Interaction Design Project - Gourmet Network

A design project made for CS3240 Interaction Design course.

Gourmet Network is a food social platform that basically enables user to:

1. Search for food (nearby, or by any other categories (food type, place, name, etc))

2. Read & write reviews on a particular food business, and rate them by upvote/ downvote for more reliability.

3. Navigate through the Google Map and AR (Augmented Reality) Navigation to find a food place.

More explanation on AR Navigation (how do we get the idea): http://www.ceng.metu.edu.tr/~tcan/se705/Schedule/assignment8.pdf

4. Create a food business page and acquire the ownership of them (make it official). By making food business page official, the rightful owner will have authority over his page and improve its reliability. User need to pay Gourmet Network for acquisition fee.

5. Order food online from the food business that provides delivery service.

6. Rate a food place.

Promotional Video.

You can say it's similar to HungryGoWhere.com, here's the difference:

• incorporation of AR Navigation with GoogleMap. We often finds ourselves constantly checking our GoogleMap even though we're very close to destination, to find the exact place. AR Navigation will help you to find the exact place without you keep on checking your map.
• creation of food business page by a common user and means to make them official. Simple scenario: I find a small Hawker stall which sells very delicious food. So I decided to make a page for it at the Gourmet Network so people will know of that place (especially when it's not strategically located). The implication of me doing this is I'm doing the stall a favor of no-cost marketing. Obviously, the stall owner can also create his food business page provided he/she knows how to do it, also with no cost. Then why the need to make it official? For example if the food stall has so many regulars already the owner doesn't need to acquire it to make it official, the regulars will do the job for the stall already (writing good reviews, rate as good, update information)? Answer is simple, possibility of defaming. Any user can simply hire/ gather people to flame the unofficial food business page without anyone able to control it, hence cause slander for the food business itself. This is the reason why food business owner is recommended to acquire the business page to gain authority and improve reliability. Acquisition of a food business page need process of verification, with the staff of Gourmet Network inspecting the acquirer themselves to prove his right of ownership.
• with the point above being said, consider the possibility of finding good food in unfamiliar places. People can create a food business page even for a small street stall! And believe it, the fans of good food will do their job professionally, leading to reliable information regarding that stall! Take note though, a food business page can't simply be created, to prevent bogus entries, the staff of Gourmet Network will prove if the food business indeed exists.

System's low-fidelity prototype made by Microsoft PowerPoint: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?0a27pddxc0u7i23

My Contributions:

• Worked in a team of 4 to design Gourmet Network, an online mobile platform that allows the user to search for food and participate in food review and rating, as well as for food business owner to promote their eatery.
• Proposed a design problem of “how to utilize mobile technology, network connectivity and crowd-sourcing in gourmet business”, which eventually becomes the topic of this project.
• Gathered data from target users by conducting contextual inquiry with a gourmet enthusiast, organized the information using affinity diagram and performed task analysis and requirement analysis.
• Designed a low-fidelity prototype, starting from paper prototype to the final prototype done in MS PowerPoint to give the user a chance to really interact with our solution.
• Performed user evaluation on the prototype, and revised it to ensure that our design really meets the user requirements.
• Created a promotional video to present our solution in the faculty project showcase.