So, it’s time for a long-overdue update on Cookbook. If you haven’t already, read Austin’s blog entry, where he offers his perspective: http://mydreamapp.com/news/post/377/.
Collaborating with Austin and John over the last two months has been very productive. As you can see, Cookbook has evolved dramatically. And while it may look quite different from the original screenshots, the concept is very much still there. I think we’re still some time away from an actual release, but much progress has been made.
The recipe management and editing portions of Cookbook are close to being completed, so Austin will be tackling other features soon, such as meal planning and all that other jazz. Because the current UI is quite different from the original mock-ups, the interfaces for meal planning and grocery lists will be redone as well, to work more intuitively inside the new wider window layout.
Speaking of which, I think the three-paned layout of the new window works much better. John and Austin pushed the idea, and I’m glad we went with it. Organizing and browsing recipes this way, as opposed to using one source list with disclosure triangles, allows for a more intuitive experience and also is much better suited for the widescreen displays shipping with all Macs these days.
As for the visual themes for different cultures that Austin talked about, I initially had reservations about it. The possible issues I saw with it was that not every recipe could be definitively classified, and the number of themes that needed to be designed to cover the range of world cuisines could be prohibitive. Lastly, I wasn’t sure if the concept could be pulled off well. (I had flashbacks of MS Word clipart from the ’90s.) But reconsidering the idea, instead of the typical tacky cultural elements such as flags and national colors, certain minimal touches could be incorporated, such as stone and unfinished wooden textures for Japanese recipes, and an earthen and sun-roasted appearance for Italian recipes. (Think of the walls of your neighborhood Olive Garden.)
As for the appearance of the application itself, we were toyed around with the idea that instead of a simple Aqua theme, the application could have certain kitchen appliance elements, such as an LED readout, which you can see in the mock-ups below. In this case, some non-Aqua touches could work well for this application without looking out of place on a Mac desktop.
Here are another two conceptual screenshots of Cookbook, of how certain UI elements such as clocks could look like and how the user could interact with them:
Mock-Up 1 / Mock-Up 2
The window borders in these two mock-ups are also somewhat darker than in the ones Austin posted. I think a darker appearance breaks up the different parts of the window better. Borders were something John really pushed, and I agreed with him that they help separate content much better than a simple borderless design.
It’s been a few weeks since the end of the final round of voting. Now that everyone’s had time to decompress, development on Cookbook has begun. We’re trying to get it out the door as quickly as possible.
So far, everything has been chugging along at a reasonable pace. We’re focused on just the basic stuff at this point, such as the interfaces for recipe management and editing. The more exciting features will be added later. Whether or not there will be any public betas, that’s up to the developers, though I do think that they will start appearing towards the end of the development cycle.
Right now, we’re also in the process of retooling the basic Cookbook interface. While the original UI in the mock-ups theoretically worked okay, we thought that it could be even better. What the final application will look like, no one knows at this point, but it may be quite different from what I had originally conceptualized.
One of the problems I’ve found in my mock-ups was the sidebar; it did too much and once you had more than a handful of recipes, the pane would become difficult to manage and navigate. The solution that we’re working on will change the layout of the main Cookbook window somewhat, but I think the original concept will still be retained. Furthermore, we’re also playing around with different window themes, as the current Unified Aqua window may seem a little generic for a culinary application.
So that’s it for now. I should note, development will probably be on hiatus this week, seeing how it is Wii launch day, and that both me and most of the My Dream App staff have our units. Woooooooo! (My Wii console code is 7765 4366 1246 4130.)
A few more mock-ups before voting starts…
The following screenshot is of the integrated community in action. Just like in the iTunes Store, the user can preview a recipe before downloading it. Clicking “Add” will immediately download the recipe and add it to the user’s library. As seen in the screenshot, the user can also rate and review recipes.
The next mock-up is of the timers in action. Clicking the timers button will open a sheet:
…where the user can keep track of multiple timers relating to different recipes:
We’re near the end!
Today’s blog entry is about the online recipe catalog built into Cookbook. Manually typing (or cutting/pasting) recipes into the application can be tedious, so finding a way of streamlining the process is crucial.
Browsing and downloading from the integrated online community should be dead simple, but at the same time, it shouldn’t feel like a web browser. Much like the iTunes Store (or what was the iTunes Store), navigation and adding files to your library will be seamless. The user finds a recipe, previews it in the current window, and downloads the file with one click.
The next image wraps everything up and shows Cookbook’s four main selling points: meal scheduling, intelligent shopping features, assisted cooking, and recipe sharing. It presents kitchen-related activities as a workflow, rather than unrelated steps involving food, as other apps have done.
Finally, I want to congratulate the other finalists for making it to the final round of voting and wish them luck. It’s been a crazy ride!
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