OUGD603 - Brief 03 - Creative Conscience - Final Concept & Further Research

As the feedback session highlighted that a food waste app and campaign would be most effective, I have written a final concept that will informed digital developments and production.



Before finalising the concept, further research has been made to find out whether similar applications already exist. 3 apps have been found - all of which are American and have names beginning with the letter 'F'. The concept of all 3 apps is very much similar to my idea; however, the execution is lacking in quality. Firstly, the recipe sections in all three apps require users to visit a link outside of the app to find out about ingredients and the cooking method. Only one of the apps include photos of the dish, where some of the links to online recipes are broken.

Secondly, the design of the apps is lacking. Two of them are not optimized for new iPhone devices - Fridge Pal is particularly outdated in appearance, using a design similar to that of IOS 5 (released in 2011). In terms of the Foodfully app, the black type on the 'Stove' page is very difficult to read when placed over such dark images. Fridgely has the cleanest layout; however, there is a lack in colour variation and no dish images whatsoever. These aspects have been used to inform my choice to focus my campaign on the UK. The app aims to eventually expand to European countries; however, the UK is a strong starting point to begin with as the only existing apps out there work for American consumers and stores. To avoid picking another app name that begins with 'F', the app has been named 'Larder'. As the words means a place to store food, it ties in well with the overall concept.

In terms of the design, the analysis identifies that the app needs to be easy to use and understand, as well as being visually appealing. The use of recipe photographs and clear, legible type and icons is one fundamental aspect that I aimed to keep consistent throughout the app. As many recipe links were broken in the apps analysed, it seems more appropriate and beneficial to bring recipes into the app - these could be updated through app updates. This will ensure that all recipes are within the app, making the user experience more straightforward.

The overall app concept is to have 4 sections - 'Food', where users can import their items, 'Recipes', a search engine that links to user's food and criteria, 'Tracker', where users can see stats on how much they have wasted, money wise and environmentally, and lastly 'Preferences', where the app's settings/options can be changed. For the online campaign, the aim is to aware people of how large the food waste problem is in the UK through imagery and facts they can relate to. This would be advertised with a link / reference to download the app.