Planning

This was a fun group project created at Northwestern’s coding boot camp.  The idea is that you can send someone a ‘grobbins gram’ which is a silly ice cream flavor that you created just for them.

Implementation

We created our own library of hand-drawn svg imagery for borders, dotted lines, and other assets that would give the app its hand-drawn feeling.  This was fun- and benefited greatly from direct pen-to-program interface.

Successes

We love the ability for a user to see their changes as they fidget with the color of the cone and scoop.  The basic feeling of the app is, to us, successful.

Lessons

SVG is not easy.  Canvas is even a bit more difficult.  We had hoped in round 1  for users to have a few more options for customization of ice cream flavors – to be able to add imagery and other silly flourishes.  As it turns out, the HTML5 Canvas does not, itself, have a state that persists between interactions.  As it naturally is, each new interaction (a newly drawn line or the likes) would clear the previous contents from the screen.  Any HTML5 Canvas apps that seem to have persistent imagery/interactivity are functioning largely with the help of JS and some kind of object storage strategy.  We dialed back the canvas features for round 1 but have found promising strategies for forward progress.

Forthcoming Features

• Chunks and Sprinkles : Users will soon be able to add chunks (pieces mixed into the ice cream) and sprinkles (things that sit on top of the ice cream).
• Account Control :
  • Users will also be able to see icecream details when they click on items in their freezer.
  • Users will be able to edit flavors.
  • Users will be able to delete flavors.
• GrobbinsGram : Users will be able to send a GrobbinsGram – a personally decorated email with a special greeting – to friends and loved ones soon.
• Social Media Sharing : via the regular channels – coming soon.