Entering my birthday...

[bvz]

I know the fitbit app programmers are all probably teenagers and the mere thought of someone born before the late 90's seems like a physical impossibility...  but we do, in fact, exist.

So, if you are one of the afore-mentioned teenage cyber wiz-kids responsible for designing the Android app, us creaky, dottering old folks would like to suggest that you try the following:

Download the Android app.

Enter your birthday when you set it up - but enter a birthday that is in the year 1962 (for example).

Get back to us after you have hit the "back button" on the month-by-month entry widget over FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY times just to enter your birthday!

Hint: That's what arthritis is going to feel like 🙂

[SilviaFitbit]

Welcome to the Community @bvz! Thank you so much for your feedback. Fitbit is always trying to improve Fitbit app and its products. 

Is there any chance you can ask someone that can help you trying to enter your personal information in your Fitbit app and completing the set up process? This will happen just once and after this, you just need to sync your tracker once in a week in order to get all your information updated in your account. You can also try using your computer for this process. 

Hope this helps. Thank you for your understanding.

[bvz]

Thanks for the reply.

It looks like my attempt at levity is missing its mark. 🙂

I am perfectly capable of entering the information myself. 🙂

A degree in computer science, physics, and a career as a senior technical director with over 25 years experience developing software means that I am not stymied by technology. I am just trying to point out a terrible terrible UI decision on the fitbit Android app.

In order to select a birthday that is in the more distant past, the user is required to either swipe back once per month until they get to their birth month (which for someone on their fifties could be as many as five or six HUNDRED times) OR they have to know that they can hit the tiny little year text and that that will bring up a year selection dialog. The first technique is discoverable but absurd. I have to hit the previous month button five hundred times just to enter a birthday? The second technique is completely opaque. The only way to discover that it is an option is for most people to randomly hit/stab/swipe all over the screen in the blind hope that the first technique isn't what is expected of them. With luck they may hit that year text (which gives no indication that it is a button and not just text) and find a better way.

This isn't a big deal 🙂 I was just trying to suggest that a better UI in this portion of the app would be a good idea.

[SilviaFitbit]

Thank you for those extra details @bvz! The best place to make your voice heard, if you want to change something in the Android app (or anything else in your Dashboard or tracker) is the Feature Suggestion board. Those ideas are viewed by our engineers and developers. I couldn't find any suggestion about changing that setting in the app. So, feel free to post it as a new one. 

Hope I can continue seeing you around! 

[bvz]

Thanks!  Will do 🙂

[jodibb]

Instead of scrolling back month by month, tap the date at the top of the screen and it will bring you to a list of years to choose from.

[jtlapp]

I'm off to a bad start with my first ever Fitbit. I found myself clicking the left-arrow a hundred times to set my birthday month. Poor UI design at setup does not bode well. Thankfully I found the comment that I could click on the little year at the top.

A Fitbit person recommended that we post suggestions elsewhere. If you care about your product, you will share this nightmare start with your team yourself.

Okay, here's hoping things improve. I'm looking forward to make good use of this thing!

[SunsetRunner]

Same opinion, from someone born in 1955. This thread is 6 months old and no fix. Speaks volumes.

[pbleadfoot]

This doesn't work on my galaxy s8 nor my galaxy tablet.  And I'll have to tap over 700 times to reach my birth month.

[CantRunWontRun]

Still no fix for us oldies. Quick way suggested doesn't work for me either.

[Cheesoid]

This response is frankly insulting...

I literally just swiped 650 times to enter my birthday.  There was no workaround. (And I have RSI).

Suggesting that I ask someone else to swipe right 650 times isn't really a solution. It made me wonder if the entire UI is going to be this poorly designed.

Considering that this thread is 1 and 1/2 years old, it's clear that the developers don't care about the suggestions /needs of older or disabled users.

[Cheesoid]

This response is maddening...

I literally just swiped 650 times to enter my birthday.  There was no workaround. (And I have RSI).

Suggesting that I ask someone else to swipe right 650 times isn't really a solution. It made me wonder if the entire UI is going to be this poorly designed.

Considering that this thread is 1 and 1/2 years old, it's clear that the developers don't care about the suggestions /needs of older or disabled users.

[Cheesoid]

Another issue... I kept getting an error message when I tried to post this. Now I see it was posted twice, but there is no way to delete the duplicate comment