Our new look!
Today we are launching a new & improved Cronometer!
A refresh of our brand has been on our radar for years, but product development had always remained a priority. This year, we decided going through this valuable exercise was long overdue!
Guided by a desire to do business better, we wanted to align our product quality with our image for Cronometer products and communicate it effectively across every channel.
For those of you who have come to know and love the Cronometer brand, not to worry, the new brand and visual identity maintain a lot of its previous integrity just with a refreshed, modern look and feel.
The new app is currently live on the desktop app and on a phased roll out on the mobile apps. Read more details here: https://cronometer.com/blog/our-new-look/
Comments
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This is awful, now I have to scroll like 10 times more to see nutrients at the bottom as everything is bigger and harder to find... Even with unzoom 90% still...
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I'm sorry but I agree with the previous comment, this is awful.
The new look itself is not bad, but everything has a lot of extra space. What I liked about the previous version was that you could see everything with basically no scrolling, it was a lot of information tightly packed and you could get a lot of information with one fast look. Now is very very tedious.
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Same here, this so called beautification project fails for me. Much harder to read, too white, no contrast, menu, etc. Much better before.
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I agree with the previous comments -- the page now requires a lot of scrolling just to get to the things I need to see.
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I have two other issues with the new look. One is that I use the calendar all the time, and now I have to make an extra click to find it. The other, rather more important, is that the colors for the macronutrients have changed on the mobile app and in the macronutrient targets on the web page. The energy summary on the web page is still showing, at present anyway, fat as green, protein as blue, and carbs as red, but everywhere else it is showing fat as red, protein as green, and carbs as blue. This requires retraining my mind where to look to get the information I need. I don't want to see carbs running high, so I look for a very small red space. Now, I see a huge red space (I'm on a ketogenic diet), and get horrified that I've eaten that many carbs -- before I realize that the red now means fat. This is going to make it VERY difficult to use.
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New "fashion" UI/UX fully unusable. No laconic, simple interface as old version.
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I am not visually impaired (except for sight slowly deteriorating with age), but a friend is -- she says that sites with very little contrast are very, very hard to read.
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With regard to @PatS comment on scrolling, I am using Brave as my browser, and it allowed me to reduce the zoom of the page to 67%, which lets me see most things I need while still being readable.
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Thanks for reporting the issue with the macro colours @CMacKirnan ! I have logged a bug and our developers will be looking into it as soon as they can!
Hilary
cronometer.com
As always, any and all postings here are covered by our T&Cs:
https://forums.cronometer.com/discussion/27/governing-terms-and-disclaimer -
I'm a big fan of Chronomter but I must say that this redesign seems completely pointless. Before I had all the information I needed right in front of me. Now a dashboards shows up with information I have no need for.
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So, another victim of the unfortunate and maddening trend to make everything look like a mobile app even on real computers. Please, no. Make it an option for those that want their stuff sparsely spread-out with oversize text, sure. The original high-density, vertically oriented layout is much preferable on bigger screens.
Seriously, make it an option under account settings. Let people use the site the way it works best for them.
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I think this redesign did miss the mark a bit for desktop users. Might be great on mobile, but on desktop I'm certainly feeling like I'm really, really zoomed in. On top of that, there are three key things that are missing now when I look at my Diary for the day:
- Easily and constantly visible historical calorie intake in the left sidebar - this requires an additional click.
- Easily and constantly visible historical weight chart in the left sidebar - this requires an additional click.
- Easy +/- calorie count (over or under goal). The new hover-over isn't too bad, but doesn't feel quite as clear. Admittedly, this one might just be a symptom of not being used to the new layout.
Is there a way to opt out of the redesign for desktop users? I appreciate that your front-end devs and designers will have worked super hard on this, and I don't think it looks bad or broken, but it's not as handy when it comes to managing data as the old layout was, at least for desktop users (or, at the very least, me lol).
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Very clunky, not at all keen. I don’t often use the app on my phone, as I wasn’t keen on the way that worked before, but used to go to the web page, but I am now unable to do that, as it is impossible to see it all.
Extra clicks and searches and not possible to see all the information on one page. -
This is truly awful. I get that change is hard and I am sure I will get used to the changes to the color scheme.
However, what isn't a matter of getting used to is the lack of information.
Before I had everything I needed on one page and could take it all in at once. Now everything is spread out over multiple pages. There are many issues from a usability perspective here:
- There is a fairly useless dashboard that now has the mini-charts. I use the energy chart frequently and having to switch to a different view to see that isn't helpful.
- Everything is HUGE and even trying to zoom out doesn't really fix it.
- It takes much longer to find the foods I am trying to add because the lists have fewer items in view.
- The calendar being hidden is also problematic. Even if I ignore the extra click to open it, the calendar is modal and you have to click on and off it to see what is underneath it.
This really needs fixing. I have been using cronometer for years now but I may start looking for another option. The big differentiator for me for cronometer was that it was usable on the web and not only mobile. It doesn't really seem like that is the case anymore.
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Good GAWD!!!!......HATE the new format! It takes up WAY too much SPACE on the page (TOO LONG of a page!). I used to be able to screen shot a daily diary in 3 sections; NOW?....it takes 5-6 sections to screen shot. A whole lotta scrolling just to intake (SEE) the info on the whole page. And this is completely User UN-friendly. There was NOTHING wrong with the old format. Did someone need to justify their job, in the 'Tech Dept'? It's like the idiots who work for grocery stores......they need to justify THEIR job, so they are constantly RE-ARRANGING EVERYTHING in the store. Just when you get to know where everything is?.....they go and rearrange EVERYTHING in the store.
Please switch it BACK, and FIRE the low IQ who came up with this User UN-friendly chite! WOW!!....I'm really angry right now! The site was PERFECT, before someone went and screwed it all up! The % bars in GRAY???.....BLAH!.....UGLY! GRAY covering BLACK % numbers?? Riiiiight! SO much more easier to see (NOT!)!! I don't even want to use Cronometer any longer! All of these years of me populating 'Custom Foods'......was a complete waste of my time! -
Have to agree with others that the diary information is too spread out. It now requires additional scrolling and/or clicking to access the same amount of information as before.
Additionally, the pop ups for the various nutrient items on the lower part of the diary now always appear above the mouse pointer. That's a problem when the nutrient item is near the top of the page because part of the pop up is now off the page.
Finally, please fix the scroll wheel. It is now so slow for desktop users as to be practically useless.
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I used to be able to see all the things I wanted on a single page - the diary and the graphs to the left. Now I need to click around to several different pages to see the same information. Please revert this craptastic change.
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I registered just to comment on this atrocious change. I was actually getting to the point of not logging with Fitbit's cruddy thing and just using Cronometer exclusively; in the ~3 months I've been using it, I've become more and more attached to it, and thinking I coudl benefit from upgrading.
But my God this putrid interface. The posts before mine sum up the majority of the issues. I'm a desktop user; I'll never use the app. Before, the desktop app was wonderful. Now, there's a lot of friction to use it, just to use it as a diary and tracker.
This is a big case of fixing something that wasn't broken; maybe the front-end devs are seeing all the employees at Twitter, Facebook and Amazon lose their jobs and want to do something 'in your face' to show the bosses they're doing 'something'. I just wish they'd do something I didn't have to see.
Since they're not listening to our dissatisfaction, especially from the Gold users, just who are they trying to please with this revolting "upgrade"?
Would someone at Cronometer consider allowing users to make use of the wonderful, functional interface, and have the redesign available for the ... crowd that thought Windows 8 was awesome? Or whatever demographic, outside "UI designers", find it helpful.
Cronometer, did you really need to hire up the people Duolingo let go?
Edit to add: So many branded foods lack macronutrient information. That would have been a wonderful thing to have put time into instead.
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Desktop user: Your website is really unfriendly for people with vision impairment/macular degeneration/migraines. Please give us a dark theme. The font is so thin and hard to make out over the bright white background. It's painful to look at.
It's also so stretched out that I can't easily skim through my entries day by day to see the total calories for every day. I have to scroll down to even see that value, and then scroll back up to keep moving through dates. I really don't like it.
Mobile app is okay, visually, though it is hard to differentiate titles/names versus descriptions/measurements. Thanks for the dark theme availability there, at least.
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I mis posted here: https://forums.cronometer.com/discussion/5439/new-gui-not-a-fan#latest Dos not seem there is a way to choose change category.
Yes, this is not a step forward, for all the reasons noted.
Calendar, bring back the month view. One click. I use it to "Copy to Today" which was (is?) sometimes broken in the old GUI (sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not), but the point is I copy most of my diary entries from the past to today, and the lack of calendar is MORE clicks, not less.SSSSCCCRRRROOOLLLLLIIIINNNGGGG - is greatly increased. and as noted, now I can not see everything as easily. As the desktop GUI has no "app" zoom, its not as user friendly.
In any event there should be some user gui settings:
- color
- zoom
- old vs new gui
I'm old and blind, but not this blind.
In custom recipes, it's now to easy to open the Replace Ingredient in Recipe window when one clicks on an ingredient. What I is missing in the custom recipe is the ability to click on an ingredient and see what it's component nutrient values are. the bottom shows only the totals. I should be able to select (like in the diary - Shift Click) one or more ingredients to see the nutrients it contributes to the recipe. Scrolling is even worse here with the Nutrient panel now dead center below ingredients instead of top right.
New, NOT improved.
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One of the things I've found to at least alleviate some of the vision problems is using Dark Reader in my browser. On my 36" monitor, the white screen is blinding. Dark mode should have been in there in the first place. I really miss the old interface and the ease of use. At least warn us when you are going to make stupid changes like this.
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@Hilary, thank you. That one issue is enough to make me start searching for an alternative program. I've been using Cronometer for two years and would rather not leave, but I can't use it with the colors of the macronutrients switched around.
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Still can't search for the last time I had a hot dog? Really?
The previous version was nice and compact. It's like you've gone BACKWARDS; sacrificing function for nifty graphics.
You've spent 100s of hours on appearance and still can't give us a basic search feature. It's quite unbelievable.
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I've looked at Cronometer reviews all over the web. They are ALL showing the messed-up macronutrient colors: red for fat, green for protein, blue for carbs. It's very distracting.
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I've also searched for Cronometer alternatives, since, if they don't get the colors fixed, and do something about the white-on-white display that's so hard to look at, even for me, and I'm not visually impaired, I'm not sure I can continue to use this -- and I've lost so much weight with it, too, when nothing else worked! Anyway, I've found "A Calorie Counter" and "FatSecret". Haven't tried either one, but they both look feasible. Of couse, I will have to do hours of work to add my frequent and custom foods.
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New gui may be more responsive on phones and tablets but is not good for desktop. Prior design allowed for most information to be easily viewable at the same time. This design doesn't take advantage of screen size available to desktop users and instead resizes everything (making it bigger), Spacing is often too larger, whist text is too small. Even zooming out to 67% barely makes it usable. Given you already offer an app for android and iOS users, keeping the old UI for desktop or allowing that option would be a better idea.
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Please please PLEASE give us back the old UI or repair the mess done with the new one. I fully agree with everything that has been said about the issues vs web version, much slower with the extra moves you got to do everywhere, clicking, scrolling, everything bigger, space awfully used, colors as pretty as harmful vs readibility & clarity... It was a pleasure to use your tool, now it's a pain, it requires a lot of mental efforts to do even the basic things.
You don't have competition but I'm thinking seriously about simply stopping to use the tool. And god knows I loved it very, very much.
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I have to chime in and add my voice to the tsunami of disappointment. It is so hard to use the new desktop site. This is honestly one of the worst responses by a community I've ever seen to a website redesign. Please fix it.
This isn't improved, it doesn't add value, it doesn't increase the product quality or integrity, it doesn't seem modern, and I don't love it, especially as a paying Gold user.
The design is depressed, not refreshed.
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Hey Cronometer team, hello and sorry,
It must be hard for you since you were so excited with this new version but I really have to ask : do you hear us ? Here, on reddit, by mail, everywhere ? (I don't want to post on phone stores now as I don't want to do anything to harm your business and want to let you guys time to discuss and act accordingly) Are you discussing the topic ? Do you feel like it's a real concern ?
Or have you already decided that well, what is done is done, and those customers will get used to it, they're just reluctant to amazing change, or something like that ?
Cause we will NOT get used to it, believe me.
It's so painful I can't even find the heart to prepare new Micronutrients micromasterclass with my ex-favorite tool, my ex-beloved Cronometer. And believe me I'm very motivated for this Masterclass and I have no choice but using Cronometer as it's the best tool EVER. Please don't ruin this with this awfully inconvenient interface. Please give us the old web interface back during the time you discuss what can be done now. Please do it before we get fully disgusted and just stop using the tool. I won't ask for my Gold money back cause I believe you believe in your own mission. But I really really hope you will listen to us.
PLEASE HEAR US.
It's not a problem of resistance to change. Really really not.
Kind regards,
Mag
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NOOOOO another victim of the "make everything hideously claustrophobic, counterintuitive, bloated, and hard to navigate for desktop users under the presumption all websites will be accessed from mobile (while ignoring that most mobile website designs are very bad anyway)"
I'm bored and waiting for my friend to show up, so this comment willo be longer than strictly necessary.
I access the monthly calendar every day. It was very useful to have right there.
On my monitor, there is so much wasted space and so little information, yet because everything is so BIG, it still feels cramped. It manages to feel more cramped than the old design, which actually had a ton of information visible at once.
In the old design, I could see my important nutrient scores without scrolling, even once I had logged my full day. Now I have to scroll to see them even when there's only one item logged. And then there is so much more scrolling involved to see all the nutrients, which used to fit, readably, onto my screen (almost) all at once. I can't imagine how mobile users see this. It must go on for miles.
The "energy summary" table is an example of how bad each container looks on desktop: the labels for the wheels are floating away from them. There is so much weird extra space around each element, and then around the whole thing. The same information used to be compact yet readable. Now the wheels are smaller and the space between them bigger (???) so I can't take in all the wheels at once.
In the diary, the name of each food is now much further from the amount and calorie columns, because this was so obviously designed to be looked at on a narrow phone or tablet. Hold on I'm literally grabbing a ruler--the label "spinach, cooked from fresh" is six(!) inches from the volume. Not easily connected at a glance. So not only is there a lot more scrolling involved here, my eyes have to track further across each section to see what I need.
Padding is one thing. This whole page is a shrine to empty space.
Another, minor-ish gripe: desktop users do not need an expandable sidebar looming at all times. At least when the menu was at the top I could scroll away from it, but now it is 1. always there, 2. always very very visible (this bar against the background has higher contrast than the diary font??) 3. shoving everything behind an extra click. The extra clicks are the most annoying.
Zooming out only changes the font size. The massive useless containers stay how they are. So there's no point zooming out to see more.
What functionality has been added here? If this is purely an aesthetic redesign, you both removed functionality and made something that does not actually look good unless you are sitting back staring at it without the intent to search for information.
Please at least give us the option to toggle back to the old design while this is addressed.
