Project Idea
My project idea is an application that can be used online and installed on iOS and Android devices that will allow the user to organise meal planning and grocery shopping together at the same time. The application will allow users to select from a range of different recipes for the week which is submitted by the app itself and users who wish to submit recipes. Once the recipes are selected by the user, the application will run a search and find the ingredients that are needed which are sold at local supermarkets and food stores. The user is presented with the estimated cost of their groceries based on which store they decide to shop at and can also export a shopping list to eliminate the need to think about what they need to purchase for their weekly cooking.
I find this project useful as I have subscribed to several different meal kits, however, these meal kits have had very limited recipes each week and I was not advised where my ingredients came from. People with specific dietary requirements such as staying vegan, kosher, or gluten-free have very limited, if not no meal kits available to them. The only meal kids for these dietary requirements are meals that are already premade, pre-packaged, and requiring reheating. This project will allow people who have specific food requirements to eliminate the need to think about what meal they are going to make next, as well as having to check the label of food items to see if it's something they can consume.
The application will work by being a database for recipes that are released weekly. The recipes are written by chefs as well as users that have an account and have sent in recipes they would like to see. The recipes sent in by users will be carefully considered and reviewed to ensure that only quality recipes are sent in. Users of the application can browse recipes by applying a filter for dietary requirements that suit them. The dietary requirement filters will include vegetarian, vegan, no shellfish, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, kosher and halal. After having selected the filter or multiple filters, the application will then list the recipes that match these dietary requirements. Each week there will be a minimum of 10 recipes for each filter to ensure that everybody who wishes to use the application is presented with enough recipes to choose what they wish to cook for that week.
After having selected the recipes that the user would like to cook for the next week, the user will be asked how many people they are intending to cook for. Users will be able to advise the application how many servings they wish to prepare for each recipe. The application will then ask the user if they have enough common household ingredients to prepare the recipes for that week, such as oil, salt, garlic, and soy sauce. After having answered these questions, the application will present the user with a page that will list out exactly what products they will need to purchase to cook those recipes for the week. The products listed will keep in mind the portions that the user cook to minimise food wastage. The products that users are shown will ensure that they align with the dietary requirements they previously selected. Users that selected the kosher or halal filter will only be shown products that are kosher, or halal-certified respectively. Users that select vegan recipes will only be shown food products that are entirely vegan to eliminate the need to read the product's ingredient list which is often a headache for vegans.
The next page will be present users with the estimated cost for their weekly shop depending on which store they plan to purchase their groceries. It is also on this page that the user can make an informed choice about where they would like to do their weekly grocery shop. Users can opt to prioritise value to save money or avoid supermarkets to support smaller and local businesses. Once the user has made this choice, they have the option to export their grocery list to their phone’s note app, via email, via an online document, or via a list-making application they may already use. It is hoped that this application can be launched and potentially have a partnership with supermarkets so that if users are wishing to have their groceries delivered, they can upload their weekly groceries to their online shopping cart. This will eliminate the user's need to have to search each item individually and add it to their cart.
The software that will be required to develop this project will involve several different code editors such as Visual Studio Code to develop the website using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Other integrated development environments such as Android studio, IntelliJ, and Xcode may be required when developing the app for Android and iOS. The benefit of using these development environments is that there are a lot of features that are implemented to allow the code to be written faster and to see the program being built over time. GitHub will also be required for version control while the program is being developed so no parts of the code are lost, and in the case of an emergency, code from a specific point in time of the program development can be restored. As the project will also have a database of user accounts and recipes, database management technology will be required. Microsoft SQL Server may be suitable for this as there is a free and reliable version available to developers which would be ideal to use while developing the most viable product (Microsoft Corporation, 2021).
To develop this project, sufficient HTML, CSS, and Javascript knowledge will be required for the project's website. Since the project will be a website in conjunction with an app for both iOS and Android, the apps will need to be created using Swift and Java respectively to run on both mobile operating systems. Knowledge of how to implement web scraping technology will also be required to obtain data across multiple different food store websites to compare product information and prices (Kenny, 2021). Since the project will contain a database of recipes and food products, knowledge of SQL may also be required. It will be feasible to find people with relevant skills to launch this project and the hardware to store the project should be within reach for a most viable product.
I hope that the outcome of the project will be to combine meal planning for the week and the user’s grocery shop all in one without having to compromise on dietary requirements or preference of where the user wishes to shop and which stores, they wish to support. I aim to reduce the headache that people feel when having to scan the label of food products to ensure that it is something they can consume. I also envision that this project can partner with major food stores and supermarkets to create a competitive grocery shopping experience, so that food and grocery stores can provide the best products and do the best for their customers given they will have complete freedom of choice.