FoodFlix Mobile App
Personal Project
FoodFlix is a consumer mobile app that pairs movies, TV shows, and sports with food — whether ordering delivery, browsing local restaurants, or cooking a recipe at home. It began as a personal observation, grew into a graduate thesis, and became a funded, user-tested, iterative product.
How It Began
The Spark
My wife and I planned a snowed-in weekend of Italian wine and pizza while watching The Godfather series. I thought — can the meal be more robust than pizza? Where could I find a better match to the food in the movie? And ultimately: were there different problems I could solve, beyond the delightful end-user result?
The Opportunity
That question opened into something bigger: two entire industries — streaming and food delivery — were both under serious pressure from the same demographic behaviors. Connecting them in a single, frictionless experience had never been done. Not by anyone.
Three Industries, Three Problems
Streaming Churn
When a new season of a favorite show dropped, viewers would binge it and cancel. Gen Z and Millennials were savvy about how much they would spend — subscribing, watching what they wanted, then leaving. Churn and return was eroding platform revenue.
Choice Overload
The average person spends 110 hours per year scrolling through streaming services, struggling to find something worth watching. Rising subscription costs were driving cancellations, and the endless scroll had become a source of frustration, not delight.
Delivery Fee Squeeze
Food delivery platforms saw Pandemic-era profits gutted by app fees. A $39 Panda Express family meal carried a 49% markup on Uber Eats. Restaurant commission fees alone ran 15–30%. Platforms needed new ways to create value beyond price competition.
What the Industry Was Already Trying
- 01
Ad-Supported Tiers
Deloitte research found that watching ads in exchange for lower costs — or no cost — was the most popular strategy streaming platforms were pursuing. It was effectively a return to television's original model.
- 02
Delivery Expansion
McKinsey found that food delivery platforms were attempting to add value by expanding delivery to other goods such as alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and groceries — a race to become logistics platforms rather than food-specific services.
- 03
Platform Competition
McKinsey: 'These platforms will continue to fight one another. This battle will extend beyond restaurants, as platforms widen the scope of services.' And critically: 'The evolving food-delivery ecosystem requires, and will likely reward, creativity. One potential example: combining dining and television...'
Project Requirements
Alleviate Frustration
Reduce viewer exhaustion and frustration from endless-scroll decision fatigue across fragmented streaming services.
Show the Perfect Match
Use APIs to build a robust database that matches a viewing choice with a relevant food option — and vice versa.
Improve Revenue
Offer food service providers a new revenue channel after Pandemic-era delivery fees cut into profits. Offer streaming services a reason to retain subscribers.
Add Value to Platforms
Expand platform value in a direction Deloitte and McKinsey both identified as an opportunity: combining entertainment with food in a single, intentional experience.
Entertainment Industry Perspective
David Harris Katz
Multi-Emmy Award-Winning Executive Producer. Creator of 'Wow, I Never Knew That!' (Whoopi Goldberg, Exec. Prod.) and 'Date While You Wait.' CEO, EIFTV Network & Distribution. David felt there were too many binge shows with story arcs spanning full seasons, leading to viewer burnout and churn after the series ended. He also noted the irony of the 'free with ads' model: that was how television began.
Adam Rackoff
Filmmaker and Award-winning Producer of 'The Brainwashing of My Dad'; Co-Founder of Cinco Dedos Peliculas with Matthew Modine. Adam's view: 'You can't get everything on Netflix anymore, as other companies have created their own services. Netflix's original content is all over the map for quality. There's no monopoly service anymore, and it depends on personal taste.'
Research — Survey
18 respondents of varying backgrounds and regions across the U.S. confirmed the behavioral link between watching and eating — and pointed to a clear unmet need.
What People Wished They Had
Food
Users wanted restaurant specials surfaced without searching; healthier options presented without filtering; and wider delivery radius coverage. Several users in areas underserved by delivery apps asked for recipes as a fallback — pairing the experience even when delivery wasn't available.
Movies & Shows
Users wanted personalized recommendations, not just editorial top-10 lists. They wanted to see what others in their circle were watching, compare watchlists across platforms, and find films based on previous viewing history — a feature no single platform offered across all services.
Who We Were Designing For
John
Invites Maria over to watch The Godfather and wants to impress her with an authentic Italian meal straight from the movie.
- Wants food that matches the film's setting
- Not a confident cook — prefers delivery
- Motivated by wanting to make the evening special
Natasha
Catching up with college friends visiting from out of town. They love romantic comedies, cooking, and vegetarian meals.
- Group decision-making dynamic
- Has dietary preferences to consider
- Values the social ritual of choosing together
Alexandra
Loves relaxing after a busy work week with new recipes and a movie on Friday nights. She's been doing this for a while and seeks fresh ideas.
- Experienced home cook — wants recipes, not just delivery
- Looking for discovery, not just convenience
- Loyal to the ritual; wants variety within it
Get to the Result in the Fewest Steps — and Make It Fun
The core design goal was to minimize decision friction while adding a sense of play. The flow had to work in both directions: start with a movie and find food, or start with food and find a movie. Pick For Me was introduced early as a key escape valve for users who just wanted to skip the choosing entirely.
The Bubble-Drop Concept
Five Participants, Two Key Findings
What They Liked
Users responded positively to the About the movie section, the drag-and-drop genre selection, and Pick For Me. The gamified interaction felt fresh and the core concept clicked immediately. Quotes: 'I don't have to think!' 'FUN!' 'Cool… really easy.'
What They Wanted
The top request from all five participants: the ability to save their preferred delivery app. Users also wanted to choose more than one genre, a more prominent search feature, and the ability to swap out the food or movie suggestion after it was generated.
Iterated Prototype, Three Tasks
What Was Added
Based on Round 1 feedback: the ability to choose more than one genre, the ability to change the food type suggestion, and a more prominent search. Live moderated sessions gave participants three tasks: find a Fellini film and order Italian food; pick an animated film and view recipes; use Pick For Me and pass the first offer.
Results
Users praised Pick For Me, the clean layout, and movie descriptions. New requests: swap the meal or movie after pairing, save favorite recipes, connect to local restaurants. One trend: confusion about what the meal suggestion circles actually represented — a visual clarity issue flagged for the next iteration.
Is There a Connection Between Personality and What People Watch — and Eat?
After two rounds of testing, a deeper question emerged: could the app become smarter over time? Research published in a National Institutes of Health study confirmed the connection: the connections between personality and entertainment preference suggest people seek out entertainment that reflects and reinforces aspects of their personalities. Myers-Briggs types correlate to distinct film genre preferences, and — according to Susan Storm of Psychology Junkie — to food preferences as well. The Personality DataBase (PDB), with over 2 million profiles, offered a potential API source for machine learning-based suggestions.
The API Architecture
Movies & Streaming
TMDB (The Movie Database) provides descriptions, imagery, and streaming availability — telling us which services carry each title and where to watch it.
Food & Location
Food pairings correlate to the geographic setting of the film, using GPS-based API calls to TripAdvisor to surface relevant nearby restaurants.
Personality & Prediction
The Personality DataBase (PDB) paired with machine learning enables stronger future suggestions based on a user's previous selections and personality indicators.
First Generation Interface
TV Shows & Sports Added
Ordering & Restaurant Screens
Pick For Me
The app's Pick For Me feature — skip the choosing entirely and get an instant pairing.
Date Night Flow
A guided date-night experience — from genre to pairing to restaurant, start to finish.
60-Second Overview
A full product walkthrough in 60 seconds.
