Individual Digital Reflective Diary

On Sweet Spoon Bake Or Buy iPad app Annalaura Masciavè (UAL, LCC, MA Publishing 2012/'13)

[bakeorbuydiary-blog]

6. CONCLUSION AND FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

To sum up, the final product of the group work is an app able to guide its users both in their kitchen and outside, following their cravings.

Thanks to the internal  “smart” ads (integrated with the layout design and recipe structure), we hope to increase the subscriptions, to create a potential future revenue stream and to establish a profitable link between the printed publication and its interactive digital counterpart.

Through the video tutorials, the app will enlarge the baking experience, adding interactivity to the magazine and allowing the user to customize its own bakebook.

Moreover, the location service will further enrich the range of services offered by the brand and expand the audience to people not necessarily committed to baking.

From my personal point of view, this project enabled me to learn more about the making of an app, not just in terms of navigation and functionality, but also relating these areas to marketing, business planning and design.

(Register page - sample)

[bakeorbuydiary-blog]

5. USERS' SCENARIOS AND FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS

My second task during the product planning stage, was the elaboration of the functional specifications, in order to show the intended interaction between the user and the app.

   (Video Tutorial - sample page)

    (Step by Step recipe- sample page)

  To start, we needed a structured description of a situation that a potential user is likely to experience (Yan-Chatonsky, 2011), so I developed two scenarios based on stereotypical user’s model of SweetSpoon Bake Or Buy: Lily and James. 

[bakeorbuydiary-blog]

4. USERS' NEEDS, PURPOSES, OVERVIEW OF THE TECHNICAL FEATURES.

Once figuring out which was the most suitable device, I could start with my assigned tasks: brief overview of the technical features and functional specifications.

First of all, I started by summing up the user’s needs: referring to the two surveys already conducted by the group, I found out that the majority of the potential users create their own recipes with the help of the internet, and that the 93,18% of them would use a baking app.

Moreover, most of them expected video tutorials, exclusive recipes and advice from wellknown chefs, as well as Suppliers recommendations and news and trends.

   This initial analysis helped me elaborating the purposes of the app, developed in order to have a clear idea of the services and options needed.

 This is the list of the purposes as showed in the portfolio:

 - Guide step by step the users in the creation of easy, yet harder recipes: making the baking experience both fun and simpler, by helping the expert and non-expert users in the creation of a wide range of dishes through written articles or video tutorials.

Giving an overview of the current trends in the baking world, through the regular recipes’ update.

Analytics Service

Distribution Service

Support for E-commerce

Optimization for social sharing

Adobe Content Viewer

Integration between Adobe Edge and Adobe InDesign CS6 (to add HTML5 digital animations)

  (Adobe.com, 2013)

[bakeorbuydiary-blog]

3. Second meeting, assigning the group roles.

During the second meeting, the project manager assigned the individual roles, taking into consideration everyone’s backgrounds and future aspirations.

I was assigned the role of associate media developer (with Ingvild as my counterpart),  focusing on the production, navigation and functionality issues.

[bakeorbuydiary-blog]

2. First meeting, brainstorming, device choice.

Having the chance to create a digital product, means coming across many different options.

In fact, during the first meeting of the team, the discussion was about the opportunities offered by technology.

Being SweetSpoon a magazine about both baking and lifestyle, our purpose was to deepen these connotative aspects of the publication, by focusing on the guided creation of the recipes and the GPS location of bakeries.

 The first encoutered issue, was choosing the right device for our product: smartphone or tablet?

The mobile would be the ideal tool for the location service, but on the other hand it would be extremely limitating for the making of the recipes (small screen,  reduced functionality).

As far as the tablets are concerned, their wider screen is suitable for the kitchen use, and they are the ideal tools to better display different options, pictures and video tutorials.

Moreover their dimensions don’t represent a disadvantage for the use of the GPS location, since  they are designed to be carried around.

 Secondly, we opted for the iPad because of its large spread, for its best touch screen technology and for ease of programming: with iOS there’s no difference in the coding language between different devices, therefore there is no fragmentation.

[bakeorbuydiary-blog]

1. Concept development of Sweet Spoon / Bake Or Buy

This Individual Digital Reflective Diary aims to retrace the steps of the conception, creation and implementation of Sweet Spoon Bake Or Buy. It is a critical analysis of the collaborative work undertaken by the team, focusing on the technical and functional aspects.

The application is specifically designed for Apple iPad as a brand extension of SweetSpoon Magazine, and its peculiarity is the new original formula BAKE OR BUY . Its mission is to optimize the self promotion of the brand and increase and broaden the readership of the printed publication, by providing a wide range of additional services.

 The app aims to satisfy the user’s needs through video tutorials and instant location of bakery shops and cafes,  and by providing many customized options for the selection of the ingredients.