Your Smart Kitchen Companion
Disha is a project that came out of extensive research in a series of domains related to food in India. With Disha, a series of macro trends were studied including the state of farmers and the agricultural industry in India, changing lifestyle trends in the city and the changing urban environment. Our research led us to question what the deifinition of sensible living in the context of food is for people in the city.
Disha is a mobile application that uses a series of datasets and smart data algorithms to provide recipes to users based on the ingredients in their house. The algorithms are designed to learn about the users and provide more and more relevant recipe suggestions to the users based on several criteria.
Disha is a mobile application that uses smart data algorithms to provide recipe suggestions to users based on several factors such as cultural preferences, availability of ingredients and so on.
For understanding the topic of sensible living through food, there were nearly fifteen experts and interpreters that were contacted. These were doctors, psychologists, counselors, ayurvedic doctors, nutritionists, urban farmers, farm consultants, organic farmers and many
more.
Experts act to supplement our knowledge about a domain. Interview design that is reinforced with expert interviews is more intent driven.
The people that were chosen to interview were all extreme users. These were users that were extreme foodies and loved experimenting with food. The other end of the spectrum were those that went to the gym and were extremely fitness conscious and only cared about the nutritional value of food and not the flavours and the general taste of the food. Another opposing category to this were people that did yoga and meditated. These people had a very different approach to food.
Users from extreme ends of the bell curve were chosen for interviews.
Based on the answers that the users gave us during the interviews, the data was segregated into certain clusters. The major clusters that the users information was segregated into was cooking, preparation of food, and procurement of food. Most of the answers that the users spoke about revolved around these three clusters. Another over-arching theme that came from the interviews was related to moral values. This provided a very interesting angle for synthesis.
The major clusters that the users information was segregated into was cooking of food, preparation of food and procurement of food.
From the very beginning, the three most fundamental resources that we have been in the process of acquiring is food, water and shelter. The competition for resources often takes a lot of effort if we are to succeed and so the very fact that we are able to food on the table regularly is a validation of our efforts. It shows that we have developed good strategies and are able to acquire the basic resources well for our survival.
Food plays a very important role in defining our culture, especially in the Indian context. From a very young age, the ideas of our culture are taught to us through the food we eat. And so food plays a very important role in propagating our culture.
In Hindu mythology, Shiva is the Creator of the world and so he is responsible for creating an abundance of food. Shakti is the Goddess that is responsible for the resourceful utilization of this wealth and for keeping Shiva in line with the goals of the Universe. As Shiva is a male form and Shakti is a female form, society interpreted this information in their context to mean that men should be the one that earn the food, and women should be responsible for aligning this food with the purpose of the family.
No one seems to believe in using specific measurements while cooking. It is all an approximation. And so, at it’s core, what we can understand is that Indian cooking is all about proportions and how different proportions can lead to different outcomes. These proportions are what define the differences between different cultures and within a culture, these proportions also highlight the differences between families.
From the very beginning, the three most fundamental resources that we have been in the process of acquiring is food, water and shelter. The competition for resources often takes a lot of effort if we are to succeed and so the very fact that we are able to food on the table regularly is a validation of our efforts.It shows that we have developed good strategies and are able to acquire the basic resources well for our survival.
Food plays a very important role in defining our culture, especially in the Indian context. From a very young age, the ideas of our culture are taught to us through the food we eat.and so food plays a very important role in propagating our culture.
In Hindu mythology, Shiva is the Creator of the world and so he is responsible for creating the abundance of food. Shakti is the Goddess that is responsible for the resourceful utilization of this wealth and for keeping Shiva in line with the goals of the Universe. As Shiva is a male form and Shakti is the female form, society interpreted this information in their context to mean that men should be the one that earn the food,and women should be responsible for aligning this food with the purpose of the family
No one seems to believe in using specific measurements while cooking. It is all an approximation. And so, at it’s core, what we can understand is that Indian cooking is all about proportions and how different proportions can lead to different outcomes. These proportions are what define the differences between different cultures and within a culture, these proportions also highlight the differences between different families.
Families are keen to show off the quality of their legacy.
People take a lot of pride in the distinctiveness of their family recipes. The proportions that we spoke about are how a family expressed their identity in a community and it is also a showcase of the culture that they belong to.
These behaviours thus show that for a family, their ability to be unique yet show that they are part of a culture is a source of pride for the family. This is apparent in the enthusiasm with which parents try to teach their children family recipes and make sure that the children understand and appreciate them.
Keeping this in mind, can we design solutions to help families stay grounded in their culture, and also aid them by providing the direction that is needed in order to align the family to its’ purpose?
Disha is a mobile application that leverages the power of google's image recognition technology. When you switch on the application and point your camera at a cluster of vegetables, it uses its image recognition technology to detect all the fruits and vegetables and is able to suggest recipes to you. These recipes are suggested based on certain filters that the users enter into the application such as cultural cuisine suggestions like like Gujarati, Maharashtrian, Bengali and so on. The app will run the ingredients through its database using these filters and provide the best optimized recipes for the users.
The name and logo of the application have a very simple language and significance. The logo is inspired from a chef’s hat but has been made more minimal to suit the needs of a logo design. The proportions of the logo are in the golden ratio and signify balance. The name of the application is “Disha” because the application aims to guide the users and provide relevant recipes just like a cultural mentor would.
Low fidelity mockups and wireframes were designed to understand the flow and functionality of the application before the final screens were designed.
The app is designed in a way to make it seem like all the food dishes are on a kitchen counter top. Scrolling happens horizontally, but the search screen(third screen) has vertical scrolling.
When a recipe is clicked on, these are screenshots of how the screen will look. Vertical scrolling enables the screen to look like a recipe page is placed on top of the kitchen counter top. All the recipes follow the same style. The ingredients are displayed visually because different regions have different names for ingredients and a visual cue will help users understand the ingredients better.
When the user switches over to the ingredient section, the application opens the camera to scan the ingredients. The ingredient list is again presented visually to ensure that the local names of the vegetables do not confuse the users.
Here, we get an example of scrolling through others photos and in case the users like the look of a food item, they can click on 'view recipe' and go to the recipe that was used to make the dish.
This final section deals with the algorithm of the data that makes all the features of the application possible. A recipe can be broken down into two parts- the ingredients and the process. The algorithms references these two parts when it presents a recipe and alterations are made to either based on the goals of the user.
This is a prototype detailing out the algorithm of the application. The first step is to enter the cuisine you would like recipes for. As this algorithm is based off prototype data, the cuisines mentioned here are West, South and North.
The next step is to add ingredients based off which the algorithm will provide recipes. The algorithm then shows all the recipes in a hierarchy in which they can be selected. The hierarchy is determined by the number of ingredients that a recipe and the user both have.
Data will play a vital role in the world that we build tomorrow. This project shows us that we are moving a future where it is not enough for a business just to have the solution to a problem. With increasing access to resources and technology, businesses have to step up their game and move towards a world of personalised solutions. Data is a great enabler of personalisation, if used ethically. This project attempts to bridge the gap between traditional design techniques and new age problems solving tools.