For our first project for Mobile Media, we were asked to create a concept for a food app that would run on either iOS or Android phones.

Our first weeks assignment was to create a map describing the user-flow of the app (an app map) as well as a wireframe laying out the basic structure of each of the views. We then used these wireframes to create paper prototypes that we have been testing over the last two weeks.

Here is a quick summary of my progress so far.

Concept

Spice it Up is an app to help spicy-food lovers find, rate, and share the best dishes in their area.

Spice it Up will use the powerful Yelp and SinglePlatform API’s to search already existing restaurants and menus, allowing users to easily find their favorite dishes and finally rate them according to what is most important – how spicy they are!

The primary audience  for this app is users in urban areas who self-reportedly like spicy food. These users usually would rate food much less spicy than their counterparts and are frustrated by non-spicy lovers’ ratings – when they can find them.

Currently, there are no apps in the Google Play store or Apple Store that meet this need in the United States, and very few that approach this need in other countries. While I did find apps related to specific spicy-food chains, and exploring spicy ingredients, there is no app to share already existing spicy dishes, rate their spiciness, and/or find spicy dishes in one’s area.

App Map

Here is a quick map describing the initial flow of my app. This has already been refined once since the original app concept “Hot or Not” got some very good feedback last week that helped me refine my idea and not try to include too many different features/accommodate too many different users types.  The app is now for spicy food lovers, not a general spiciness rating app for everyone.

WireFrames

Here are both the wireframes for the original app idea, Hot or Not, and the refined version, Spice it Up.

Hot or Not

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Spice it Up Wireframes

As you can see, I abandoned the idea of being able to switch into “hot” and “not” mode to change ratings, and instead decided to allow the app to use setup questions/preferences to allow users to set their spiciness level/preferences.

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Presentation & Next Steps

You can find a copy of my presentation on this topic below.

My next steps will be to test this prototype with a range of users from different backgrounds – especially with different opinions on what is, isn’t, and should be rated spicy.

After gaining more feedback, I will incorporate useful changes, and make a new quick wireframe (update what I have as needed) before designing out an interactive prototype of the app, which I will present in 2 weeks time. Stay tuned!!!