[Sigia-l] Cooking

[Ziya Oz]

Katie Ware:
  
> I'm curious Ziya - do you have any thoughts on what would be the driver for
> fundamentally new approaches?

Nobody has approached me with a checkbook in hand yet for a new-gen cooking
venue design, so my thoughts on this are of my frustrations. ;-)

Many people sent me their favorite sites on cooking. Surely, there are a
variety of interesting features on these sites, but I haven't been able to
spot one place that immediately captures my interest/craving.

Most cooking sites are very crowded places. One of the principal problems is
that not enough facets (of cooking) are exposed and certainly not
inter-related.

For example, as much I might think about ingredients, an equally limiting
factor in cooking is time. It's hard to find a site that allows you start by
pivoting around time. Not simple 'time to prep', but also pre/post cooking
time, like chilling food. Some foods need to be chilled for 2-3 hours, some
overnight. Many dishes require you to prep sauces, spices, bases and other
components ahead of time. Others require de-skinning, cleaning, filtering,
peeling, etc that can take considerable amount of time...You often find out
about this *at the end of* your search, not as an easily accessible facet.

It's hard to pivot around mood, seasonality, occasion, level of cooking
experience, or even cost of ingredients!

For god's sake, perhaps the majority of recipes out there HAVE NO PICTURE.
Or a tiny stamp-size atrocity. I select what I want to cook by simply
pre-visualizing it. It'd virtually be impossible for me to select a recipe
without seeing an inviting picture. Cooking without pictures is like having
sex in the dark.

Anyway, I think cooking online is still in its dark ages.

----
Ziya

In design, interaction is the last resort.