App Design for Gourmets

We all like to be happy, and the HomeBite App goes a long way in making that happen. For those who love to travel and love to eat local food - what could be more local than a homemade meal?

The HomeBite app enables people to connect with home cooks for a sit-down, authentic, local meal. Happy yet?

Full Video Prototype

We were given the task to develop an app that solved a specific problem that was out there in the world. The final deliverables are a video prototype and an interactive prototype.

Enjoy award-winning video prototype here, a story about a lovely young couple's travel experience in Savannah!

It won the "Best Video Prototype Award" in 2016 SCAD Entelechy Exhibition.

Phase 1: Pitch the Idea

Project Method: STORYTELLING

Design tells stories through visual expression and experience delivery. We had our mission - solve a problem around us. What’s our method? STORYTELLING. We integrated storytelling in analyzing user experience throughout the ideation, design and video creation process.

INTERVIEWING ANDGATHERING STORIES

We wanted to gather not just our own personal stories, but others: friends, family, classmates, trivia teammates at the pub. We conducted interviews and asked questions about recent product experiences: What they liked, What they didn’t like, If they could have the ultimate experience - what would that be like? A narrative came together that showed us customer journeys, user pain points, and true user problems that needed solutions.

Opportunity: TRAVEL. EAT. HOMEMADE

First, we found our area of opportunity by defining a problem through STORYTELLING. We put all of our stories up on the board. They were about education, relaxation, travel, food, art, etc. We discussed and debated. We found stories about loving to eat locally when traveling and thought that would be a good point. We did a little local research on southern food. A trip was taken to SandFly BBQ, a Savannah institution known for their southern, “homemade” meals. Over mustard greens, ribs, brisket and sweet tea, we came up with some cool ideas for our story.

Storytelling leads us to our solution:

How about an app that allows users to truly eat locally? To eat a homemade, local meal.

We would develop an app that allowed tourists to connect with home cooks.

The home cooks would serve their guests local faire

and tourists/guests would have an authentic, homemade meal -

and perhaps make a few friends in the process.

What it is? What it looks like? Name & Logo

We wanted to create even more momentum for the project by putting a name to the app. Anything and everything was put up on the board. After some great spring boarding happened, the name was created: HomeBite. Logo interactions begin. We narrowed explorations down to four. Then, there was one.

Time to tell our own story: The Big Pitch

We presented the pitch for HomeBite. The story is a excellent one. Our pitch went smoothly and our storytelling resonated with our audiences. We left the pitch meeting with renewed enthusiasm for our idea. Let’s get this app rolling!

Phase 2: App Design

Information architecture. Wireframes. Sketch.Content Creation

We walked through the story of our user and predicted what the best experience would be. User journeys were created; information architecture, wireframes, sketches and usability testing followed.

Color palette and Icons & Visual Expression

The color palette of HomeBite comes from a real picture of fruit and cooked southern food. Because our app has two versions for both guests and hosts, we chose two complementary colors for users to easily separate them.

Hand-crafted single pixel line icons match the simple and clear design style.

UI Design

Splash Screen

The world of UI design is a fast moving one. Recently, I play with the UI of this old project. Just two years, everything changed in the twinkling of an eye.

Home Page

Search for a HomeBite

Vidw the detail and place an order

Interactive Prototype

The interactive prototype made through Proto.io.

Phase 3: Video Prototype / Storytelling

Our story begins to come alive. Location scout.

The fun part just began. We started taking our pitch and turning into photo-based storyboards and sketched storyboards for our video prototype. Used storytelling cards as a method to create our story. Favors were called into friends to become our actors.

We visited locations to get a sense of different scenes and the logistics of moving locations, crowd control, etc. This was quite a long process for us: three iterations of real-location-image-based storyboards; three different location scouts; three different production plans; two versions of demo videos, and even reviewed camera position rules. You know what I say, everything.

A 12-hour Shooting Day

Ready or not, here it came - our shooting day for the video prototype. We’ve done lots of preparations, but sometimes things change. With the help of our esteemed professor and mentor, Gustavo Delao, we thought it through. Brains over brawn. The good guys won. Great friends helped us out, and we had a long day with a great crew.

Edit @ the Savannah Film Studio

The edit. Everyone loves the shooting. It where the rubber meets the road. It’s where the going gets rough and the tough get going. We discovered a new enclave of creativity to help us edit. An oasis that SCAD never really mentions. The Savannah Film Studio. A new 20 million dollar facility that rivals the best production houses in the country. Great place.

We picked some great music. “The Perfect Day” by Sophie Park.

FullVideo Prototype, Again

If you haven't checked the final video prototype at the beginning of this page, you can watch it here, a story about a lovely young couple's travel experience in Savannah!

It won "Best Video Prototype Award" in 2016 SCAD Entelechy Exhibition.

Special Thanks to

SPECIAL THANKS to the friends involved in this project to make it so successful! Thank you all!

Meet the Team Red