Microsoft Band: Use the Microsoft Health web dashboard to dig deeper into your data

If you use the Microsoft Band, take advantage of the web dashboard . It provides a full picture on your computer screen of the health and fitness data and analytics captured with the Band and the corresponding Microsoft Health app.

As you may know, the Microsoft Band provides data such as heart rate, daily steps, sleep quality, and running and cycling statistics providing an overall picture of your health and wellness. The Band also helps keeps you productive – you can receive incoming text and email messages, calls, stay up to date on calendar appointments, and much more. The smart device pairs with the cross-platform Microsoft Health app to help record your health and fitness activity.

But, what you may not know is that all that data is then displayed in detail on your PC or tablet via the Microsoft Health web dashboard. For example, the dashboard can show how your running time and distance has improved over a few months, or how your sleep quality in April compares to your sleep quality in May.

That way, you’re better informed on what you need to do next to improve the overall quality of your health (and also to give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done!)

How to use the Microsoft Health web dashboard

Let’s take a closer look. First, open a browser on your computer, go to the Microsoft Health web dashboard and sign in using your Microsoft account (this is the same account that you use for the Microsoft Health app).

Your browser will then display the Microsoft Health web dashboard’s home screen. Here, you can see a daily summary of your activity captured with your Band. In the example below (yes, that’s real data from me), you’ll see steps, calories, sleep, and run.

Get monthly information about various categories by clicking the “See Observations” hyperlink next to a category. If you want to see data from different months, click the calendar icon at the top of the page.

For example, I tapped “See Observations” next to the Sleep category, and I see that my longest sleep was seven hours and two minutes and my shortest sleep was one hour and 39 minutes (that’s when I was on a particularly uncomfortable red-eye flight).

I’m also given information on how restorative my sleep is—from “low” to “optimal”–and the time of night I usually go to bed. The data confirms that I need to do a much better job in not just getting more sleep, but quality rest!

If you click on Run, you get more data than you can shake a stick at. Data includes distance, calories, and split times. You’ll also get answers to specific questions such as:

• What’s my weekly burn?
• How are my workouts impacting my fitness?
• What’s my weekly duration?
• What day do I perform best?
• What time of day do I perform best?

All of this data is not only interesting in and of itself, but it’s especially helpful to runners training for races ranging from 5ks to marathons.

In addition, you can click on the shaded column on the left of the screen to get information on Exercise (such as strength training or rowing), Guided Workouts (from the Microsoft Band), Connected Apps, and other categories.

A word on Connected Apps: The Microsoft Band integrates with popular fitness apps such as MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, and Strava, so the web dashboard can truly be your one-stop shop for health and fitness data.

Last, but not least, if you go to Account Settings within the Microsoft Health web dashboard, you can change your personal information and add a photo.

To learn how to export your data into an Excel spreadsheet and get even more information about how to use the Microsoft Health web dashboard, check out this page.