Someone just rated my sandwich at a 57%! Come on, it’s way healthier than that. Over the last few weeks I have been taking pictures of everything that I eat, and I don’t mean in that arthouse Instagram kind of way. I have been submitting my food for social approval on the iPhone app, The Eatery.
You snap a photo of what you are eating and you have the option to add a little blurb about the food. As soon as you take your photo it quickly asks you to rate other people’s food. So while I let my lunch soup cool a bit I play judge and jury to the world’s lunch plate. A tuna sandwich? I rate it 60%, an apple 100%, a lasagna and a beer–22%!
About the time I start getting bored and super hungry from staring at other people’s food I get a notification–Your soup was just rated on The Eatery – 90%! Huzzah!
It’s so simple. I have always wanted to track my food intake but counting calories and trying to figure out how many @*$&^ servings I had was just ridiculous to figure out. Show 30 people your food over the course of a week and let them rate it healthiest to least healthy and you’ve got some real data to work with.
It took me a couple days to begin to see the value in this app. For one, it makes me conscience of exactly what I am eating. If I know there is going to be a jury of my peers rating my salad, I am going to put a lot less dressing on it. Why? Because I want better points. (See: Gamification.)
Another bit of value that I realized was that I was able to track my daily trends. I ate less healthy today than I did yesterday. I need to make up for it tomorrow.
The app isn’t without it’s hiccups. I would say that the biggest downside (or upside) is that it all depends on the photo itself. Take a beautiful sun-lit photo of lasagna, showcase the veggies in it, and you will get a higher rating than if you just snap a photo top-down in a florescent room. I know what I am eating is unhealthy but if I am a good photographer I can game the system. I guess the big point here is that you are only cheating yourself–unless you are using the app to become a fabulous food photographer, then you have got the hookup for three critiques a day of your work.
An example of the differences in ratings based on the photo was made clear when I made some curry for dinner one night. I got a 54%. I later reheated the curry for lunch the next day and got an 83%. I made sure the avocados were not saucy and took the photo next to the window. The differences in the rating are pretty drastic.
Even with the subjectivity of god-knows-who rating your food, this app still gets to the root of healthy eating. It makes you conscience of the food you are eating, and that is a great thing. 87%!
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Are QR codes are dead? I have not heard anyone tell me a good QR code story–although I have a good one involving the DC Metro and Where’s Waldo. What are some ways to breathe some real life into these little black and white boxes?
So every one is getting smart phones. So every business is slapping a QR code on every surface they can. Who cares when the only thing we are going to see is, at best, a review and at worst a non mobile-optimized website of the company.
We need a new idea or technology that is going to make me care about scanning a QR code. Think about it. I am out of my house, and I am busy. You want me to take 5 minutes out of my day to not only glance at your ad but learn more about your product? Are you a street vendor yelling at me? No thanks! I honestly don’t care what you are selling even if I do care about your product.
For QR codes to survive there needs to be a central app that everyone uses to scan the code. The code is not a URL, but text. The text will have code inside of it that interprets what you are scanning. Example:
Type:Clothing,Shoes Company:Teva Type:Riva,Leather,E-Vent
Once I scan the QR code (remember that I am using one central app) it takes me to a page that shows me button to write or see reviews of the show, a button for the Teva facebook page, a share button, a check-in button, a button to allow me to snap a photo of the shoes, or a button to watch video related to the product. Based on tags the app will be able to distinguish between clothing, restaurants, outdoor brands, etc. and serve related channels to learn and share.
Is the QR code on an ad for a dress you think your friend would like? Scan the QR code and among other buttons will be one to share this dress with a friend. Sophia just messaged you back on Facebook that she “loves that freaking dress and thanks for sharing it with me!” Sophia buys the dress two minutes later.
Is the QR code on a movie poster outside of a mall? Among other buttons being presented once you scan the QR code is one that lets you purchase movie tickets. You probably already clicked the button to watch the trailer, and clicked the button to look at the reviews.
Take the QR code out of the hands of the marketer who is trying to guess what one thing you might want to see while you are looking at the code and put the QR code into the hands off a third-party app that gives you all of the possible options under the sun.
It needs to be one app because it needs to be third-party to make the scanner know that he is not being sold out or manipulated.
It needs to be one app because it lets us all have the same conversation and the same experience.
TL;DR - Edit (01/24/12) – I am asking specifically that QR codes act as virtual tags for real world objects, and that we need one central scanning app to be able to offer us different options based on the tags provided.
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Over the weekend a NOLS alum posted a picture of me from the NOLS catalog to r/pics on reddit.com. Check out the post on reddit, and some of the fallout from it on failblog.org. I have to say that it didn’t feel like I thought it would to become a front page reddit picture.
I was a little worried what the comments would be about, but mostly it’s just stuff I have heard since high school. This gem stood out though, “I don’t think the laptop is the weirdest thing – guy looks about 14 years old with a full beard.” Thanks to Andy and Brooks for trying to make me a meme.
Make your own Laptop FAIL guy .gif at my expense.
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You know when you are working on one thing but you start playing around and all of a sudden you have something completely different, and random… and kind of awesome? That’s what happened when working on some coffee icons tonight. I present to you a brand identity for a fictional company, Java Monkey! Americanos and banana bread. Yum.
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