Consultancy Team F: Healthy Recipe App

Brief
Two researchers from Nottingham created a mobile application that recommends healthy recipes to users. The recipes are recommended based on the user's profile (e.g. the amount of calories intake per day, health conditions like diabetes, hypertension). There are over 5,000 recipes available and users are able to search recipes by speed and difficulty. On top of that, users are also able to filter based on criteria that matter to them such as vegan, gluten-free, high protein, etc. The app is implemented on both iOS and Android platforms. One of the most interesting features in this app is that it recommends ingredient substitutes to provide a healthier option of the food that the user likes (e.g. replacing avocado with cucumber in sandwiches as a lower fat option).

The development of the mobile app has been completed and the researchers have identified postgraduate students as their target users. However, they do not know if this is a right decision.

What the client currently thinks they want to know

Are postgraduate students conscious about the food they eat? Do they think that the app could help improve their eating habits? If the answer is ‘yes', then why? If the answer is ‘no', then why not? Would students be willing to pay for the app? What type of cuisines are the most appealing to postgraduate students? Should the app be available in different languages or culturally tuned? Where should the app be advertised? The client has been very clear that they want to know whether there are any other features or functions that this app should have in order to gain a competitive advantage. The client also wants to know what research has been done into this type of app, the data needed for it to work and the data gathered (or that it could potentially gather)?