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Some key features of GetMeCooking

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Profile picture of Paul Posted 12 December 2009 by Paul
  • Great usability
    • Really easy to use, while being very clever behind the scenes
    • Real-time validation on user forms, so no getting to the end of a form and pressing submit before being told that you got something wrong at the top!
    • Easy to use navigation (no drop down or hidden menus)
    • Easy sharing of recipes, blogs and articles via e-mail, twitter, facebook and other social networks via the AddThis toolbar
    • Every recipe has a finished photograph so you can see what it should look like before you make it
    • Summary recipe information is displayed on the recipe page for finding recipes quickly
    • Essential recipe information at the top of every page. Such as finished photograph, description, ingredients, cooking time and allergies
    • Photographs can be enlarged for better clarity
    • Dynamic recipe search box. The contents of the recipe database are read and potential matches are displayed as you type
    • Simple measurement conversion for ingredients, between Imperial, Metric and USA. Plus the site will remember which measurement you last used so will automatically display those values for each recipe as you view it
    • Servings calculator. Enter the number of servings that you would like to produce and the quantities of the ingredients get updated automatically
    • Descriptive URL’s, so you can easily identify what you are about to view when someone e-mails you a link e.g. http://www.getmecooking.com/recipe/american-style-blueberry-pancakes)
    • Minimum fuss. We will not force you to spend time completing your user profile, we will try to obtain that information automatically (e.g. using Facebook Connect). We only ask you for the minimum information required to perform the task
    • Rich text editor for writing articles
    • Print specific templates. Print the recipes with just the required information, no adverts or website navigation menus
  • Guest access
    • We don't believe in forcing users to sign up in order to gain access to features unless there is a tangible reason for doing so. So guest users can do most of what registered users can do, including post alternate recipe photographs, articles, comments, recipes and suggestions
    • The main difference is that guest users will not have user-specific functionality such as user profiles and the recipe box
  • Easy user registration
    • Register on the site with a standard username and password or with OpenID (http://openid.net/get-an-openid/start-using-your-openid/). OpenID accounts include AOL, Facebook, Google, Windows Live ID and Yahoo
    • When registering with an OpenID account, the site will automatically complete the optional user information for you, which saves time and typing errors
    • If you want to use a standard username and password type of account you can. No other information is required when you register, which makes becoming a user of the site quick and easy
  • Easy Login
    • One click login with an OpenID account
    • A cookie on your computer will remember who you are so you don't have to manually sign in each time until you manually log out
  • User profile pages
    • Easy to manage
    • Associate your logon to one or more OpenID providers
    • Allows you to tell the world a little bit about yourself
    • Lists recipes you have submitted
    • Lists articles you have submitted
    • Optionally displays your twitter account
    • Optionally displays your website address
  • Gravatar for user images
    • We use Gravatar (http://www.gravatar.com) for user images. This service has several advantages including:
      • Allows users to centrally store and manage their user images (on http://www.gravatar.com)
      •  The user does not have to manually upload a photograph onto GetMeCooking (saves time)
      • Allows GetMeCooking to use the image that the user wants at a size that GetMeCooking wants
      • More chance of the image will be cached on the user’s PC, which means it will load faster
  • Recipe box
    • Save recipes that you like the look of to your own recipe box, so you can easily reference them whenever you like
  • Comments
    • Comments should be from users who have tried the recipe. Comments are a good way for other users to get confidence that the recipe worked well and the instructions were easy to follow
  • Suggestions
    • Suggestions are kept separate from comments. A suggestion might be 'would work better with more chocolate'
  • Add your own photograph to other peoples recipes
    • If you have seen a recipe and made it yourself, you can show the world your end result by uploading a photograph of your recipe to the recipe page that you saw it
  • Great code
    • The site is written in AJAX, C# .net (using the MVC framework), CSS, JavaScript and HTML. We pride ourselves in writing great code
    • We are coding the site to be generally fast and responsive, using several clever techniques
    • Dynamic features which effect only a portion of the page. e.g. when you change the number of servings on a recipe, only the ingredients part of the page refreshes and is highlighted temporarily to show you what has changed. We do not force the whole page to reload
    • Incremental results display. View the recipes page and scroll down. If you have Java installed you will see that only some of the recipes are loaded at first. As you scroll down, more recipes will be retrieved and displayed. This makes browsing the top results really fast because you don’t need to download unnecessary recipes. However we have also made the display of additional recipes fast too!
  • Advertising
    • We don't like too much advertising because it is distracting, so we will keep it to a minimum
    • We can't stand adverts with animation, video or sound, so we will not use those
    • We will keep all adverts relevant to the subject on the page. We want adverts that you might find interesting

 Something that other sites have, but we don't:

  • Recipe ratings - we don't like them!
    • Many recipe sites have ratings, however we feel that rating of recipes is actually a bad thing because:
      • If a lot of similar recipes all have a 5 star rating, that does not help the user decide which is best
      • Recipes are subjective. We all have different tastes and preferences, so what is a great recipe for one person might not be great for another
      • They are open to abuse. Users could rate recipes randomly or they might be biased towards (or against) an author
      • There are other (smarter) ways to determine which recipes are the most popular

Do your other favourite cooking sites have all of these features?

Which features do you like, which do you not like? What features would you like to see?

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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