I decide for my project management class I would use the same idea I had for my writing for interactive design class.
Competitive Analysis
Purpose: Many college students who have never cooked before
are frustrated with trying to figure out how to prepare a meal from a recipe. A
website will be designed to teach college students and anyone just learning how
to cook how to prepare and cook their favorite restaurant dishes in their own
kitchen. By using videos and simple instructions the website will explain in
simple terms how to prepare recipes. The purpose of this competitive analysis
is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of online cooking schools that
offer lessons for people just learning how to cook.
Comparison Table:
Competitive Analysis for online cooking schools
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Smart kitchen
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Dinner Tonight at Texas A&M
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Navigation
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Primary navigation is horizontal and placed between the header and
the slider (Lessons, Recipes, Resources, About Us, and Contact Us).
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Primary navigation is a tab menu across the top (Home, Dinner Tonight,
Healthy Cooking School Menus, Fruit and Vegetable Series, Recipes). Secondary
navigation is horizontal and placed under header includes recipe categories(All,
Vegetarian, Tex Mex, Chicken, Salad, Beef, Sandwich/Wrap, Soup/Chili,
Seafood, Pork, Turkey, Casserole, Slow Cooker).
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Colors
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Red and yellow which are colors that are suppose to make us hungry.
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Beige, Cream, Blue
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Basic Layout
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Header with logo and search bar, primary navigation, slider, content,
and footer.
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A header with a search bar, tab navigation, One column or 3 column
pages with links to resources, footer which contains contact information and
links to other pages with the schools website.
|
Content
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The site has three categories in which you can search for information
lessons, recipes, and resources. The lessons page is broken down into 3
categories beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The recipe page includes a recipe checklist that includes
ingredients needed as well as the tools and equipment needed.
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Main pages are list of links to recipes or videos. Subpages contain
videos, links, pdfs.
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Multi-media
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Slider, videos, links to social media
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Short videos that include step-by-step instructions using basic
cooking techniques. PDFs with recipes.
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Overall impression
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Similar to a culinary program but that can be done at home.
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Very simple, Easy to use, Basically the site has videos on how to
prepare the recipe and a pdf of the recipe everything else on the site leads
back to these two things.
|
Analysis: An analysis
of online cooking schools shows a need for a website for college students that explains
in simple terms how to prepare a recipe. Although the online cooking schools I
analyzed provide recipes and instructional videos they lack information on teaching
cooking skills and techniques. This website will be different from other
websites because it does not assume that the user has basic cooking skills and
will include this information. Also this site will appeal to college students
because the emphasis is on preparing the same meals they eat in restaurants. The website will include features that are
similar to Dinner Tonight’s videos and downloadable pdfs as well as a resource
center similar to Smart Kitchens. Unlike Dinner Tonight the recipes will
include more information than just a video and pdf. Unlike on the Smart Kitchen website in which a
user has to leave the recipe page to look up something the user might not know this
website will include that information on
the recipe page.
