Whole Foods: our most drool-inducing project yet
Posted by James Keller on 2 July 2009 @ 14:22 PT
Raven and I have been known to pass travel time by making the short list of folks/brands that we’d like to work with someday, but from day one of Small Society, there was one company that Raven was passionate about making an app for…
Whole Foods Market has always kept the citizens of Small Society stocked with Kombucha (those of you who know us will understand how serious this is), and both Raven and Jon spent some time living in Austin, Texas, home of Whole Foods and their absolutely gorgeous flagship store. So, this year when Raven was in Austin to moderate the “iPhone: The New Gaming Platform” panel at SXSW, he and I decided to swing by headquarters to have a quick meet and greet with their team. Lucky for us, it was a great meeting, and we kicked off just a few weeks later.
When we started thinking about how to bring the Whole Foods brand to life in the mobile space, there was a lot of passion about the content available in their recipe database. Whole Foods has a core mission to bring fresh and healthy food to their customers - and so it makes sense to help those customers transform that food into a nourishing meal that they can share with friends and family around the table.
Our only concern was that there were already some recipe apps available on the app store. But, after discussing it, we all agreed that the exact same brand values that make Whole Foods different than your average grocery chain would help differentiate the app itself. We focused the user experience on these key criteria - for example, the recipe search has a filter that supports special diets such as vegan, dairy free or sugar conscious, and the recipes call for quality, whole ingredients.
We also wanted to flip the recipe finder concept on its head a bit. As much as I’d like to tell you that I pre-plan each week’s meals and shop ahead, the project team agreed that most of us don’t usually approach dinner that way. Instead, most of us open the freezer, fridge, and pantry door and rely on our creativity to make something work. It was this paradigm that inspired the “on hand” feature that allows you to choose up to three ingredients and the app provides recipes that leverage what you already have available.
Our app launch was timed perfectly with the launch of the iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update, so the Whole Foods app was built using key new Apple technologies such as MapKit for the store finder, in-application email for sharing favorite recipes, and the ability to copy recipe data using Cut, Copy, Paste functionality.
(Please note that because we used these awesome 3.0 technologies, your device needs to be on 3.0 for the app to work. If you haven’t already done so, upgrade, it’s worth it… we promise!)
On its first day in the app store, it was hailed as a Staff Favorite. We are also very proud to announce that it is currently Apple’s App Store Pick of the Week.
It was awesome working with the Whole Foods team, and we hope that as you read this you are happily snacking on Strawberry Shortcakes with Maple Syrup and Frozen Yogurt. Wait, you aren’t? Better download the app (after all, it’s free!)
