This decision was made after the great success of Jamie Oliver's effort.
Firstly, I praise this app for being different in it's design. It doesn't follow the iPhone way of thinking (well for the main body anyway).
The background throughout it this fixed rustic wooden floor. Elsewhere, modern web design has been employed - the jagged edge of the paper, along with heading tags which loop behind the background. These headings work well - the contrast in colour allows you to easily section off the content in your head and also easy reading of the text.
Furthermore, the custom font really makes a difference. The logo stands out well on the brown wooden planks and is a little atypical for an app, altogether. This difference is good.
The use of non-linear alignment also is interesting. Most things nowadays tend to be uniform, perhaps grid-like. The menus here are blocky and left aligned, meanwhile, the content on a paper graphic is positioned to the right of the screen.
It is really on here in the app that you'd be able to get away with so many rich images, graphical components and videos. Alternatively, to download this on the fly for example, in the mobile browser, would prove quite a wait and so indicates a wise choice for my upcoming artifact - preload graphical components in an iPhone inspired app.
The images really make a good impression and have been put to good use. They stand out and of course help illustrate the meals beautifully, being highly persuasive. The use of semantic visuals, such as the shopping list on notepad paper and in a cartoony font works well. Notably though, the app buttons a top this (in the black bar) could go unnoticed to some users. If you are to go all out with a unique visual design, then it would probably be wise to do this consistently... just as they do in the third image, with menu tabs pointing down. Again, this unique design is nice, and you notice this.
Looking at this app from a standpoint, the amount of buttons to push does feel a little daunting. You have the top menu bar, then the pointed tabs, there could sometimes be a menu list, in addition to the regular iPhone app-like buttons at the bottom to, which allow you to visit different sections in the app. This is something that is important to remember. Don't scare the user by providing too much at the same time. Perhaps try to be inventive - provide links behind reveal tabs, or pop down menus activated by one button.
The use of videos is a great idea. It makes use of the iPhone's great screen and also proves another benefit to aiding the user in cooking. I like how the video is slotted in without any special design, it simply flows with the rest of the content. Importantly, the use of the play icon, is noticeable and a universally recognisable symbol.
The same goes for using triangles at the end of the menu list - it enables the user to recognise this button will take them somewhere. Furthermore, the use of an image in the menu list allows you to see what is behind the link. Ultimately this just builds up a greater sense of an understandable design.
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Overall, the uniqueness of this design makes it an enticing and effective piece. The realistic rustic visuals work well, surprising really on what is a shiny, snazzy gadget. Whereas some sites/apps use a couple of realistic graphics, this one makes them more of a feature piece. Again, different, and so noticeable and commendable.
Important lessons have been learnt for artifact 5 (content-wise) and also artifact 6 (design wise) - the ensemble result of all this research.
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