I first came across Epicurious when I signed up for a Premium account on Ars Technica. One of the many websites owned by Conde Nast Digital, Epicurious is a collection of Recipes, Menus, Food Guides, pretty much everything about food and drinks.
The website also has apps for iPhone and iPad and boy are they delicious. The apps bring easy access to an abundance of recipes and yummy content through some very lick-able pixels.
The app isn’t only good looking though, and offers plenty of functionality. You can find recipes by ingredient type, occasion or just browse through the huge database. There’s also an integrated shopping list. Recipes also come along with photos and reviews by other users and you may add them to favorites or share via Email.
I’m no Kitchen King, but considering the app is a Universal app and comes Free on the App Store, there’s no reason not to get it. Now excuse me while I go try to cook some ‘Coconut Flans with Coffee Caramel‘.
5 Comments
I’m a big fan of Beautiful Pixels and everything you’re doing here. Art is obviously subjective, though i was surprised to see Epicurious featured. Its design is usable, granted, but far from attractive. Specifically, the layout and implementation of their iPad app, as shown in your screenshots above, is horrible. Why oh why was it featured here??
I’m hoping this was a one off mistake.
I think the app looks good, although I haven’t used it.
What don’t you like about the layout/implementation of the iPad app?
Hey Tobin. I’m racking my brains trying to find something i like about it, visually, but I just can’t. As I said, it does work, it just isnt to the standard I’d come to expect from those apps showcased in Beautiful Pixels.
I might be totally wrong though.. Ahh you’ve got to love subjectivity. What is it you like about the iPad design?
Thanks for the reply, and yup, gotta love subjectivity :)
On the iPad design I like..
– the simplicity of the layout, I don’t think anyone could get lost in this app :)
– the big text for recipes, fitting for a recipe app (which can be resized)
– the clear visual cues to other tabs (although they’re a bit over egged IMHO)
– the current line marker seems good
Don’t like…
– the header is a bit weak.
– not enough emphasis on images (would be nice to see bigger ones and more of em)
– Doesn’t play on the “make it real and physical” approach to iPad design
Just my thoughts :)
I haven’t used the app yet, so my comment shouldn’t hold much worth. But judging by the screenshots, I’d say it’s quite well designed for a cooking app. The brightly coloured tabs at the bottom, the ruled sheets, the clean ingredients list. The only thing that’s ‘off’, as noted by Tubin, is the header. But then again, who is this app for? I’d say for a tech-illiterate the bitmap for a header adds a touch of familiarity to cooking magazines, which is what the iPad is all about.
And yes, subjectivity. We’ve had a lot of apps we wanted to write about, just weren’t sure of, so were rejected. I suppose we can’t please everybody. We’ll try and stay on the right path though; thanks for the feedback!