to help people track their daily food intake, broken down into caloric and macronutrient-based goals. It also offers additional functions such as water and exercise logs, a blog, and weight tracking.
I’ve personally used MyFitnessPal on and off over the past few years and while I generally haven’t had any major issues, there are parts of the interface that could be improved.
The large majority of users report that they use the app primarily for tracking food.
However, the current home screen features blog style content with a small calorie overview at the top. To address this, I made the Diary tab the new home screen. It includes a larger visual calorie tracker at the top, followed by macronutrients, then begins breaking down individual meals. The user can toggle between a calorie or nutrient view.
MyFitnessPal is a great food tracker, but tracking expended calories is incredibly difficult.
As a result, I decided to also remove the option to log exercise. Results are almost always inaccurate and most dietitians, trainers, and physicians will agree that this should not be a factor in anyone’s diet.
Next, I moved on to the search page. With my adjustments, the search bar stands out against a blue background, multi-add is the default, and arrows show users that they can navigate to see more detail for each item. Many users say they don’t know what the icons to the right of the search bar do, if they even notice them at all. Now, they live at the bottom of the screen with clear labels.
Taking advantage of current social media habits helps to incentivize users and make their fitness journey a more communal experience.
The home page has been renamed “Feed” and is now a secondary tab where users can find blog posts, recipes, and status updates. The new Progress page focuses on caloric progress, although a weight view is still available. This is where users can see their intake over a full week, rather than swiping through their Diary one day at a time.
Improving the More page’s user experience is the final part in making the app feel accessible as a whole.
Removing the unnecessary and redundant sections also help customization feel less overwhelming. As the health and fitness industry continues to boom, app stores are flooded with options. Enhancing and streamlining these basic functions will help keep MyFitnessPal at the top of the list.
