OUGD504- Interface design analysis

Tasty

I knew this app exists because one of my house mates tends to use it quite regularly and she finds it really useful and simple to use. Upon searching through the app and looking at the various recipes they have available, it seems like they have a huge selection of various recipes for all kinds of meals and even deserts. The app shows you a sped up, quick version of someone making the meal, this could be quite useful for people that may not know how to do certain things. There are step to step instructions on how to prepare and create the meal which means the user of the app can follow it all clearly without any confusion. I like how the app has real photography of how the end product of the meal will/should look and the categories that they are all split into. It also gives you the option to save recipes so you can access them again if you like them.

Jamie's Recipes

This app is what I expected it to be like, it has been created by Jamie Oliver and includes his own recipes. The app gives you 15 new recipes to choose from every Monday which means it is constantly updating with new meal ideas so the user doesn't get bored or the ideas become repetitive. The design of this app is very plain and simple, it sticks to a white and yellow theme throughout and includes photographs of the meals when they are finished. I didn't like this app as much as the other one because to me it was quite boring and dull, it had nothing exciting or innovative about it. Having said that it is what I expected from an app by Jamie Oliver, they haven't been designed to be simple and quick recipes.

Yummly

Yummly was the final app I came across which was free, I had never heard of this app before so decided to try it out. It was a lot like the two previous apps- I'm still to come across a food app that has something different about it/different layout/format/concept. Like the Jamie Oliver app, it gives you lots of different recipe ideas for you to then click on and follow the instructions. The only slight difference to this app is that when you click on the recipe it takes you to more of a website that seems to be separate from the app- the design of this part of the app isn't that great and put me off from using the app.

KITCHEN STORIES

This is the first thing you will see when the app is open, it appears with the logotype of the app in a bold black font, with the slogan 'anyone can cook' underneath. The type is directly in the centre of the screen, surrounded by an all white background, this is an incredibly minimalistic opening to the app, however I don't think that matters too much because this bit of information isn't that important and people won't be paying much attention to it because they will just want to interact with what the app has to offer, people have downloaded it for the recipes. 

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These are the next steps you are faced with when entering the app, figure 1 gives you the option to choose whether you have been on the app before or if you are new to it. As I had never been on this app before I selected 'I am new', this brought up the images on figure 2-5, by this time I had got a bit bored of flicking through each of the screens that came up because it was taking a while to actually let me get into the app and browse through all of the recipes and other information. Despite this it did give you the option to skip through all of this information but I don't think it was necessary or relevant to have 3 different screens coming up before the app opens properly. Finally it then let you create an account if you wanted to, I like how it gave you the option to not create an account or sign up/use your email address or sign up with Facebook, this is a good variety of options to select from and choose the best suited for what you want. 

Each of these screens have a small video in the background which I think makes the app interactive and a bit more exciting for the user instead of just flicking through flat screens with no movement to them. The colour scheme of what seems to be at this point white and yellow is consistent on each screen and I think the colours work well alongside each other, the app is kept quite minimal.

Figure 6

This next screen shows what appears when you select the home page button at the bottom of the app, it gives you options to look at the top story which is updated daily. It also shows you the newest available recipes that have been added to the app. It splits them into categories so you can access the kind of recipes you want to look at and want to cook. The app is easy to navigate around because you can clearly see the areas which you need to press in order to get to a certain place in the app.

Figure 7

There is a 'how to' section on the bottom of the app also where it provides short videos that show you how to do certain things. There are different sections to this part of the app such as shown above in figure 7, the 'knife skills' and 'everyday basics'. I like how they provide videos with sound as they are a lot more useful than just following instructions, they are a lot more informative and interactive with the user rather than them just reading from the app.

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On this section of the app, it takes you to the top featured recipe. In this case its how to make a boiled egg, upon selecting this it takes you to something that almost looks like a blog. The author has wrote a bit about the secret of a poached egg, it introduces you to the recipe before showing you a step-by-step guide. This makes the app a lot more interactive to the user and the steps seem quite simple and straight forward, they get to the point of the steps so the user doesn't need that much knowledge and experience.

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This final option gives you the option to watch a video or read the recipe on how to create something. This example shows how to make a beetroot cake, the video has been shot from above the person creating the meal so it shows you every angle so you can clearly see how and what is being made.