Bites - Mobile App for Cooking and Food

1 2 Supervised by Prof. Joaquim Antero Magalhães Ferreira Faculty of Fine Arts - University of Porto Prepared by Lama Marwan Najeh Alhaddad Master’s Program of Graphic Design and Editorial Projects Date 09 June 2016 Faculty of Fine Arts - University of Porto Bites Mobile App for Cooking & Food 3 Abstract In our modern world, smartphones and tables with the use of mobile apps are occupying large portion of our daily lives. The objective of this project is to present comprehensive idea, design and business plan of a mobile app for the purpose of completion of Master Degree of Graphic Design and Editorial Projects at Porto University. Bites is an interactive cooking mobile app, in iOS and Android platforms in mixing between entertainment and learning, targeting the age group between 8 and 12 years old in the US market. The attributes included in this product are: 1. Fresh (a matching game of food types and their names); 2. Cook (how-to attribute with recipes of variety of dishes); 3. Bake (the user’s own kitchen and market); and 4. Globe (introduction to international cuisines). Bites’ design is suitable for the targeted age group, where set of selected colors, attributes organization and content integrated are all carefully considered. The business model builds firm relationships with its customers and partners at the same time. The relations with Bites’ partners are based on mutual interests and benefits, while a trusted relationship with customer is maintained after sale. Key words: Mobile App; Apps’ design; Children; Cooking; Modern learning. 4 Resumo No nosso mundo moderno, os smartphones e tablets com o uso de aplicações móveis estão a ocupar uma grande parte do nosso dia-a-dia. O objetivo deste projeto é apresentar um plano de ideias abrangente, de design e de negócios, de uma aplicação móvel para conclusão do Mestrado em Design Gráfico e Projetos Editoriais da Universidade do Porto. Bites é uma aplicação móvel interactiva de culinária, para plataformas iOS e Android, sendo uma mistura entre entretenimento e aprendizagem. Tem como alvo a faixa etária entre os 8 e 12 anos de idade no mercado dos EUA. Os atributos incluídos neste produto são: 1. Fresh (um jogo de correspondência entre tipos de alimentos e os seus nomes); 2. Cook (um `how-to´ com receitas de uma variedade de pratos); 3. Bake (a própria cozinha e mercado do utilizador); e 4. Globe (introdução à cozinha internacional). O design de Bites é adequado para a faixa etária alvo, onde o conjunto de cores selecionadas, os atributos e o conteúdo integrado são todos cuidadosamente considerados. O modelo de negócio constrói relacionamentos sólidos com os seus clientes e parceiros ao mesmo tempo. As relações com os parceiros de Bites são baseadas em interesses e benefícios mútuos, enquanto que é mantida uma relação de confiança com o cliente após a venda. Palavras-chave: Mobile App; design de aplicações; crianças; Cozinhar; e aprendizagem moderna. 5 Table of Content Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Resumo ............................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Content ................................................................................................................. 5 Table of Figures ................................................................................................................... 6 Table of Tables .................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 8 1. Background .................................................................................................................. 9 1.1. Pain ..................................................................................................................... 10 1.2. Mission ............................................................................................................... 11 1.3. Vision .................................................................................................................. 12 1.4. Mission ............................................................................................................... 12 1.5. Keys of Success ................................................................................................... 12 2. Product ...................................................................................................................... 14 2.1. The Name ........................................................................................................... 15 2.2. Market Introductory Remarks ............................................................................ 15 2.3. Product Brief Description ................................................................................... 17 2.4. Product Attributes .............................................................................................. 18 3. Design ........................................................................................................................ 26 3.1. Logo .................................................................................................................... 27 3.2. Colors .................................................................................................................. 28 3.3. Tools ................................................................................................................... 30 4. Business Model .......................................................................................................... 33 4.1. Overview ............................................................................................................ 34 4.2. Partners-Channels Relationship ......................................................................... 35 4.3. Key Resources and Activities .............................................................................. 38 4.4. Value Proposition and Customer Relationships ................................................. 39 4.5. Cost-Revenue Structure ..................................................................................... 40 4.6. Go To Market (GTM) Plan .................................................................................. 42 Phase I ........................................................................................................................ 42 6 Phase II ....................................................................................................................... 43 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 44 References ........................................................................................................................ 45 Table of Figures Figure 1-1: Bites Welcome Page (1) .................................................................................. 10 Figure 1-2: Bites Main Menu (1) ....................................................................................... 12 Figure 2-1: Worldwide Smartphone OS Market Share ..................................................... 15 Figure 2-2: Representation of Bites in iOS ........................................................................ 16 Figure 2-3: Main Attributes Page ...................................................................................... 17 Figure 2-4: Fresh Main Page ............................................................................................. 18 Figure 2-5: Fresh Pages ..................................................................................................... 19 Figure 2-6: Cook Main Page .............................................................................................. 20 Figure 2-7: Cook Pages ...................................................................................................... 21 Figure 2-8: Bake Main Page .............................................................................................. 22 Figure 2-9: Cook Pages ...................................................................................................... 23 Figure 2-10: Globe Main Page........................................................................................... 24 Figure 2-11: Globe Pages .................................................................................................. 25 Figure 3-1: Bites Logo ........................................................................................................ 27 Figure 3-2: Logo in Greyscale and Black & White ............................................................. 27 Figure 3-3: Logo's Typography .......................................................................................... 28 Figure 3-4: Bites Colors ..................................................................................................... 28 Figure 3-5: Bites in Android .............................................................................................. 29 Figure 3-6: Fresh Color Theme .......................................................................................... 29 Figure 3-7: Adobe Illustrator ............................................................................................. 30 Figure 3-8: Adobe Flash .................................................................................................... 30 Figure 3-9: Format ............................................................................................................ 31 Figure 3-10: Grid ............................................................................................................... 32 7 Figure 4-1: Bites Main Menu (2) ....................................................................................... 35 Figure 4-2: Bites Welcome Page (2) .................................................................................. 36 Figure 4-3: Activity Progress Timeline ............................................................................. 39 Figure 4-4: Cost-Revenue Structure .................................................................................. 41 Figure 4-5: GTM Phase I .................................................................................................... 42 Figure 4-6: GTM Phase II ................................................................................................... 43 Table of Tables Table 4-1: Business Model Overview ................................................................................ 34 Table 4-2: Reasons to choose and the relationship with the partners ............................ 37 Table 4-3: Key Resources and Activities ........................................................................... 39 8 Introduction This document introduces the complete idea, design and business plan of a cooking mobile app, named Bites. The project is directed under the purpose of completion and meeting the degree seeking requirements of the Master Program of Graphic Design and Editorial Projects at the University of Porto, in Oporto city, Portugal. As smartphones and tablets are becoming an essential part of our daily lifestyle, mobile apps market is expanding enormously, especially in developed countries, such as US. The use of mobile apps is not exclusive for adults, on the contrary, the trend to use such tools between teens and children is reaching unprecedented records. In this regard, many studies have proven the massive potentials these apps have in education, especially in the fields of enriching the learning abilities; improve several skills and expanding the knowledge in different areas. The idea behind of Bites is to provide an interactive cooking mobile app, in iOS and Android platforms in mixing between entertainment and learning, targeting the age group between 8 and 12 years old in the US market. The purpose of this app is to make cooking learning fun and joyful and seizing that in order to educate the user and improve several skills; such as visual, language and problem solving. Bites’ design is intended to be most suitable for the targeted age group. In order to achieve this objective, the designer focused on keeping the app as much simple, interactive and delightful as possible. The set of selected colors, attributes organization and content integrated are all carefully considered to serve in this direction. It is important to emphasize here that the actual development and programming of this app is beyond the scope of this stage. When it comes to business, Bites business model builds firm relationships with its customers and partners at the same time. The relations with Bites’ partners are based on mutual interests and benefits, where they are considered as the main channels of distribution. Furthermore, Bites intends to maintain a trusted relationship with its customer after sale. A balanced cost-revenue structure is considered in order to achieve the main objective of any investment, profit, with an acceptable payback period. The details of such a structure is beyond the scope of this document. Bites intends to be, similar to its customer, young, enthusiastic, fun and delightful. 9 1. Background Background 16  Relatedly, according to comScore reports on March 2015, in the U.S., Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 42.6% original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market share, while, however, Google Android led as the #1 smartphone platform with 52.4 percent platform market share. In total, 187.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (77% mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in March, up 3% since December (comScore, 2015).  The Product should be available in English and in the following platforms: Android, iOS and (probably Windows Phone depending on the market’s variations). The development process will start with iOS then Android. It is expected that the development for each platform to take about 3 months. Figure 2-2: Representation of Bites in iOS 17 2.3. Product Brief Description  Bites is a smartphone/device application and a visualized game about cooking learning.  Bites contains 4 main attributes in the format of competitive mind games that motivate the user to utilize her/his problem solving, analytical and mathematical skills. The attributes are: Fresh, Cook, Bake and Globe.  Bites is available in the following mobile phone platforms: iOS; Android; and maybe at later phases in Windows Phone, depending on the market variations. The application is available in English for the US market.  Bites targets, primarily, the age group between 8 and 12 years old. The features are design to be most effective with this group, however, Bites is certainly suitable for much larger margin of users’ age. Figure 2-3: Main Attributes Page 18 2.4. Product Attributes  Fresh: o Fresh, the first gaming attribute of Bites, is basically a matching game. o The gamer will have to match pictures of different types of food with the name of each. o The types of food vary between fruits, vegetables, herbs, red meet and white meet. o The more correct answers, the more free coins gained. o This attributes aims to improve:  User’s visual skills  User’s knowledge about food types  User’s language skills Figure 2-4: Fresh Main Page 19 Figure 2-5: Fresh Pages 20  Cook: o Cook, the second gaming attribute of Bites, is basically a How-To attribute. o It provides the user with recipes of variety of dishes and the tools in order to follow these recipes. o These recipes will be presented in a methodologically motivating way. o The recipes will include the most famous dishes in the US and some well-known dishes globally. o The more successfully completed dishes learnt, the more coins earned. o This attributes aims to improve:  User’s problem solving skills  User’s knowledge about food types  User’s management skills Figure 2-6: Cook Main Page 21 Figure 2-7: Cook Pages 22  Bake: o Bake, the third gaming attribute of Bites, is basically the user’s own kitchen and market. o It provides the user with the option to buy ingredients to make recipes. o The user should have enough coins to buy. The user should have also learnt how to make the recipe in the previous attribute, Cook. o This attributes aims to improve:  User’s problem solving skills  User’s management skills  User’s mathematical skills Figure 2-8: Bake Main Page 23 Figure 2-9: Cook Pages 24  Globe: o Globe, the fourth gaming attribute of Bites, is basically the user’s window the international cuisines. o It provides the user the globe and the option to choose a country from the globe (randomly or selectively) in order to learn something about the food of the cuisine of that country. o The user should have enough coins to view the country. Country prices vary depending on the popularity of its cuisine. o Some quizzes will be there to earn coins while learning. o This attributes aims to improve:  User’s geographical knowledge  User’s motivation to learn  User’s knowledge about international cuisines Figure 2-10: Globe Main Page 25 Figure 2-11: Globe Pages 32 Figure 3-10: Grid 33 4. Business Model Business Model 34 4.1. Overview Bites’ business model introduces the main outline for the product’s business line and the roadmap for the business holders in addition to any potential investor. Key Partners: - Healthy food companies - Educational institutes - Sustainable development organizations Key Activities: - Application development - Content authorization - Testing & Feedback - Campaigning & Marketing - Market penetration - Partners contracting Value Propositions: - Mixing learning with entertainment - Advanced but simple - Reliable performance - Low price - User friendly - Up to date content - Partner revenue share - Targeted Advertising Customer Relationships: - Personal assistance (tips & suggestions) - After-sale services (updates) - Feedback Customer Segments: - Tweeners - Advertisers Key Resources: - Application - Human resources - Office - Content & Design - Website Channels: - App stores - Website - Social Media - Healthy food companies - Educational institutes - Sustainable development organizations - Ads Agency Cost Structure: - Overhead - Development - Management - Design - Campaigning & Marketing - Consulting - Contracting Revenue Streams: - Ad-free version sales - In-app purchases - Advertising Table 4-1: Business Model Overview Bites’ business model integrates in a way that guarantee customer’s satisfaction as a methodology for maintaining satisfying revenues for both business holders and their partners. This methodology is based on indirect marketing through Bites’ partners, considering them as main channels to reach the customers and to build strong relationships with them. 35 Bites invests in its key resources within a certain cost structure trying to offer an attractive solutions for parents and children through having a joyful pedagogical game; to offer comprehensive features that enrich the user’s experience; and to offer a profitable experience for its partners and advertisers. This complete solution and these comprehensive services include many features, which are described in product attributes section, in order to integrate this journey mentally and entertaining wise. Bites relies on such user experience in addition to offering certain features of the application for free to guarantee a high number of users that leads to high CPM rates, hence, offering meeting partners’ and advertisers’ expectations. Bites mobile application is available through all of its channels as free version including all attributes. We earn our revenue by enabling the application users to make in-app purchases to earn more coins. Advertising is the second source of revenue, in addition, a third source of revenue is achievable by providing the user the option to get an ad-free version of the app with some in-app purchases unlocked for 1.99 USD. 4.2. Partners-Channels Relationship Bites’ partners are the most significant contributors towards the success of this project. Indeed, the integration between the partners’ and the developers’ objectives is crucially important based on the fact that the project is a powerful tool for the partners’ development, while the partners are considered to be the main channels for the distribution of the project. To elaborate, the project can be a powerful tool for the partners’ development through employing it for the following purposes: a) Marketing and promotion: achieved through assuring a permanent place for the partners’ ads, in addition to providing their clients ad-free version for free. Figure 4-1: Bites Main Menu (2) 36 b) Shares of revenue on the sales achieved through the partners’ channel. Rates and allocation means are to be negotiated with each partner independently. c) Enriching the educational experience of their clients: the content of the app is design to match the partners’ objectives in a way that maintains the exposure over the deliverables they are targeting to convey to their clients. d) Expanding their market value: the integration between this project and its partners it is intended to be within a direction in which any success this app achieves is associated directly to the value of its partners. Furthermore, recently, the inclusion of technology into business is becoming something more significant, even crucial in many cases. On the other hand, the partners are considered to be the main channels of this app considering the following: 1. The partners’ clients are among the most targeted group. 2. All of the partners’ branches and points of existence are considered to be points of sales and distribution for the app. 3. The app will benefit from the existing reputation and market share of its partners for its market penetration strategy. The targeted market is wide and the potential partners vary. It is important to consider that any selected partner should represent a real mutual business opportunity for both sides. Based on this fact, the performed market research focused on three main sectors to choose potential partners from: 1. Health food companies; 2. Educational Institutes; and 3. Sustainable development organizations. The following table 1 explains the reasons behind the selection of each sector, in addition to the relationship between Bites and its partner. Figure 4-2: Bites Welcome Page (2) 37 Sector Selection Reasons Expected benefits offered to the partner Expected benefits from the partner Health food companies - Shared objective of promoting better cooking practices - Partner’s clients are potentially interested in the app’s services - Well creditability and reputation that such partners potentially have - Tools to promote the partner’s interest - Expanding the partner’s reachability - Expanding market share and value - Revenue share on sales - Advertisement - Sales and distribution channel - Expanding the app’s reachability - Expanding market share and value - Continuous feedback Educational Institutes - Shared objective of promoting interactive education - Partner’s clients are potentially interested in the app’s services - Well creditability and reputation that such partners potentially have. - Tools and attributes that partner’s clients are interested in - Expanding the partner’s reachability - Benefiting from tech integration with education - Expanding market share and value - Revenue share on sales - Advertisement - Sales and distribution channel - Expanding the app’s reachability - Expanding market share and value - Continuous feedback Sustainable development organizations - Shared objective of promoting ecofriendly cooking practices - Well creditability and reputation that such partners potentially have. - Social responsibility - Tools to promote the partner’s interest - Expanding the partner’s reachability - Revenue share on sales - Advertisement and promotion - Sales and distribution channel - Expanding the app’s reachability - Social responsibility - Continuous feedback Table 4-2: Reasons to choose and the relationship with the partners 38 4.3. Key Resources and Activities In order to guarantee achieving the production of a high quality product that satisfies both the developers’ and the partners’ objectives, an optimized utilization process of key resources has to take place through a certain set of activities. Similar to the development of any mobile app, the main resources needed can be classified into: human; technological; and financial resources. Within the same context, the activities can be classified into: development-related and business-related activities. Table 4.3 presents the explanation for each activity with the resources needed, while figure 4.3 presents the progress timeline for these activities. Activity Resources Human Financial Tech Developmentrelated Idea Creation Formulation of the general ideas, objectives and expected outcomes √ Layout Sketching Initially sketching the layout of the entire app and finalizing it; including the logo design, theme color selection and the main features’ general production. √ √ Content Design Designing the main and accessory features of the app; including the recipes pages, icons, menus, etc. √ √ App Development Developing the attributes of the app in the selected programming languages. √ √ √ Businessrelated Data Collection Various related data regarding the scope of the project were collected; including statistics about the target group and smart phones’ usage in the targeted market. √ √ Market Research Investigation about the current competitors’ shares in the market was made in addition to the assessment for the potential demand for such apps. √ √ Marketing and Contracting Several tasks performed within this activity, including: looking for partners; creating advertising campaigns; making √ √ √ 39 deals with the selected partners; testing a demo version of the app; and modifying the app according to feedback. Market Penetration Penetrating the market and distributing the app through direct sales and the available channels √ √ Table 4-3: Key Resources and Activities Figure 4-3: Activity Progress Timeline 4.4. Value Proposition and Customer Relationships The developers of Bites have set up the expectations and made the commitment to provide their customers with a top-quality mobile app that maintain the best value of money. The developers utilize all of their skills and resources within the allocated activity in order to assure the proposition of the following values: 1. Merging between learning and entertainment Although Bites is developed as an entertaining game, but the main aim is further more than only that. This app is intended to enrich the user’s knowledge about food types; international cuisines; and global geography. In addition, especially for the targeted age group, playing Bites’ games is expected to empower the user’s visual; language; mathematical; management; and problem solving skills. 2. Advanced but simple features The offered features are robust and well designed and developed in order to provide an integrated advanced experience for the users. However, those features are presented in simple and interactive means. 3. Reliable performance The designed interface and developed algorithm are both integrated with dedication to achieve a satisfactory performance to the level that makes the users’ time spent using Bites joyful. Feedback at all stage of the Go-To-Market plan is crucial in this regard. 40 4. Low price Bites revenue structure is designed to offer multiple options for its customers. A free version of the app that includes all of the apps’ attributes will be available to download for everyone. The in-app purchases are offered in considerably low prices. Moreover, the option to acquire a free-ad version will be offered with some packs of in-app features for a competitive price. 5. User friendly The interface design carefully considers the suitability with age of the targeted group of customers. 6. Up to date content Content is constantly updated, expanded and delivered to the users within the newer releases of Bites versions. 7. Partner revenue share Based on independent negotiations with each, partners are offered getting revenue shares on sales achieved through their channels of distributions. 8. Targeted Advertising In order to better match the advertisers’ and users’ interests, Bites’ ads is targeted in directions that considers the age, interests and geographical location and the users. All of these values are maintained with a robust relationship with both Bites’ customers and partners. The maintenance of this relationship takes place in forms of: a. Inquiring continuous feedback; b. communicating with partners through regular communication means and with customers through tips and hints; and c. continuous updates offered based in the feedback in order to improve the apps features and fix bugs. 4.5. Cost-Revenue Structure The cost-revenue relationship is the most crucial element to the judge the success of Bites as a business. In simple terms, the main revenue streams of Bites’ are from the adfree version sales; in-app purchases; and advertising. The ad-free version, which includes many of the in-app packs, is for 1.99 USD. In-app purchases rate are considered to be a low rates, while the advertising rates are to be negotiated with the interested agents. On the other hand, several costs are needed to make Bites ready for the market and to run it after that. These costs are varied among overhead; programing and development; design; management; campaigning and marketing; consulting; and contracting. The critical need in this regard is to approach the break-even point as early as possible in order to reduce the payback period of the investment. The financial analysis is beyond the scope of this document and will be developed later in a separate one. 41 Figure 4-4: Cost-Revenue Structure Revenue •Ad-free version sales •In-app purchases •Advertising Cost •Overhead •Development •Management •Design •Campaigning & Marketing •Consulting •Contracting