Yes Alexa, you have nailed it.
Foodspotting.com is a visual guide to food. It isn’t like any of the other dime-a-dozen restaurant finder websites and apps. It is based on the dishes themselves and cleverly latched onto the trend of people snapping shots of their food and sharing it with friends.
This is, i think, the best example of the new breed of online. It isn’t really a website or an app. It’s more than that. It doesn’t tack-on ‘Like’ or ‘Tweet’ buttons and think it is a social network. The social element has been woven into the fabric of the tool — it is foodspotting’s very architecture.
What foodspotting.com does so right
- Fulfills a previously unmet need – people want to know what to eat and where, not just a directory listing
- Tapped into the fact that people taste first with their eyes – it’s visceral and emotional
- Captialised on the growing trend of people snapping their food and sharing it with their friends
- Single purpose
- Uses Facebook for easy signup and login
- Maps as interface
- Clever partnerships – a marriage made in heaven with The Travel Channel allowing people to follow other foodspotters like Anthony Bourdain
- Based entirely on positive feedback – it isn’t about rating or complaining, only sharing good experiences
Foodspotting mobile experience
I’m fairly new to it but you can check me out at www.foodspotting.com/tiffanyapatu. Join up whilst you are there!
I was fortunate enough to see the brainchild of foodspotting, Alexa Andrzejewski, speak at UX Week 2011. She was very inspirational and shared not only how she came up with the idea, but her journey to make it happen – a great story by a great designer. Here she is talking for Fast Company:
http://video.fastcompany.com/plugins/player.swf?v=bdee60ca9bcea&p=fc_social
