Project 1: Concepts

1. An app based on the phrase “I’ll have what he’s having.” Over break I went to visit a friend at Green Mountain College in Vermont which is in the very small town of Poultney. While there we went to a little restaurant and after my friend and I ordered her boyfriend ordered by simply saying “I’ll have what he’s having.” and the waitress knew what he meant. I guess this started with an older guy who was a regular got the same sandwich every time and it was a sandwich that wasn’t on the menu then one day someone saw what he had and was like “I’ll have what he’s having.” other people caught on and it became a way to order this guy’s sandwich that wasn’t on the menu. This is the most creative way I have seen to order non-menu items but I have been to other restaurants where there are things you can order that are not listed on the menu. This brings me to my first app idea which would be some sort of app that let’s you check whatever restaurant you are at or going to and see if there are any hidden gems that you would have missed out on otherwise.

2. An app based on r/foodPorn. r/foodPorn is a subreddit where people post pictures of amazing food. Often I see these pictures and I find myself immediately wondering where did they get that?? and usually the comments are a thread of users trying to figure out where it’s from if the poster didn’t include that detail. This app would be similar to the idea of Yelp as a way to find restaurants but instead of having to search through reviews you could open up the area you are in on a map and be shown pictures of food taken in that area. This way you are choosing your restaurant based on the food you want and not based on taking people’s word on food when everyone has different taste.

3. An app that indexes your refrigerator. Especially when living with roommates it is easy to forget what food you bought and when. This idea is inspired that my food, especially produce, tends to go bad before I get a chance to use it. The app would let you create an index of all your food and when it expires to aid in both grocery shopping and what you should make for dinner.

Project1 – Concepts for Food App – Ceyda Onal

1) Treats App
The idea for the treat app is to help people to create marvelous and tasty treats for special days. Valentine’s day is a head, and I’ve been seeing lots of heart shaped chocolate boxes, and special cupcakes behind the shop windows. During Halloween it is the same way, we see pumpkin decorated treats in bakeries. Every season has it own special day and own treats. Creating an app for people who want to be able to bake and cook their custom made treats, by choosing the concept, Valentines day, Halloween, Christmas or even Superbowl night.
2) Seasonal App
Seasonal app. is an idea for an app which shows the vegetables and fruits of the season, and recipes of those picks. During winter, it will show recipes of winter fruits and vegetables. For example, pomegranates, tangerines, apples, kale, winter squash. Whereas, during summer it will shows recipes for summer vegetables and fruits.
3) App for Turkish food.
I’ve missed the smell of my national cuisine.I am a Turk living in NYC and away from my national cuisine which is my favorite. I’ve been trying to cook by myself and using the recipes my mom gave to me. And then the question popped in my head “Why not to create an app only for Turkish cuisine?”

Rough Ideas for Food App – Mani Nilchiani

1 – Some of us have the habit of letting the world know where we are and what we’re up too, more frequently than others. How do we achieve this? By “checking in” using the geolocation api. Either on facebook or foursquare, we leave footprints of where we are and what we are up too. The places we check into, are semantically defined in the databases used by such systems. So bars, restaurants, parks and schools are entities that tell us about the nature of the place we checked into. One idea could be tapping into this user behavior, and design and application that keeps track of all our checkins in restaurants, and based on our behavior and using machine learning algorithms finds ‘similar’ places we might be interested in trying out, taking the cognitive load of finding more of what we like off the user’s shoulders. Alternatively, the app could be set in a way that it suggests varieties. So if you are a huge fan of Chinese cousine, the app makes sure you get enough tempting suggestions of other cuisines to flavor up your eating habits!

2 – Eating is not all about taste. It’s also about atmosphere. If you care as much as the quality of food about the quality of the experience you get out of your visit to a restaurant, one idea could be an app that gradually gets to know your eating habits, urges you to quickly rate the overall eating experience / restaurant atmosphere and gradually builds a database of such user-generated content. If you’re a fan of a cosy low-light places with loung / jazz music going, or if you want to get energized while eating, and see lots of colors and upbeat music, this app makes it possible for you to navigate the food industry based on your other senses, not just taste!

3 – (in collaboration with Maya Weinstein, continuation of a previously prototyped web-app “idliketoeat”): Do you live your life with a dietary restriction? Do you look for Gluten-free food on the menus in the hope of finding variety while maintaining your diet? Are you looking for a super quick and easy way to spot Halal food? Is eating healthy all you care about at this moment, and you don’t have a lot of time browsing through a sea of options to find the food you want? idliketoeat is here to help. Focusing on spotting food based on dietary restrictions as the core functionality, idliketoeat makes is easier than ever to narrow down your food search. Spot the nearest vegan restaurants in one click, and spend your time enjoying the food that’s right for you, instead of clicking on confusing checkboxes and nested navigation menus. But that’s not all. While maintaining focus on dietary restriction as the primary filter for finding food, “idliketoeat” also gives you choices for various cuisines, when available.

Food App Ideas

1. Brainstorming food, having just spent Christmas with my family back home, the experience of feeding my young nieces came to mind. Every meal was a spectacle, a test of hand-eye coordination, with one hand attempted to empty spoonfuls of rice into their distracted mouths, and the other flailing to catch broccoli florets they catapulted across the room. I thought I could translate this domestic circus into a silly game involving finger-eye coordination. The aim of the game would be to feed the baby with one finger and catch flying food with the other (aiming to get more in the mouth than on the floor). Difficulty could be increased from level to level by introducing obstacles in the room making it harder to catch food, or requiring certain finger-gestures to feed the baby such as a zig-zag notion to imitate the aeroplane technique (“open wide, coming in for landing!”).

Image Credit - babymesses.com
Image Credit – babymesses.com

2. As an Aussie, one of the first things people often say to me upon learning this is “throw some shrimp on the barbie!” (For anyone interested, the phrase originates from a series of TV ads for Australian tourism starring Paul Hogan – aka Crocodile Dundee – where he says “I’ll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you.”) Again, I thought this could be a fun game, where you have to toss shrimp onto a barbie (before they go off in the heat), and take them off the barbie when they’re done (before they burn). Variables making the game harder could include keeping the shrimp away from the neighbour’s dog, catching the beer keg before it spills all over the food, stopping the hills hoist from swinging over the barbie and catching the washing alight, moving the barbie from falling drop bears (and countless other Aussie clichés).

Shrimp

3. On a more serious/practical note, I thought of an app that reveals chef secrets to loyal customers. My flatmate is a vegan, (which can be quite expensive), so she is constantly saying things to me like “I wish I knew how to make those vegan treats at the Bean”. Perhaps each user has a list of their top five favourite restaurants in the city (which can be edited at any point), and the further up the list, and the longer you have a restaurant on your list, the more perks you will get from them. Rewards could include cooking tips, season specials, recipes, coupons etc.

Chef Hat

Farmers Market

An app project I’ve been open to doing is opening up farmers market for those who live in the South Bronx.  It’s been a known fact that lower income communities are deprived of healthy nutritious produce, that’s also affordable, organic and locally grown.  An app is already developed but I’m thinking of augmenting its feature and functionality.  Perhaps adding healthy recipes and SMS alerts.

The second a restaurant directory app for people who have special diet i.e. Macrobiotic, diabetic, etc.

Influences + inspired by:

http://www.itvs.org/films/soul-food-junkies

Screen Shot 2013-01-30 at 8.53.48 PM Screen Shot 2013-01-30 at 8.53.58 PM