We live in an interesting world. Everything we own is connected to the internet. Your watch is online. Your thermostat is online. Your home scale is even online. They all provide some kind of data or analytics about some aspect of your life.
The problem is that most of the analytics that these services provide are pretty useless. So i took less steps today then I was supposed to. So what? What does that mean to me? So, my app got more downloads today than yesterday. So what? Why did it get more downloads?
Analytics need to be actionable. You can’t just provide me with a data point. You need to do some sort of analysis based on that data point and make a recommendation about how you want me to change my life going forward.
I’d love a pedometer that figured out based on my the trajectory of my activity if I’d hit my goal. If it looked like I wasn’t, it should prompt me to get off my ass.
Let’s make this happen.
What data do you consume that’s relatively meaningless?
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 