The goal for the design and implementation of this app was to allow users to find eateries nearby to them as quickly as possible, whilst at the same time providing plentiful data. Whilst there are other apps that offer this service, it was felt that there was real opportunity to offer something modern and with a rich amount of information provided to the user.
In 2018, Google increased the cost of using their APIs so where they may have been the obvious choice for obtaining data in previous years, other options would now need to be explored.
The resulting application uses a very simple UI, with three menu icons allowing the user to view their favorites, the search page, or their settings. The Google API offers slightly richer data than other providers, but is expensive to use at scale, and so Yelp were chosen as they were deemed to offer the best cost/benefit ratio.
Android, Java, Python, XML, Firebase, Firestore, OAuth, AdMob, REST APIs.
The app was released at the end of April 2021 and so is still in its infancy. It has been met with excellent feedback thus far.