Site mapping and tutorial

On Friday I laid out all the pages I had designed in the order that they would be linked to make a website (above). Then I had my tutorial with Belinda, who explained to me what a wire frame map was - this will be a much more logical way for me to map the site! This is what I'm now working on - the different categories and areas that the site needs, and how they all link together. Once I've done this I can go about designing each page, and also coming up with community-focused ideas!

Ministry of Food exhibition & web page ideas

I've spent this evening scanning in and colouring my web page ideas. I'm not happy at all with the colour - I didn't give much thought to it, I just wanted to use it to show the different areas of the site. You can see I've experimented with some different combinations, but my priority today was to make the pages make sense.

Here's an example (above). I've tried to think about what the simplest way to communicate the information is, what links each page needs, and what the minimum data necessary is, to make it work. Every time I draw a page I want to change it! So hand-drawing is quite a slow process. I have a tutorial with my project mentor, Belinda, tomorrow - I'm hoping she will have some tips for me in reference to improving this process.

Above, I've tried to map all the pages I've drawn so far, working out how they link together, where they lead to, and what pages are missing. As you can see it's quite complicated! I've roughly coloured all the pages tonight and so tomorrow I'll try to lay them out on the studio wall in a way that makes sense.

I finally got round to seeing this exhibition! A brief summary: "The Ministry of Food examines how the British public adapted to food shortages during the Second World War, learning how to be both frugal and inventive on the ‘Kitchen Front’." I really recommend this exhibition. I could easily have spent hours and hours there - it contains so much information, things to watch, read, and listen to. It is interesting because in many ways, the rationed diet was quite healthy - less meat, more vegetables, etc. However, it also encouraged not just farmers in the UK, but across the British empire, to produce as much food as possible, to use machines, to use less space, etc.... which probably escalated and led to the crazy system of food production that exists today (with little regard for environment, ethics, etc). I really recommend this exhibition. It's £3.95 for a student ticket.
See the exhibition details here.

Panorama: Dying for a biscuit

This programme was recommended to me yesterday and I've just watched it now. It is about the unsustainable industry of palm oil. For me, the programme drives home further how crazy the food industry is. How can it be possible that huge companies and even countries are destroying virgin rainforest and areas of deep peat, just to produce palm fruit to make the cheapest oil available? Products such as Haribo, Pringles, Kellogs Crunchy Nut, and Mr Kipling all use palm oil. Palm oil is usually unlisted on ingredients, it is considered part of vegetable oil - a blend of different oils including palm oil. Indonesia is the 3rd largest producer of greenhouse gases, behind America and China. Half of its orangutang population have died due to deforestation. Illegal deforestation is still happening there now, every day, even in areas of protected rainforest.

Palm oil is difficult to trace because many suppliers of palm oil mix deliveries from multiple companies. Only 3% is certified sustainable, globally. Sainsbury's currently sell own brand fish fingers that only use sustainable palm oil - but it took 10 years to get this product on the shelf. Unilever (flora, dove soap, etc) have made a commitment to make all their palm oil sustainable by 2015. But I feel that is a joke - by 2015 it will be too late, and the effects of the palm oil industsry will be irreversable! Many other companies have similar goals. However, I have to ask - do they not do any research at all when they make a new product? Surely they must decide where they are going to source each ingredient from? Sadly, this cannot be true, as if they did we would not now be in this situation. I am sure that palm oil is not the only ingredient that has serious ethical implications on a global scale. We just don't know about the others yet.

Watch the programme on BBC iplayer here (30mins).

Website research and initial design

I started today by looking at existing meal-planning tools and websites. The NHS five-a-day meal planning tool (above) is something I already know about and have tried to use - unsuccessfully. Although most meals are healthy, you have to choose each meal yourself which is a lengthy process, and it doesn't give consideration to budget or ethical concerns. Try using it here!
The Love Food Hate Waste meal planner (below) is also something I have tried to use. This is difficult as there is no way to tailor the two week menu to your personal needs, e.g. number of people or budget. It is also not very concerned with health. Try using it here!

Foodwitch (see below) is a blog that I came across today. This is quite similar to my own ideas - the author is concerned with welfare and healthy issues, as well as budget. The biggest problem here is the usability of the information. In a blog format, it is hard to use the weekly menus, and impossible to tailor them to your own needs. All prices are based on Ocado, which is not relevant for me. An interesting resource - see it here.
Credit crunch weekly meal planner (below) is part of the site 'Good to know recipes'. It promises family dinners for a week for £40. However this only one meal a day for a week. Looking at the comments at the bottom of the article, the main problems people have are that there is only one menu example - so it only helps for one week of shopping. I want to provide lots of varied menu options. See it here.
I found a fair few other sites, blogs and articles but the more I looked, the less usable they became. Initially I tried to use Illustrator, then Photoshop, to create images of how my website might look. With no experience of web design, I found this really difficult. I decided to use pen and paper for now, and hand-draw my ideas. I have found this much easier. After drawing a kind of frame for a page, I can then scan it in and use Illustrator to experiment with colours and Photoshop to move things around. I can then print this out and evaluate it myself.
Using the website map that I put together on the studio wall yesterday, I've tried to start sketching how the main pages might look. Because I'm working with pen and paper the pages all look very hand-drawn but this is obviously not how they would look.
This process has worked really well for me today - every time I draw a page of the website, I'm constantly thinking about each element on the page, how it should be arranged, how to make it clearer, what pages this page will lead to and how.
I'm finding it challenging to design the website - it is like a different language of design that I need to get my head around! But I'm really enjoying it, and I think that by hand-drawing each page I'm pushing my ideas more and questioning them.
Tomorrow I plan to continue drawing possible web pages, especially those that are community-centred so I can think more about those services. I also want to start thinking about the minimum amounts of data I will need to make the site believable.

Website storyboard

We spent most of today in the studio discussing and debating ideas for the theme and title of our degree show, and starting to develop those ideas. This meant I only ended up with about an hour to work on what I wanted to do today. It turned out this was enough - I pieced together the bare bones of what my website might look like (on the wall of my studio), how all the pages might link together, and came up with some more community focused ideas.
Tomorrow I plan to produce initial visuals of how these pages might look. I feel excited about the prospect of designing what has been in my head for ages!

Prototype Presentation February 15th

During a one-day project a few weeks ago, I decided to take the small area of New Cross, then chose a recipe at random and recorded the prices of each ingredient in five different stores. I then worked out the cheapest way of making the recipe, and how much it cost to make it organic. I put this information into a mini leaflet, with a map showing where the shops were.

Then I made the same recipe leaflet but in my own area of N1, where I know the markets and shops a bit better. I quickly realised that the recipe I had chosen – beetroot and bean pasta – was out of season, and should really be made in the summer. I also decided to rule out online delivery stores such as Ocado as an option, because using only local stores would help to keep them open.

I wanted to establish whether other people felt confused about ethical issues when buying food, and also to get an idea of how much people spend on food each week. I used a method that was successful in one of my earlier projects – putting postcards in bus stops with questions on, in order to get text responses. However, after putting cards in bus stops for a few weeks now, I’ve only had one text response. This could be because the questions I’m asking are too personal, or the cards are being removed too quickly.

The system I was using to record prices and map shops wasn’t working, so I made my own map and started using a mobile phone and a numbered shopping list to record prices. This was a bit less conspicuous.

I found another obstacle in that it would be difficult to predict prices and availability for ingredients that are currently not in season.

I realised that the guidelines I’m using to select ingredients, and the reasons behind them, needed to be included with the service, so that people trust the meal plans.

I was also photographing each shop, and numbering the photos to correspond with the map.

I was using a database to record the prices of each ingredient in different stores, which was becoming increasingly complicated.

So I have come to the decision that my final piece will be a website. At the moment, I picture it as a tool, where someone can enter their postcode, budget, number of meals needed, preparation time available, the time of year, and for how many people – then they choose meal options from the results, and get shopping lists, a map of where the shops are, a meal planner and recipes.

I’ve started thinking about what ideas and service could emerge from this basic structure. There could be an email or text service, which tells you what to buy each day and where, and fits into your own routine. Users of the website could register in order to get a more personalised service – so that meal plans don’t become repetitive, for example.

There might be a shopping scheme for people who are elderly or too busy to shop for food – run by local volunteers. This could be integrated into shopping lists, for example asking users if they would mind picking up an extra pack of sausages for their neighbour.

There could be seasonal community cooking lessons, so that people learn what is in season and can teach each other how to cook with it. Users could submit their own recipes to the site, which would then be categorised by area, month and price, and be added to other people’s meal plans.

On Monday 15th February I presented my project so far to five tutors. They suggested that I collect the minimum amount of information necessary to make the website convincing and believable, then communicate and design it really well. They also felt strongly that involving people on a personal level, such as picking up an extra can of beans for your neighbour as I mentioned earlier, should be at the heart of this project. They suggested that I focus on community elements and possibilities. One tutor suggested that there is an opportunity to do something besides a website, such as a tool to help people make shopping decisions.

N1 mapping and feedback

My idea is to provide some kind of service where a person can enter their budget (e.g. for a week), the number and type of meals they need (e.g. 7 breakfasts, lunches and dinners), for how many people (e.g. 2 adults) and their postcode. As a result of entering this information, they will receive a meal planner, recipes, and a shopping list map for the week.

Ethical, seasonal, healthy eating - on a budget.

I've begun the enormous task of mapping the places that sell food in N1, London. I want to compile a database that includes information about the prices of ethical, seasonal ingredients (for nutritious, cheap meals) in each of these shops. I'm doing this recipe by recipe - so far I've looked at porridge (for breakfast) and beetroot & bean pasta (dinner), and compared prices of the ingredients at 5 local shops, Ocado online and Sainsbury's online. I'm making sure that each ingredient adheres to the guidelines I developed through my context report / dissertation.


The task of gathering all this data and then designing a user-friendly, simple way to organise it, can be overwhelming! But I have to start somewhere.

See the N1 map so far here.

In addition to this, I'm trying to get some feedback from N1 residents. I've been using the method that I first tried successfully in October last year, when I was trying to find out what local people wanted to happen to a disused building. This means putting printed postcards in bus stops all around the area, with questions on, and an old mobile number for people to text their answer to. I put up five a couple of days ago, but haven't received any feedback yet. Either people are more reluctant to answer these questions, or the cards were removed before anyone saw them. I've printed off more now and I'll put them up around the area over the next few days.