JUSTIN RIDLEY
Find Me A Recipe
Interactive Recipe Searching Website
Design
Development
Web
Screenshots:
Project Description
Find Me A Recipe is an interactive website that allows users to input up to four ingredients that they currently have in order to discover relevant, unique and healthy dinner recipes.
Design Overview
Interface
The Find Me A Recipe website was designed to be intuitive and straightforward for the end-user. The ingredient selection, which is the most significant part of the website, is divided into four distinct food categories (“Meats and Animal Products”, “Vegetables”, “Grains” and “Accompaniments”) that are navigable through scrolling which feels natural for the user. Dots placed on the left side of the screen indicate the user’s placement in the list and allow for jumping instantly between sections. The colour scheme is very health-focused, with the use of monochromatic greens contrasted with an orange colour to highlight buttons and actions. The addition of ingredient icons for both preferences and ingredients visualise each selection and make the interface more engaging and exciting.
User Flow Diagram
Experience
The website process was designed to be quick and straightforward. It is divided into three sections which include the selection of any diet or allergy preferences, the choice of up to four ingredients and the results of relevant recipes. The user starts by selecting if they have any dietary requirements so the ingredients list can be modified for them. Once any dietary requirements have been selected, the user can then browse the list of ingredients and choose what ingredients they have. When the ingredients have been added, a list of relevant recipes can be viewed, clicked on and sorted with duration. The goal of this website was to ensure that there's no incorrect way to input ingredients. Users can click on any ingredient and remove it from the top bar or within the list. If a mistake has been made or if there are changes to be made to the ingredients, the website provides a button to modify ingredients easily. Alternatively, if the user wants to start the process again, there is a button to restart the process from the beginning.
Functionality Overview
Recipe Searching Process Through Elimination
This website is made using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). The JSON is essential to create a basic database that houses all the ingredients and recipes. Each ingredient listed in the JSON has extra Boolean fields that detail whether or not that specific ingredient is appropriate for someone with a certain dietary requirement or allergy. When the user selects a preference from the first screen, the website hides all relevant ingredients which are part of or not part of that specific group. This process also occurs for the recipes so that no recipe results that appear include those ingredients. JavaScript and jQuery are used to move between sections as the website has been incorporated into one page, allows the dot navigation to work and for subtle animations.
Example of JSON Ingredient Input