MapMyFitness Official Blog: New Design

I'd like to address some of the bigger picture items -- As the original founder of MapMyRun.com 3 years ago, this little site has come along way. 

This site is built on the feedback of it's users and we've been struggling to get all this new functionality out the door -- most things you see on the site are a direct response from a user saying to us, "Wouldn't it be cool if ... ?" 

One of the reasons it's been such a challenge is that it is expensive from a resource perspective to provide you these types of services.  Granted, a free site can be supported by advertisers however how much advertising would you as a user accept? Pop-ups? Interstitials? 

This summer and fall we really want to focus on quality and the premium level of services we now feel you deserve.  We've been working really hard to get us to this level and we're continuing to work hard to do so.  We're responding personally to every single reported issue and we're working on some bigger performance things right now to ensure that your experience with the site is perfect.

If there are individual issues that you've noticed and you would like to comment on, I welcome your discussion.  If you would like a personal reply, please send it to us through our feedback system -- that way we can actively track and fix anything specific.

Many of the performance issues that we are working on are still due to people's client / browser situation.  ie, Do you have a slower connection? older browser? a firewall program that is blocking our mapping script from working?  We're actively looking at work-arounds to improve these issues...

Anyways, I just want to say that working on delivering the best experience for you is my number one priority.  I'm working closely with our technical team over the next week to ensure that any of this post-release issues are sorted out effectively.  If you have any questions about the transparency of this process, please don't hesitate to post them here or send them through our feedback...

Cheers,

-Kevin
Co-Founder, MapMyFitness

Hi Kevin,

I only joined the MMRun site about 10 days before it changed.  So, I got a big shock when I logged in again after going away for about 4 days.  Shock, yes, because the email announcing changes to MMRun from MMF had been sent to the spam folder by my Australian-based webmail account and I only found it after many making many "What the???!'" after my first session logged into the new MMR site.  Well, I got past the resetting-up of most of my specs/gear/stats etc.  But, I wasted many hours trying to map new runs because I never accessed the forums to find out that dragging points was causing errors.  After all the hair-pulling, I think I like the usability of the newer mapping tool better than the older one but I'll be much more convinced of this once I get the ability to edit my mapped runs back.  I'd like to add, that there should be functionality for the 'edit run' mapping that allows the user to keep previously input notes associated with a run.  I say this because I have spent hours inputting detailed notes about my runs and lost them purely because I moved a point on the run and had to resave it.

Anyway, I really appreciate how much effort goes into providing this service.  And, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for thinking up this site and its concept.  I've already email my gym buddies in Australia about it (that's a big thing for me because I'm a fairly appathetic corresponder at the best of times). 

I agree that it's preferable to pay a membership for the service to minimise the impact of advertising on members general use of the site.  But, having signed up, I still get annoyed severely by the constant ads from advertisers and particularly those motivational-type ones from MMF about tracking goals and challenges.  Why can't I lose the ad on the mapping tools bar? I'm on a laptop in the US and my touchpad is difficult to use for mapping as it is, but that ad is taking up way too much of my screen display so I'm constantly scrolling up and down on the page just to map a run. 

Well, keep on keep on-ing.  I'm hooked even if I'm not happy about where the lure got me....

Cheers and thanks.

Stevie

I find the different features and membership levels confusing. I just want to print out a map to take on my ride, but instead I'm analyzing different membership plans. Why don't you let us try it so we know what is going on? I DON'T need to be spending more time on my computer to figure this stuff out.