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Preview HN: match-making site for food

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Re: Preview HN: match-making site for food

#22
post #21

I'd love to be able to modify my protocol. I don't eat carbohydrates, but protocol number 2 pretty closely matches the pattern of how I eat (though there's usually two more snacks in there that I eat).

we're working on this right now, actually. We're going to support making arbitrary meal portions. Right now it's hard-coded to only 4.

Re: Preview HN: match-making site for food

#23

Once you're logged in, there's no way to get back to the homepage to figure out what the site is supposed to be about. I can click through restaurants and menu items, but there's no indication as to what is actually going on. Tooltips pop up randomly, and if you can manage to keep one on the screen, they give you a paragraph that doesn't actually explain what's going on. There seem to be star ratings that you can cli…

The recommendation engine takes into account the choices made prior to the current meal before making a new recommendation. You are seeing the "Looks like you selected a combo" message because someone else made a selection using the hacker account and the app will not let you select multiple meals in the same time period. This will not happen if you created an account for yourself.

There is a FAQ link in the app that addresses some of the issue you brought up and we are working on incorporating the rest. As of now the only way to go back to the home page is to hit the log out button.

Re: Preview HN: match-making site for food

#24

I really liked going into that site and testing it out. Unfortunately, this will not be true when there is no 'hacker' account. If the site is going to be free in the future, I would definitely try to get rid of the mandatory creation of an account. How about being able to use the site (using cookies for a temporary account) and make the registration something you can do after a while? (like stackoverflow.com)

This would really defeat the purpose of personalized recommendations. The test account was for a quick look at what we offer, not as a long-term solution.

Re: Preview HN: match-making site for food

#25
post #20
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for pointing that out. The ranking system is a multi-dimensional algorithm that optimizes for a variety of micro and macro nutrients. Individuals with different dietary needs have different star representations / health scores for the same meal. For example for someone with hypertension that chicken sandwich will have a very poor health score.

notahacker raised an interesting point about not being too harsh. Some people could benefit a lot if they cut down from a burger, fries, and a large soda to a chicken sandwich and a diet soda. If you rate the chicken sandwich 2/5, your site will just depress them. On the other hand, a knowledgeable person with aggressive goals wouldn't trust your site if you gave that chicken sandwich a higher rating. Have you though…

The ratings are currently personalized to each users nutritional profile that is created at the end of the sign up process. Our detailed sign-up process resembles a health risk assessment in which a user has to answer questions about past and existing diet related chronic diseases like diabetes and coronary artery disease.

The ratings also depend on prior choices made by the user. This means that the same meal may have a different ratings for lunch and dinner.

Re: Preview HN: match-making site for food

#27

Do you intend on adding meals from non-chain restaurants? If so, how do you plan on tackling that?

The new healthcare reform bill makes it mandatory for many more restaurant to publicly disclose their nutritional information. More can be found here http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/03/22/menu-measure-health...

It is also interesting to note that while the law will not likely go into effect for another 3-4 years, many restaurant chains are "getting out in front" of the legislation, and are beginning to offer nutritional content info on their websites even before they are required to do so.

As of now we work with local restaurants here in Atlanta and do a statistical nutritional analysis for them. Tin Drum in our featured restaurants is an example of that. In fact we are about to deploy a kiosk / ipad version of our app in the Tin Drum premises where it will be used as a health-based digital menu.

Re: Preview HN: match-making site for food

#28

Feature request: dietary options would be nice. I'm vegetarian, but I got no suggestions without meat.

Did you find the preferences icon in the top bar? Word of caution - please don't change the preferences on the hacker account as they would affect everyone using that demo account. Instead create an account for yourself through sign-up and get more personalized recommendations.

Re: Preview HN: match-making site for food

#29
post #28

Feature request: dietary options would be nice. I'm vegetarian, but I got no suggestions without meat.

Did you find the preferences icon in the top bar? Word of caution - please don't change the preferences on the hacker account as they would affect everyone using that demo account. Instead create an account for yourself through sign-up and get more personalized recommendations.

Found it now, and I discovered that there is no healthy food near me at restaurants I am aware of.

One more suggestion: let me give you a location and tell me about meals I can get near me (i.e., within 1/4 mile of my address, tell me the healthiest meals I can have).

Re: Preview HN: match-making site for food

#30
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you find the preferences icon in the top bar? Word of caution - please don't change the preferences on the hacker account as they would affect everyone using that demo account. Instead create an account for yourself through sign-up and get more personalized recommendations.

Found it now, and I discovered that there is no healthy food near me at restaurants I am aware of . One more suggestion: let me give you a location and tell me about meals I can get near me (i.e., within 1/4 mile of my address, tell me the healthiest meals I can have).

Thats an awesome idea - thanks for your feedback. We currently have a much larger database of vegetarian option in our home recipes category so you might find items with high health scores in there. Another functionality we are currently working on are cross location swaps so very soon you will be able to find healthier options in other restaurants (or home recipes) that resemble what you were planning to order at a particular restaurant.
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