Funmily

How to test the app

Download the apk into an android phone and login with the following details: Login: intuition@ntu.com Password: intu1234

Describe problem statement

Primary studies show that modern parents are spending less quality family time with their children. They cite lack of time and other daily stressors as they reason. Research also show that children with parents that do not spend quality time with them have a higher chance of developing chronic depression when they grow up. Conversely, children with attentive parents grow up to become more successful. Lastly, research indicate that families that spend less quality time together end up having more friction within the family. The children of today will be the core of the society of tomorrow. The more highly functional the children grow up to be, the more highly functional society will be. As such, how do we increase the amount of quality family time each family has?

Description of current situation

Grocery shopping is a necessary activity for all households. However, some parents do not bring their children along for grocery shopping as the children find the activity boring. Also, grocery shopping may not be the easiest thing to do, and parents are not willing to have the stress of taking care of their children in a foreign environment on top of the stress that exists in grocery shopping. Additionally, cooking has been identified as a recommended activity for family bonding. However, not all recipes are child-friendly. The parents would also want to avoid cooking the same dish with their child all the time, but may be afraid to experiment new recipes for fear that the child dislikes the taste of the dish, or that the recipe is not child-friendly.

Description of app

Funmily (pronounced fun-mer-ly) is a grocery shopping assistant app that aims to achieve 3 objectives: 1) making grocery shopping with children a more fun and enjoyable process, 2) simplify the grocery shopping process so parents can focus on spending quality time with their child, and 3) act as a platform for families to experiment new recipes and cook together. To achieve (1), Funmily features a treasure hunt themed game. Funmily has a function that allows the parent to store several shopping lists based on their needs. At the grocery store, the parent can load the game, which prompts the parent to select the shopping list that they want the child to play with. The child is then passed the phone, and will attempt to use barcode scanning technology to find all the items on the shopping list. Points are accumulated by the child for each correct scan of the item, while points will be deducted for each wrong scan. There will be a leaderboard for all users of the app for score comparisons. Furthermore, in the event the child requires help to find a certain item, clues for the aisles and shelfs to find the items can be provided at the cost of points. The app will utilise store data and smart-camera technology to determine the exact locations of the items in the shopping list. Also, prior to the family shopping at the store, the app will display data of which grocery stores do not have stock for certain items in their list. This data is pulled from the store’s database and fed into the app. This will prevent disappointment for the child as there is no worry that the child is never able to find all the items in the list. In the event the family chooses to shop at a store that does not have stock for certain items, the items are removed from the game’s list to prevent the child from being disappointed he was unable to complete the entire list. To achieve (2), Funmily features recipe-based shopping. Parents can simply bookmark a recipe of their liking, and the ingredients required for the recipe will be generated into a shopping list. To further improve the convenience, the app is integrated into smart home devices to keep stock of the remainder groceries at home. This eliminates the need of the parents spending time to check and calculate how much of each ingredient they need to buy. If the recipe needs to be altered to accommodate special diets or a different serving size apart from the suggested serving, these changes can be made in-app. When the recipe is altered, the changes in ingredients required are reflected in the shopping list. Changing the serving size of the recipes will also automatically scale up or down the ingredients in the shopping list. The parent need not go through the hassle of identifying individual ingredients in the shopping list related to the recipe and change it individually. With these features, the app relieves the stress of grocery shopping from parents. Parents can also use the time savings from the app and convert it to quality time with the family. To achieve (3), Funmily has a weekly “featured recipe” feature. In a tie-in with supermarkets, Funmily will suggest to families a new recipe to try for the week. The supermarkets will have sampling booths where the family can sample the dish to determine if they want to try cooking it themselves or not. These recipes will have child-friendly steps so that the family can cook together. If the family wants to try the recipe, using the app to scan the QR code at the booth will automatically add in the ingredients required to the shopping list. As mentioned above, this will take into account existing leftover groceries already at home. Furthermore, parents can search for recipes online, through the app. The app will prioritise recipes with child-friendly steps, using machine learning, and suggest these recipes to the parent. The child-friendly steps are indicated, and the parent can entrust their child to carry out those steps. Also, as the app is integrated with smart home devices, the parent can use home management devices such as Google Home to perform the recipe tutorial by voice. The voice will guide the family step-by-step through the making of the dish, removing any possible stress of the parent that the child may dirty or contaminate their phones when using the phones to check the recipe.