SG Food Abroad

SG Food Abroad Logo
Main Feed with the Drop down menu options when it is tapped
Chilli Crab Review (When it is added into saved collections)
Chilli Crab Review (When the report button is activated)
Chilli Crab Review (After confirming the report button)
Reviews for Mega Seafood
List of asian supermarkets (When the green location pin is tapped)
List of asian food options (When the red location pin is tapped)
List of reviews for Real Kaya Toast
Profile Page (When the profile page is tapped from the main menu drop down option )
Profile page - Saved collections

Inspiration

One of our teammates is studying in the UK and she lived there for several months before COVID-19 struck. Hence, after viewing the challenge statement and also hearing her own personal experiences, we were very inspired to create a platform to increase the quality of lives for Singaporeans abroad through food. She mentioned that living abroad is not easy and food was the only thing she could turn to when she was feeling homesick. This drove the project as we empathised with her story to a great extent.

Food is indeed the representation of the Singaporean identity. Local food is an integral part of our daily lives and it has the potential to comfort Singaporeans abroad that may be feeling homesick. Furthermore, we also thought about local businesses based overseas selling local foods that may be struggling to gain recognition. Hence, through this platform, we aim to bring comfort to Singaporeans abroad and help local businesses abroad gain traction.

What it does

Our app SG Food Abroad is a comprehensive app that allows Singaporeans to locate the nearest local food options or Asian supermarkets around them. It gives them the opportunity to have a taste of home and provide their feedback on the eateries. They’re also able to see what is recommended by others and bond over food. Furthermore, to support local businesses or to bring awareness to the businesses targeted at overseas Singaporeans, SG Food Abroad would also notify the user when a local business is nearby.

SG Food Abroad also provides a platform that could allow future overseas Singaporeans, for example, Singaporeans that are currently planning to study overseas, on what could be bought in the various Asian supermarkets from the reviews and posts of the SG Food Abroad users. This would be a great app to let them know what type of food they do not have to pack before flying to that country.

How we built it

Since there was only one team member that has had lived overseas, we started by researching the problems that overseas Singaporeans faced. We decided to create a table to combine all our findings, to which we realised that there are a few overlapping concerns for overseas Singaporeans. Therefore, using our research results, we decided to create a survey to confirm our focus for this project.

As the given time frame for this project is limited, we started by sketched our rough ideas using our tablets to plan the overall outlines, and the features present on every page. After confirming the overall flow of our application, we used Figma to do the wireframes and the prototype of our application.

Challenges we ran into

The time constraint was a big challenge as we did not have sufficient time to gather enough feedback from our survey. We also did not have time to include more details we wish to see in the application.

To solve our problem, we decided to focus on what is available overseas but might be an issue for the overseas Singaporeans to get an accurate opinion or review. From a survey that we have conducted before creating our application, we found out that many Singaporeans have had some unpleasant experiences with Asian food during their time overseas, some saying that they have never eaten outside as they feel that all restaurants are way too overpriced or are not wallet-friendly for students, and some also mentioned that they did not have friends prior to their flight. This would prevent them from knowing what restaurants they can afford, or what restaurants they should try. They would also have troubles knowing what is available abroad.

Therefore, we have decided to focus on creating a platform that allows all Singaporeans to review and rate restaurants according to their own point of view, as well as suggesting snacks or foods that would remind them about Singapore, which is what SG eat abroad can do!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We managed to complete the wireframing of our current idea and brought our idea to life.

What we learned

We learned that the designing of an application requires a lot of detailed planning. There were a lot of smaller details we had to consider and rationalise.

Through this project, we also learnt more about the importance of UX/UI, as well as to use Figma to create interactive wireframes.

What's next for SG Food Abroad

We understand that not all countries have restaurants serving local Singaporean food. Therefore, we hope to expand SG Food Abroad to have additional features - such as including a section for the user to share Singaporean food recipes, as well as a chat feature at each restaurant or Asian supermarket post on our app so that overseas Singaporeans are able to bond over food.

We are also keen to receive more feedback through user testing on how we could improve or the features that we should add to our app so that it would accommodate all overseas Singaporeans.