Crafting Gourmate: The Food Journaling App
The Gourmate app has been live for over a week, making it a perfect time to dive into its features and the decision-making processes that shaped it. Download the Gourmate app from the App Store.
The current state of journaling apps
Let’s be honest; we’re human. We love food not for its flavors, but also for the stories it tells and the memories it evokes. For some people, eating is about more than food; it’s a multisensory experience, a voyage to other cultures, or even a simple comfort after a long day. Yet, our existing tools fail to account for this nuanced relationship. They either simplify our experiences into calorie counts or require tedious manual logging that sucks the joy out of the meal.
How should a food journaling app work?
So, how do you build an app that feels like an extension that would help you remember the food you like? We began by asking some fundamental questions:
· What kinds of food memories do people want to capture?
· How can we make the act of capturing these experiences effortless?
· How can these captured memories be easily retrieved and relished?
The answers to these questions led us to envision a tool that could adapt to your personal food journey, one that could capture not just what you ate, but how it made you feel the atmosphere or the entire experience.
In Gourmate, the food you love takes centre stage. This isn’t just a tracking app — it’s your go-to place for remembering and sharing the meals that make you happy, whether you want to recreate them or share them with friends and family.
Universal Header
The header has a central role in the app, enabling you to effortlessly add new items or search your existing catalogue. Recognizing that some users like to capture the moment with a photo before diving into details, we’ve integrated a direct camera-access feature right into the header. This design ensures a seamless experience, tailored to your preferred way of logging food items.
Gallery View vs. List View
Gourmate prioritizes the food experiences you’ve captured, offering two distinct viewing options to suit your preferences. By default, you’ll see a gallery grid that mimics an Instagram-like interface, highlighting images while hiding extra details. Alternatively, you can switch to a detailed list view, which lays out item-specific information such as ratings, titles, locations, and prices. This customizable approach provides you with the flexibility to curate the viewing experience based on what matters most.
Log what you eat
Throughout development, we’ve refined the item view to accommodate a range of use cases. During the testing, we found many ways people log meals: only image, image + calories, image + title, rating + image, image + title + rating + review. So instead of dictating what you should collect, we’ve made every element optional. This flexibility ensures you capture only the details that matter to you.
Moreover, you have the option to rate your items, recognizing that even the finest dishes can differ in the level of enjoyment they bring to your dining experience. That’s why our inspired by the Michelin Guide’s three-star rating system is focused on individual items rather than places.
Fields like location, price, calories and review help to collect more information about the meal. By making these fields optional, we’ve prioritized flexibility, ensuring that you log only the details that matter most to you, and making the experience of adding items fit unique preferences.
Food insights
The ability to dive into insights is a feature we knew we had to offer. In the first version of our insights screen, we’ve organized saved items into four time frames: Today, the Last 7 Days, the Last 30 Days, and All Time. Not only does this give you a snapshot of your food history, but each tab gives a total count of calories consumed and money spent, offering an easy way to track your eating habits over various periods.
Personalized food journal
We focus on customization to ensure the app aligns with your personal preferences. Gallery View is enabled by default, presenting your entries in a grid layout. For an even more personalized touch, you have the option to select one of four colorful backgrounds. The Chameleon Mode allows the app to adapt its background tint, creating a seamless blend with content for a beautiful experience. And if you’re someone who values feedback, you’ll appreciate the ‘Show Rating’ feature, which gives you the option to rate your entries. We will keep expanding the ability to customize to provide an even more personalized suite, making Gourmate an extension of your culinary journey.
Gourmate roadmap
The guiding principle behind Gourmate is simplicity, with a core focus on preserving your cherished food memories. We avoid feature bloat that could distract from this main goal. Upcoming enhancements, including improved location management, multilingual support, and greater customization options, aim to make the app truly yours without complicating the user experience.
And if you haven’t tried the app yet, download the Gourmate app from the App Store.
