Monash University Australia, Clayton Campus

Faculty of Information Technology (FIT)

FIT3178

Assessment 1: Mobile App Design Specification

Submitted by:
Md Shamsul Abidin Abid
ID: 30945496

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Introduction: 3
Application Concept: 3
App overview: 3
App User View: 4
Admin View: 4
Competition and innovation: 4
Competitors: 5
Feasibility & Technology: 6
1. Persistent storage: 7
2. Web Services: 7
3. Firebase Cloud platform: 7
4. Audio/video Framework: 8
5. Deep linking: 8
Design & Storyboard: 8
App login Interface screens: 9
User Interface: 10
Cooking Steps: 10
Menu Interface: 11
Admin Interface: 12
Use Case Diagram: 13
User StoryBoard: 14
Admin StoryBoard: 14
Apple Human Interface guidelines: 15
Scope and limitations: 16
Improvements: 17
Project Timeline: 17
Reference: 18

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Introduction:
The paper aims to give an overview and concept of a mobile app that is to
be produced, along with technological obstacles and queries about the
app's viability while employing UIKit and related technologies. To create
efficient navigation and user interfaces for mobile apps, we research mobile
interface standards and technical limitations. The paper discusses several
key design choices, technologies used, the market demand for the app, UI
concept designs, scope, and restrictions, in order to produce a highly
operating app.

Application Concept:
The main target of making this app would be to help people with their
cooking. Basically, it will be a cooking recipe-based app that will help
people to make their food easily and effectively. The food industry is one of
the best revenue-generating industries in the current world. Specialty
people like students who don’t have enough cooking experience and need
assistance with cooking. Right now google articles and youtube are the
favorite options for students but they don’t have any proper and detailed
guidelines on cooking that our app will bring for them. Even if we compare
our app to some existing apps it still outruns them because of:
● Detailed recipe with proper guideline
● Better UI
● Flexibility
● Special services

App overview:
The app's main focus should be providing proper step-by-step guidelines
on different recipes including video tutorials. Firstly the user should see the
login screen with all required cardinalities. From the login screen users
should log in to the main page where they can filter or search for their

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desired recipes. Once they are on the main screen they will see all the
trending recipes and they also can search for some specific recipes. When
the users will find their desired recipe they can enter in that and they will
see all the detailed steps with video tutorials. Users will also have the
freedom to add recipes to their favorite section where they can find their
lifetime favorite addition. The app will also have a sign-up screen for users
to sign up and forget password page to reset passwords.

App User View:

On the main screen, there will be a bunch of trending recipes and users
can select a recipe from those or they can search on the top of the screen
or they can filter from the filter section for their desired recipe. When they
enter a recipe they will find out how to cook the exact food in detailed steps
including videos. Users can also add their suggestions through comment
and their views under the recipe video. If a user likes a recipe he/she can
add it to their favorites which they can access later. They can also access a
help page where they can take help to solve any issue regarding the app.
The app will also feature a log-in, sign-up, and reset password page for the
user.

Admin View:
In this app, the admin doesn’t have lots of tasks to do but still, they will get
a screen where they will be able to manage users' profiles and monitor
users’ favorite recipes. Admin will get a user list where they can add and
delete users if anyone violates any rules.

Competition and innovation:

The manufacturing, processing, packaging, and distribution of food items
are all included in the definition of the food industry. It is a huge and varied
sector that encompasses, among other things, agriculture, farming,
fisheries, food manufacturing, retail, and restaurants. The food sector is
essential for supplying the world's demand for inexpensive, wholesome,
and safe food as well as for promoting economic growth and creating job

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opportunities. The sector does, however, also have to contend with issues
including worries about food safety, environmental sustainability, and
shifting customer tastes. According to Statista In 2023, the food market will
generate $9.43 trillion in revenue. The market is anticipated to expand by
6.21% yearly (CAGR 2023-2027). So, The app I am making right now will
be a good market fit and a proper innovation for students who want to cook
but are unable to find a proper guide.

Competitors:
SideChef: SideChef is not your typical culinary app for looking up and
discovering meal recipes. With the help of this recipe app, you can explore
more than 18,000 step-by-step recipes with detailed instructions that you
may search by ingredient, diet, or other criteria.
As soon as you sign up for the app, you may start receiving recipes that are
tailored to your diet and preferences as well as weekly meal suggestions
chosen by SideChef's own culinary experts. That's certainly a fantastic
capability, but SideChef goes a step further by letting you create some
fantastic meal plans from inside the program. Meal planning simply takes a
few of minutes using the SideChef app. Even a built-in shopping list in
SideChef might help you remember what you need to get at the
supermarket. Also, SideChef combines social interaction and cooking. You
can adhere to well-known chefs, food bloggers, or acquaintances.

Though we are noticing a lot of good things about sideChef but there are
some massive flaws in it and one of them is this app is paid whereas our
app is totally free of cost. So customers are getting all the benefits without
paying a single penny. Also, sideChef doesn’t have a comment option
which is a feedback option for users to make which is better than sideChef
in my eyes.

BigOven: With over 13 million iOS and Android app downloads, BigOven
has emerged as one of the most well-liked recipe websites on the internet.
More than 1,000,000 recipes are available to users of BigOven, which you

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may access on your smartphone. Each recipe may be converted into a
handy shopping list or step-by-step preparation instructions with only a few
taps. You will adore the fact that BigOven enables you to upload
screenshots of your own recipes and share them with everyone you know if
you appreciate bragging about your culinary prowess. Your own recipes
can be made and uploaded to the service.
Another choice is to build a shopping list based on the recipes you wish to
prepare.
You may browse recipes on the app and share them with your loved ones,
friends, and favorite chefs on a social media site. Use Up Leftovers, one of
its unique features, encourages you to get inventive with items that might
otherwise go to waste.

BigOven sounds like a really good app that even works like a social media
platform where people can also share their thoughts but unfortunately, this
app is also paid and for a paid app, people have less attraction and my app
outruns this. I am also planning to add google authentication to the app so
that it becomes more secure and users feel comfortable inputting their
details whereas BigOven doesn’t have double factor security which is
always a risk concern.

Feasibility & Technology:

Based on the app the following features are used:
1. Persistent storage
2. Web services
3. Firebase Cloud platform
4. Audio/video Framework
5. Deep linking

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1. Persistent storage:
The ability to keep data locally on the device is provided by persistent
storage. So, whenever the user closes the app and re-runs it, the
user may get back to the same page or the user does not need to log
in again. The app will also use it to keep a record of recipe view
history. In this way, we will be able to know what recipes are viewed
by the user.

2. Web Services:
This feature will allow the app to search for the recipe that the user
requested. Webservice acts as a data container. Whatever the user
requests in the search bar it will help the app to get access to those
contents.

3. Firebase Cloud platform:

A login page will appear when the software first launch, allowing
users to enter their information, create accounts, or sign in using
already credentials. Simple text views and text fields make up the
style of the screen, but for users to log in to the application properly,
the registration functionality and credential authentication will both be
registered for the admin portion of the application, but it will allow the
admin to recover his login information. Moreover, Firebase Cloud will
provide us access to cloud services, accomplished by utilizing the
Firebase Cloud platform. We will work with it to swiftly develop and
expand our app. The firebase will make sure the proper stakeholder
is registered in the appropriate area of the application. Firebase won't
allow the user to authentication services, and databases where we
can additionally store each customer's specific information, such as
email, contact details, chat history, and employee identification,
among other things.

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 4. Audio/video Framework:
The main focus of this feature in the app should be to make the app
more lucrative and fun to use. Here on the log-in screen when a user
will try to log in to the app a lucrative food-related video will appear on
the screen so that the user doesn’t feel bored. Also, there will be
some clips inside the recipe details.

5. Deep linking:
Using the deep linking capability, a user may be sent to an app rather
than a website or URL and this will happen using a button. So, there
might be an article regarding our best recipe, and on that article, if
someone wants to know how to cook it they can simply click on a
button there and come directly to our app for that recipe. Deep linking
is the term used to describe the act of switching from one program to
another immediately.

Design & Storyboard:

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App login Interface screens:
The login page will guide both users and administrators to the application's
user and admin modes, respectively. The lost password function on the
login screen may be used to reset the password for an already-registered
user or administrator by entering their email. After verification, either the
user or the administrator can update the password and access the
software. Below are the respective user interfaces.

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User Interface:
As we already discussed above that our main screen will contain trending
recipes just like the picture below.

Cooking Steps:
Once someone is done with the selection then the user will see all the
detailed steps after clicking on the recipe just like in the photo below.

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Menu Interface:
The account option is located in the upper left corner of the user and admin
interface. When you select it, a menu with choices like Profile, Favorite
Recipes, Help, and logout will appear.

● From the menu, users can access their favorite recipes and access
them any time later.
● Also if a user facing any issues regarding the app the user can
contact us through help section.

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Admin Interface:
From the admin interface, the below feature has been planned. Admin can
see the list of users and they can manage them as well. Such as they can
add more users manually or delete an existing one.

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Use Case Diagram:

Based on all the scenarios I explain in this report I have prepared this
diagram which reflects a rough connection between the system, user, and
admin. Here it’s seen that though the user and admin have some individual
tasks but the login screen is common between them.

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User StoryBoard:

Here in the user storyboard, we can see that two students are really
concerned about their food because they are inexperienced with cooking.
Suddenly one friend advised another one that he heard about an app that
helps people cook their food. Now he downloaded the app and followed all
the steps that the app shows and successfully he can cook his favorite dish
which is making him so happy.

Admin StoryBoard:

Here in the admin view, we can notice that the higher management saw
some mismanagement in the user list. So, the higher management
instructed the admin to manage them properly and also suggested the
admin remove users who are not using their accounts for the last 10 years.
In the last picture easily admin is following all the instructions.

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Apple Human Interface guidelines:
Apple's criteria for human interface design were adhered to while creating
the views for the various sections of the program. Instead of creating crude
sketches, the views shown above were built in Figma to show how the user
interface of the app will look. The text fields, dialogue boxes, and other UI
elements are all positioned as shown above in all UI areas in accordance
with the margins within the safe zone to ensure that the app is compatible
with the majority of iPhone versions and that the app's view doesn't
become distorted when the app is used on different devices or when the
orientation of the device is changed.
After HIC, several design choices are listed below:
1. Because notifications play a significant role in our app, we will
develop this feature in accordance with HCI, which requires users to
provide permission before receiving notifications. Only when the
functionality is activated in the settings will users receive alerts? By
giving users the option to allow the app to send alerts, we guarantee
that we don't compromise on the user experience because some
users wouldn't like the notion of adding bookings to their calendars
while other users would welcome it.
2. The user navigates to one screen at a time to get to their destination,
for example, starting with the login screen and continuing through the
booking confirmation screen, where each process is represented by a
single screen and every single screen is in charge of a different
feature of the application. Users may simply browse, generate fluidity
with touch motions, switch to a split view from a tab bar, and other
features that improve user experience.
3. Although all of the views listed above are intended for dark mode,
users can switch between dark and light mode depending on the
device's mode setting. To comply with HIC, dynamic colors will be
employed in dark mode. Also, we must ensure that dark text is less
readable against dark backgrounds and conduct extensive testing
using a variety of dynamic colors to get the necessary outcomes.
4. When it comes to user experience, Launch Experience is quite
important. Therefore, to provide users with the best experience, we

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 must ensure that the user I presented with a screen that is responsive
and that all the buttons, text fields, and icons are correctly aligned
and adjusted so that even if the user is using the app on a different
phone, the launch experience is unaffected. If the app supports both
portrait and landscape views, we must indicate at launch which views
the app should open. To improve the user experience, all of these
factors should be taken into account while building the application. In
addition, we must avoid interfering with the user's interaction with the
app in accordance with HIC Guidelines. We must ensure that a user
returns to the same activity if he exits the app. So that they may pick
up where they left off, we need to make sure we maintain and restore
the app's state.

Scope and limitations:

MVP(Minimum Viable Product)
The following functionalities must be included in the app at the very least in
order to create a minimum viable product. We are creating the app with two
different stakeholders kinds in mind. The user is one of the stakeholders,
and the admin is the other.
The app will allow users to create accounts and log in to the app after that
users can see all the trending food recipes, they can select one from them
and also they can search for their desired dish. After finding the favorite
dish the user will press on that and start seeing all the steps for the specific
recipe then the user can add it to the favorite section. At last, the user can
log out from the app at any time by pressing the logout button. This is the
minimum functionality for the users part of the app.
For the admin part, it should be mentioned that our app is not that much
admin oriented but still admins should log in just like a user but the admin
can’t create an account as the admin should have an account already.
Then admin should be able to manage all users from the list as well as
admin can add and cancel.

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Improvements:
1. If more time was provided I could make a video tutorial for all the
recipes instead of written instructions.
2. We can provide use QR codes to our existing users that if they bring
more users using that QR code then they will get special rewards.
3. For food now we can’t provide specific calories but in the future, if we
have better technologies and time then we can add calories which will
make our users healthier also.

Project Timeline:
It will take six weeks to finish the project, according to the estimate. The
project is broken down into weekly halves as follows: In order to guarantee
the project's successful delivery, the developer will focus on just one
component.

Week Number Task

Week - 8 Login screen + SignUp Screen +
Forget Password Screen ( Google
Cloud Services ) + Audio Video.
Week - 9 User Side Custom Table View +
User View Design + Profile Options.
Week - 10 WebServices is used to show
Recipes in UserSide and add
favorite recipe features and recipe
instructions part. + Notifications
used while saving a recipe and
during login. + Audio Video for
recipe configured
Week - 11 Admin. Part of App + Persistent
Storage implemented + Deep
linking implementation + Dark /

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 Light mode for Application
Implementation
Week - 12 AppReview + Improvements and
use of coco pods to enchant the
app features
Week - 13 Additional requirements + App
review

Reference:
1. https://www.educationalappstore.com/blog/10-best-cooking-apps-ios-
2019/

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