Dev Log #2: Teaching the App What a Hard Day Actually Is

In the last two weeks, since we wrote the first line of code, we made a lot of progress and now have three cards working on the Today screen. There’s also one problem we’ve decided to look into later, after V1.

The easy part was building onboarding, navigation and the profile screens — and the dopamine of shipping those fast was exactly what we needed. Sleep and Recovery were next. They sound complicated, but were pretty straightforward, since the data’s easily available from Apple Health. We also added something small: a daily affirmation.

The thing that actually slowed us down was Strain, the number that tells you how hard today has been on your body.

Getting that math right took longer than everything else combined. It took several tries before it actually captured effort the way it should.

So what counts as a hard day

Then we hit a bigger question: what about a day where you’re on your feet for hours, running errands or chasing a toddler around, but never log it as a workout? Right now, that effort barely counts, because the app only looks at logged training. We talked about fixing that now, so ordinary movement counts too, but decided to stick with the established formulas for this version instead. The tricky part is making sure a long day on your feet doesn’t end up looking harder than an actual workout — which, according to our own test math, can actually happen. So for now, Strain only measures what you log as training. Not everything your body actually did that day.

Next we’re working on bringing your cycle into the picture, so training and recovery read differently depending on where you are in it.

We also want to finish journaling. Right now you can see your history, but you can’t add anything yourself yet.

Have you ever had one of those days, tired out from being on your feet with nothing you’d call a workout to log? Would you want that to count as strain, or does it feel right that it doesn’t, yet? If you have a strong opinion, write us at info@astrea.fit.

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