74 karma · joined October 26, 2020
btncode.com tearounder.app protostart.net
I suppose the differences in how those two equivalent departments approach this, likely come from national mindset differences, and the political differences they cause. At least it seems reasonable to me: that in Washington people might all agree that the right to decide if you are tested is more important than finding insecure webservers, whilst in London people might well all agree on the opposite.
My MVP solves quite a few of the grumbles people mention, and other grumbles either dictate the sort of venues that shouldn't adopt this tech, or show why this tech should always be as well as traditional service not "instead of". (There are also some grumbles that require more development to iron out)
Stuff my MVP does that solve grumbles mentioned in this thread: - simple URL format means you can use the URL rather than scan a QR code. If the restaurant name is long, a shorter version of the name should be used for good UX. I see QR codes that point to those URLs, as a good and easy option to provide for those people who now expect a QR code, but not the main way to access the menu. - web based means no need to install an app (I have also met some of the basic requirements for a "Progressive Web App" so some browsers will let you save it to your device once you are on the website if you want) - I keep file-sizes low, and put thought and effort into making it load and continue functioning smoothly even over slow and patchy internet connections. There are some things I could do to improve performance and smoothness on poor connections, particularly during building up your order, but it was easy to make it so that you can browse a menu to your hearts content even if your connection drops completely right after page load. Right now data for entire menu comes over at page load as JSON (that was created when restaurant last changed their menu), all UI up to placing order is handled in one page via client side JS, then as you add items to your order ajax calls add those items to a WooCommerce cart and tapping order sends you to a WordPress/WooCommerce checkout screen. Extra dev time to make a buffered version of that system, would get the connection need down to just the pageload and checkout/pay, but with the basic setup I have right now there is also need for a connection each time you add an item. The MVP setup would also require restaurants to have their woocommerce orders page up on some device behind the bar, which is not a great UI for their needs - so a "full" version of the web-app would need a custom page, and only use WooCommerce as a back-end if that made sense for that restaurant.
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1) the original way where you have a grid that you can put items/crafting materials on. If you put particular materials on the grid in the pattern for an item, it will give you the option of taking that item at the expense of the ingrediants 2) when they ported to consoles, they made it with a recipe book, where you choose what you want to make and creation just happens if you can - no need to remember patterns, no need to move items into the pattern. The recipe book shows things that you have some of the ingredients of, and has colour coded backgrounds for all the ingredients or just some.
Either way you craft things that the game already knows about. Building things in the world is different - you just place blocks or items where you want them. I'm not sure how that relates to programming. I can't say I really understood the article.
It sounds like you need to spend time using it yourself, thinking over it's use, getting others to use it, watching them get stuck, listening to their questions. Get family or friends who have never used the app to use it while you are there and find out what they struggle with. For knowing what functionality it needs - find people who are interested in paying for that kind of product - family and friends are great for doing the app equivalent of proofreading, but unless they are in your market they may well have lots of ideas, but you'll have no idea if they're the right ideas to build.
Some confusing things about your UI (in order of me noticing them):
- "Are there any ingredients that are not available?" - this looks like it needs rewording to something like "avoid these ingredients" or "any common ingredients not available", I knew what you meant, the search will exclude recipes with those items, but it felt weird to read - there are probably 1000s of ingredients that I don't have in my kitchen, I'm not going list those. I might list things like milk if I where cooking for a lactose intolerant person in that box, or I might use that for if I where out of something common.
- on laptop screen, box around the search form has a huge gap to the right of the form inputs. I'd either make the inputs a % width of that box, or put them in two columns when wide enough
- the previously mentioned thing about inputs needing to treat , being entered as if the user had tapped space
- I'd probably expect to see filters for vegan/veggie/pescatarian / low gi etc but then maybe not - that's the kind of thing you could build if you run out of things from proper users - unfortunately I rarely cook proper meals so I'm not really in your target market I would assume.
- Shopping list feature is a feature I could use, if it where better, (though I currently use a shopping list app that I threw together myself by quickly modifying another thing I'd made previously, and it works reasonably well for me) - your icons seem too small and fiddly, and I'd want a few buttons on screen of common things - so I can tap those instead of typing them.
Edit: It might be a quote from fiction but there's some truth in there somewhere
1)you can lower activation energy of some tasks by telling yourself that you're just going to do x minutes of it now, where x is an amount of time that feels ok to suffer through. Depending on where you're at, x might be like 2 minutes, or 5 or 10 or whatever. Then you set a timer and try to do at least the amount you told yourself you would. Often I find I'm at a point of energy where I can cope with finishing the task, or doing a chunk of time more - at the very least the task will be a bit smaller than it was, reducing the activation energy a little.
2)Music can really help uplift me. I have my best speakers set up in my kitchen, such that the sweet spot for the stereo effect is right in front of my kitchen sink. My kitchen lacks a dishwasher, and I'm not fond of washing up, so the washing up is one task that I often want to put off for future me. The music makes it much more inviting and cozy, lowering the activation point each day and contributing to the coping with finishing effect in tip 1.
3) I can also use music to help me get out of my bedroom, and even help me start each day off to a good, happy, start. This requires having speakers that you can activate from a distance, or set on a timer/alarm function. I set some music to play in another room, such that I can kinda hear it from my bedroom, but I'm only really getting the bass and louder notes, and I naturally want to move nearer to the source of the sound to hear my favourite songs properly. I don't treat the alarm function on my speaker like a traditional alarm clock to be turned off as soon as I'm awake - I treat it as way of automatically having interesting and uplifting sonic stimulation that helps me be more awake than I would be. I leave it on while I'm getting my breakfast etc until I either need some quiet to focus on work, or I head out my home.
4)Know your low energy points of the day if you have them, and target those times. After identifying that at 11:30am I'm often unproductive and feeling a slump, I set up a couple of alarms on my phone, spread out by a minute or two that just gives me a quote that resonates with me. The quote I use, comes from an animated comedy on Netflix that I really like. First message is: "Every day it gets a little easier", second message is "But you gotta do it every day". I could do a third message with the rest of the quote, but that feels overkill and actually I enjoy finishing off the quote in my head.
I realised fairly quickly, that a great early step to achieving that goal, is via browser games that invite players to build their own levels or maps to share with their friends. People can play a game as a quick and occasional diversion with no commitment, then if they've had fun and tools I provide aren't overwhelming, they can have fun creating. At that point they are contributing to the game, learning basics of creating and gradually building confidence. Maybe later they'll go further and get involved with my public GitHub or my subreddit.
It's going to take months more to fully finish the opening game and map builder, but I've got the starts to a fairly simple 2d adventure/escape game in JavaScript that will run in any browser & play on any device. http://solarrageasylumbeta.protostart.net
I've been releasing it incrementally via a public GitHub project, with a beta version that makes it easy to jump in and play whatever feels polished at the time & a messy alpha version hidden behind a "deliberately not-secure" cheat code updated along with most of my GitHub commits.
Before starting on the game I also set up some basic overall community stuff: subreddit for (r/ProtoStart), website that sets out what the community is about protostart.net/
Here's what I see looking in my messages app - the last message in each of the most recent "conversations" :
50% off Pizza
A 2 factor authentication code for a government website
A person responding to a text I'd sent saying I'd phone them back
Another 2 factor code for some app
A conversation I had in a rare moment where I had phone signal but not a data connection
A link to my latest phone bill
A message from my countries national health service saying I could finally get a 2nd dose of vaccine
A text from my bank
Someone I know well enough to have their phone number, but don't talk to enough to have switched over to something else
its still early days though!
(I had only heard of the city in Italy and the type of sausage so was confused, this was the most likely sounding thing that came up on a search)