doctorj

Unlike stackoverflow.com the food recommendations generated by Usable Health are dependent on each of the answers in the sign up process. For example someone who weighs a 100 pounds will receive different recommendations from someone who weighs 200 pounds so unfortunately there is no way of getting around the complete sign up / nutritional profile creation process.

Great idea and done. The logo in the app now points to the all locations page. The logo outside the app points to the company home page.

Thats an awesome idea - thanks for your feedback. We currently have a much larger database of vegetarian option in our home recipes category so you might find items with high health scores in there. Another functionality we are currently working on are cross location swaps so very soon you will be able to find healthier options in other restaurants (or home recipes) that resemble what you were planning to order at a particular restaurant.

Did you find the preferences icon in the top bar? Word of caution - please don't change the preferences on the hacker account as they would affect everyone using that demo account. Instead create an account for yourself through sign-up and get more personalized recommendations.

The new healthcare reform bill makes it mandatory for many more restaurant to publicly disclose their nutritional information. More can be found here http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/03/22/menu-measure-health...

It is also interesting to note that while the law will not likely go into effect for another 3-4 years, many restaurant chains are "getting out in front" of the legislation, and are beginning to offer nutritional content info on their websites even before they are required to do so.

As of now we work with local restaurants here in Atlanta and do a statistical nutritional analysis for them. Tin Drum in our featured restaurants is an example of that. In fact we are about to deploy a kiosk / ipad version of our app in the Tin Drum premises where it will be used as a health-based digital menu.

The ratings are currently personalized to each users nutritional profile that is created at the end of the sign up process. Our detailed sign-up process resembles a health risk assessment in which a user has to answer questions about past and existing diet related chronic diseases like diabetes and coronary artery disease.

The ratings also depend on prior choices made by the user. This means that the same meal may have a different ratings for lunch and dinner.

The recommendation engine takes into account the choices made prior to the current meal before making a new recommendation. You are seeing the "Looks like you selected a combo" message because someone else made a selection using the hacker account and the app will not let you select multiple meals in the same time period. This will not happen if you created an account for yourself.

There is a FAQ link in the app that addresses some of the issue you brought up and we are working on incorporating the rest. As of now the only way to go back to the home page is to hit the log out button.

That is definitely doable. One of our partners describes us as a recipe database that is tethered to a personal health record.

The plus icons are the health scores. We tried to stay away from the user rating stars but in retrospect that seems to be causing more confusion that anything else.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Thanks for pointing that out. The ranking system is a multi-dimensional algorithm that optimizes for a variety of micro and macro nutrients. Individuals with different dietary needs have different star representations / health scores for the same meal. For example for someone with hypertension that chicken sandwich will have a very poor health score.

Thanks we appreciate it. Here is an insight on our design goals:

Usable Health is to food what Orbitz is to flight tickets. Usable Health is to food what Match is to finding your soulmate. Usable Health is to food what Amazon is to book recommendations.

Usable Health is not a calorie counter. Usable Health is not a health information aggregator. Usable Health is not a fad diet.

Not yet. We are working on a user profile page where this would be possible. Thanks for your feedback.

Thanks drx. We are still struggling with trying to find a catchy name for "meal swaps". Suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Would it be interesting if users could name a meal swap after them?