Smart categorization

keepthebeet

When I add a food, I would like Cronometer to automatically default the category placement to where the food is usually put based on my historical usage, rather than defaulting to whatever category I used last. It would be super if this 'smart categorization' feature could be turned on and off in preferences. For example, I almost always put coffee in my 'Waking' category. Sometimes I forget to add it until later i the day though, once I've added something to a different category.

It would make things slightly more efficient and awesome if Cronometer would intuitively 'recognize' where I want to put it. I realize that not everyone uses the same category names -- I don't think would matter though; Cronometer could just recognize that coffee generally goes to the first category in the list.

Merci beaucoup!

Hilary

Hi @keepthebeet Thanks for the suggestion! For now, I would recommend selecting the group before adding foods. That way, once you select the food to add to your diary, it will default to that group!

keepthebeet

Thanks @Hilary ! I do follow that suggestion somewhat. However, when you're adding a whole day's worth of things, this would mean backing out of the 'food selection' screen... when you could just select the category while in the screen. My suggestion would increase the efficiency of user experience, and add to Cronometer's overall fabulousness.... I know it won't be the top o' the list for feature updates though (: I hope it is still passed on to the rest of the team!

tcolvinOH

I like this idea, but I can also see where it can get kind of tricky, especially if you change habits. For example, if you generally eat eggs in the AM, but then switch to some sort of intermittent fasting and arent eating eggs in the morning any longer, then when I select eggs and it defaults to that diary group, now I have to move it and re-teach the system. Another thought I had was what would happen if the diary groups change meaning. Since the diary groups are user defined, what if I change how they are represented?

Its interesting to learn how others use the system. Do you find that your log is pretty accurate as far as what you ate when you only log your data once a day?

Adding additional intelligence when logging is always a good idea, I think. It allows the process of logging to be much less cumbersome. Although I find if I stay on it through the day, the process isnt that bad. I think the most involved processes for me are creating recipes during food prep time. Even then, I didnt spend THAT much time on it. Probably 10 minutes at most creating the recipe and what was while I was actually putting it together, since I tend to alter recipes for flavors, amounts, etc while Im making them.

keepthebeet

@tcolvinOH That's why I'm suggesting having this as an option that you can turn on and off. If you change your habits significantly, you could turn it off for while until you've logged enough to have it recognize your new habits instead. Maybe there could be a 'clear history' option (: This could be useful if you change how your categories are organized hierarchically. How they are labeled would not matter - Crono would only recognize first, second, third ect.

Perhaps you could even have the option of telling Crono where you want certain foods to default to, regardless of history. Eg direct it to always default 'eggs' to the first category in the list... and then re-direct it to put 'eggs' in the second category if your eating habits change.

I find that my accuracy really depends on my diligence in making it so, regardless of if I log throughout the day or once or twice a day. I generally try to pre-log my food for the day, and then edit it accordingly at the end of the day. Because the app can't be used offline, it is sometimes hard to edit in real time.