Problem:
Looking at the problem, why is it hard to find a quick meal for my friend or partner who cannot eat something specific such as nuts or stone fruit
Solution:
Create a web application that collects data while generating a new eating experience for people with allergies or dietary preferences.
Abstract:
This case study explores the intersection of human passion for food and technology by developing the Better Food Map. This progressive web application provides dietary guidance and food discovery based on users' preferences and restrictions. Rooted in the author's seventeen years of restaurant experience and guided by culinary insights, the application aims to connect users to specific meals, considering individual dietary needs. Unlike existing food applications, the Better Food Map emphasizes simplicity, security, and privacy, avoiding social media features and unnecessary profile building. The application's core functions—Recipes, Map, and My Food—allow users to create personalized dietary guides and contribute to the community-driven database. The research includes pragmatic design, test-driven development, and a comparison of database options, with MongoDBAtlas selected for its support and scalability. Challenges like API linkage and cloud storage considerations were encountered during development. The application leverages intuitive UI design and responsive features for an inclusive user experience, aspiring to achieve a unified whole akin to a "total work of art." This study presents not just a technological innovation but a reflection of human connection and needs in the context of food, opening possibilities for further refinement and large-scale implementation.
Case Study:
Purchase quality food and do so regularly. Avoid the allure of “special” offers without inspecting their quality first. The apples in that discounted bag could be bruised. Don't buy food solely for its low price if you don't need it; a spoiled bargain is no bargain at all." - (Calvert, 1961) - A Practical Don't, from the James Beard Cookbook.
Like many, I've spent a significant portion of my life in the lines and on the floor of a restaurant. However, unlike some, my experience has been enriched by working alongside award-winning chefs, restaurant owners, unique staff, and culinary enthusiasts. The eighteen years I've dedicated to the restaurant industry have taught me one vital truth: the restaurant experience encapsulates humanity's profound and universal love for food. Our passion for food is relentless; it unites, sustains, and sometimes controls us.
Though not all of us will dine at the world's top restaurants, we still share the ability to exchange culinary knowledge, recipes, and local gastronomic treasures hidden within our communities.
My inspiration for food, cooking, and the endless resources of culinary arts is drawn from the wisdom of the James Beard Cookbook. The core of this paper focuses on leveraging technology, information communication, and the internet to create a food-related web application. My research this quarter has not only dealt with full-stack web design and development and user experience design for an agile web application but has also explored our intrinsic love and need for food.
The psychology of food is a fascinating subject. My mentor, Eric Distefano, a New Mexican Culinary legend, impressed me that while we all need food, being a chef means sharing that need to forge trust and desire. To Eric, we are all chefs, though many may not enjoy cooking. Factors like smell, taste, cost, and appearance are paramount for most. Eric went to great lengths to accommodate guests with allergies or dietary restrictions, making each diner feel special. Though many chefs and food providers strive to do this, it's no small feat.
With this in mind, I am determined to create a tool that helps people discover dining locations and broaden their culinary horizons. This tool would address a common issue: Why is it so challenging to find a quick meal for someone with specific dietary restrictions, like an allergy to nuts or stone fruit? How can this problem be understood on a broader scale, and how can data be harnessed to simplify the dining experience for many of us?
User Needs and Customer Needs:
Across the United States, dietary restrictions, food allergies, or even a simple distaste for the ordinary limit people's food choices. My current technological endeavor, the application called "The Better Food Map," aims to address these issues. This progressive web application will provide users with dietary tools they can keep handy on smartphones and desktop computers.
Building this application has focused on meeting critical user needs and ensuring the design is practical and functional. Unlike other food applications like Yelp, Open Table, Google, and Bitewell, I aim to collect only essential data, not private information. While many platforms in the food space emphasize social media features, such as in-depth profile building, more complexity is needed to stifle originality.
I initially considered allowing users to create profiles to share recipes and restaurants, but I now see the wisdom in keeping things simple and secure, like using an ambiguous avatar. While basic information like name and email will be required, the application will be designed to function without needing the user's location, and it will be linked to the Google Maps API.
Security is a paramount consideration, especially given the large-scale data collection involved. Anonymity will be a key feature to enhance both safety and user experience. The three main features of the application, "Recipes," "Map," and "My Food," will enable users to build personal dietary guides and contribute to a database that helps others find unique meals.
The anonymized data will minimize the risk of breaches and address storage concerns as the user base grows. Leveraging alternative cloud storage early on is one solution being explored.
Figure 1: Better Food Map Recipes Feature
Social media's negative effects, particularly on adolescents, youth, and those with mental health challenges, have been well-documented in research and studies. Professor Claude Mellins, a Medical Psychologist at Columbia Medical Center, encapsulated these concerns, stating, “Although there are important benefits, social media can also provide platforms for bullying and exclusion, unrealistic expectations about body image and sources of popularity, normalization of risk-taking behaviors, and can be detrimental to mental health. (Mellins, 2021).” As a designer and developer, this quote resonates with me, guiding my determination not to harm users through technology inadvertently.
My goal in building the Better Food Map was to evoke the essence of social media while avoiding its pitfalls. Figure 1 above illustrates the UI design, which forgoes extensive color but retains familiar functionalities, like the intuitive hamburger button for settings. This simplicity is intentional, ensuring that controls are self-explanatory and accessible.
As depicted in Figure 2 below, the mobile application's flow has been refined to align with the progressive web application's principles. While the development is still in its early stages, it's clear that both mobile and desktop versions must be responsive and feature-rich, demanding ongoing iterations. My extensive prototyping and data collection have informed the design and highlighted the potential need for flexibility and adaptation.
Beyond the individual user journey, I envision others leveraging the application's data for various purposes, reinforcing the need for an agile approach. Most crucially, I recognize the importance of robust cloud storage solutions like Google Cloud. Ensuring seamless, responsive design across platforms will be vital for the overall success and benefit of the application.
Figure 2: The Better Food Map Application Flow
Pragmatic Design and Test-Driven Development:
My approach to building an application was deeply influenced by "The Pragmatic Programmer" by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas. This book, which I highly recommend, explores common programming challenges like duplication, nonorthogonal design, and performance. It also aligns surprisingly well with culinary philosophies in "The James Beard Cookbook." Both books endorse test-driven development as vital to creating quality software or even an apple pie.
In the early stages of building the Better Food Map, I discovered through feedback and wireframe testing that its success lies beyond mere meal discovery. It must provide a personalized experience based on users' preferences and dietary requirements.
Juggling roles as a back-end programmer, front-end designer, database expert, and more, I was inspired by the German concept of "Gesamtkunstwerk," or “total work of art." This principle, evident in George Lucas's "Star Wars IV: A New Hope," refers to a cohesive creative process. Although I intend not to create a pop culture sensation, my design is driven by a similar goal: a unified and satisfying user experience.
I've seen applications like Adobe Photoshop achieve this gesamtkunstwerk quality, seamlessly translating across desktop, mobile, and browser platforms. As I ponder the potential platforms for the Better Food Map, I'm guided by the need for flexibility, dynamism, and reusability, recognizing the rapid pace of technological change. My background in user experience design continually reminds me of the importance of building intuitive processes and delivering satisfaction - the hallmarks of a true work of art.
Database:
Data science is an intricate field that demands clarity and structure. In "NoSQL Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Emerging World of Polyglot Persistence" by Pramod Sadalage and Martin Fowler, I grasped that application development heavily relies on the database and its data structure. One key trait of a NoSQL database is its non-relational nature.
For the Better Food Map Application, I considered Apache Cassandra but eventually settled on MongoDBAtlas. My lack of database experience and MongoDB's robust support for Google Cloud Storage influenced this decision. Moreover, MongoDB offers scalability options that could be advantageous down the line.
Linking MongoDBAtlas to my Google Cloud Bucket proved a complex task, as shown in Figure 3. After obtaining the API key from Google, I used JavaScript to get the client information and attempted to link the module.
Figure 3: API linking JavaScript
This code might also integrate the Google Maps API into the application's explore function. I'm also contemplating leveraging the application as a web 3.0 or decentralized application, possibly using the IPFS protocol combined with the cloud pinning service Piñata.
Initially, I hesitated about this approach due to the need for guides for building progressive web applications with IPFS. However, after setting up an IPFS node on my desktop, it might be more efficient, faster, and reliable than traditional options like AWS and Oracle. This discovery was facilitated by Pinata, a unique storage service that leverages the vast IPFS network, making content discoverable and always accessible.
Next Steps:
The journey for The Better Food Map feels as if it's only just begun. The application must be completed with only a finalized style guide, such as my preferred off-black shade (Hex #323232).
I've realized that my strengths lie in creative thinking rather than rapid programming. The research is prepared for testing, but more feedback is needed. Test-driven agile methods will guide changes, and I'm considering alternatives like Pinata and the IPFS to build upon the idea.
My ambition for The Better Food Map is to enable extraordinary dining experiences for those struggling with food allergies and dietary restrictions. In moving forward, the focus will be on:
Designing UI:
If I take this project to the next design phase, the UI will remain close to its current status.
If I take this project to the next design phase, the UI will remain close to its current status.
Ensuring Privacy:
Keeping users' data safe and anonymous will be paramount.
Keeping users' data safe and anonymous will be paramount.
Building Flexibly:
The back-end structure will allow scalability and adaptability.
The back-end structure will allow scalability and adaptability.
Engaging Users:
This long-term challenge will require ongoing research, testing, and development.
Building this product is a significant task, and collaboration will be essential.
Building this product is a significant task, and collaboration will be essential.
Nevertheless, I believe in the necessity and potential of The Better Food Map. With more time and effort, it can transform how people discover and enjoy food in cities and special recipes. This version captures the main thoughts and next steps, making it shorter and more suitable for online reading.
References:
Beard, James. The James Beard Cookbook. New York, NY: Dell Pub. Co., 1987.
Hunt, Andrew, and David Thomas. Pragmatic Programmer. Pearson Technology Group Canada, 2019.
Lucas, George. Produced by Kurtz, Gary. Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Film. 20th Century Fox, Lucas Film LTD, 1977.
“Just How Harmful Is social media? Our Experts Weigh-in.”. Last modified September 27, 2021. Accessed Online 2 August 2023. https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/just-how-harmful-social-media-our-experts-weigh.
Sadalage, Pramod J., and Martin Fowler. NoSQL Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Emerging World of Polyglot Persistence. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Addison-Wesley, 2017. Oreilly Online Library. Accessed Online 2 August 2023. https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/nosql-distilled-a/9780133036138/ch01.html#ch01lev1sec2
“Your Home for NFT Media.” Pinata. Accessed August 19, 2022. https://www.pinata.cloud/
“# What Is Ipfs?” IPFS Docs. Accessed Online 2 August 2023. https://docs.ipfs.io/concepts/what-is-ipfs/#decentralization.