Tesco Recipes App for iPad launches

Yes we've just launched our first (and frankly gorgeous) iPad app - Tesco Recipes.

The app was designed of course by our mobile app creators extraordinaire - Ribot, who used the 'salivation commences' slogan in their blog post as that sums up for me regarding what this app is all about.

Andy Beale, IT Manager into whom our fledgling production mobile development team reports, commented:

Special thanks to Sreelatha in India who has worked tirelessly to test the application and who is a cornerstone of Tesco's engineering team. Also thanks to Owen Day who actually led the project for IT at Tesco and helped the team to release this for our customers before Christmas. 

The application's mix of gorgeous presentation, access to over 1000 recipes and the ability to add ingredients straight to your Tesco.com grocery basket is just sensational (click images below for bigger picture):

In their blog post, Ribot wrote:

Christmas has come a day or two early this year for those that have been yearning for a source of inspiration whilst grocery shopping on their iPads… Well, we’re happy to announce that Tesco Recipes has been launched!

Bringing together the mouth-watering and inspiring photos and recipes from Tesco Real Food and the simplicity and utility of the Tesco grocery shopping experience, you can now purchase all the ingredients for your favourite recipes with ease.

This project wouldn’t have been possible without all the hard work by Rob, Jerome and Ian – the designers at ribot, Neil and Lei – the very talented ‘developers’ and of course Becky and co. from the Tesco team!

Happy shopping and Happy Christmas to all the foodies out there!

I couldn't put is better myself. Well done everyone involved!
Click here to go to iTunes to download the app for your iPad.

Tesco Groceries app for iPhone / iPod Touch - Walkthrough

Let's take a walkthrough of the Tesco Groceries app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (the latter running in "iPhone mode").

Here is the opening screen (when you first use the app, you will be asked to tap in your Tesco.com grocery login email and password). You can choose a delivery slot, and see when the next order is due (which you can amend if you wish):

The Shopping List is your own memo pad, allowing you to type any product name in free-form text, perfect for remembering items quickly as you think of them. You could easily use the app in any shop as an electronic version of a written list, or tap the text to perform a live product search at Tesco so we can entice you with great prices and special offers:

Tapping the square next to the item makes a "tick" appear, just as you would tick a paper list as you choose products:

If you're like me, then the first place to go when putting together an order is to use the Favourites list. When you registered your account and used a Clubcard, your Favourites list stores all the items you have previously purchased online and in-store. 

You can also filter your favourites to view just those on special offer.

In the example below, notice that one of the products has a green background - this means that product is already in your basket. All searches showing products in your basket will be highlighted this way so you can change the quantity or even remove them if you wish.

Here is the 'shop' screen. Either type in some text to find the product you are looking for, or follow the department - aisle - shelf hierarchy to browse for products:

Here is an example text search for chips. Again we highlight products on special offer:

Finally here is the basket. From here you tap the checkout button which will cause the app to start the iPhone's Safari browser which will connect into a checkout special page designed for iPhone on the Tesco.com grocery web site. If you are called Paolo then your delicious chips and beer diet will soon be on its way. For everyone else, at least you'll get the entire grocery range to choose from - on average that's more than 20,000 products. Healthier products are available...!

So there you are - our new little app for iPhone giving you personal, pocketable access to our complete grocery home shopping service. It's taken a year of planning, design, coding and testing by a fantastic team across Tesco.com and our mobile design and development partner Ribot.

Now it's yours. Enjoy!

Tesco Groceries app for iPhone now live in iTunes App Store

Here it is:

Tesco.com's grocery heart and soul in a little app.

This changes everything. Again.

("Again", because we launched on Nokia first!)

Tesco and Ribot present this powerful pocket of grocery home shopping to you now. We simply call it Tesco Groceries which says so much in so few words.

Oh, the decisiveness of purpose, passion for excellence and focus of hard work by so many people for a year to give birth to this little bundle of joy, the love child of Tesco.com and Ribot our mobile design and development partner....*

If you have iTunes on your computer, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, follow this link:

http://itunes.com/apps/TescoGroceries

Walkthrough follows in the next article.


* Yes of course I'm sounding O.T.T. - this has been the centre of my working life for over a year now, so indulge me. Ribot have put their all into this little app and I salute them. Normal service will be resumed after a celebratory drink or two tonight methinks! What on earth shall I do tomorrow?! Oh yes, a Tesco presence on other smart-phone operating systems to come, especially now I've fallen back in love with my Nexus One again after its upgrade to Android 2.2. Anyway...

Tesco Store and Product Finder - Live in the Apple iTunes App Store!

I'm delighted to tell you that our first iPhone application has just gone live in Apple's iTunes App Store.

The Tesco Store and Product Finder not only helps you to locate your nearest UK Tesco store (of any size from Express to Extra) but also will help you find any grocery product in that store by describing its aisle and shelf.

The application is free and available worldwide although it only works for UK stores and only with grocery products (rather than non-food items) at the moment.

Got an iPhone? Great: either:

1. Go to the computer you use to sync your iPhone/iPod Touch with iTunes, then click this link (or paste to your web browser): http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=330818669&mt=8, or
2. Start iTunes, go the the 'iTunes Store' and search for the word 'Tesco' in the top-right corner of the iTunes application, or
3. On your iPhone (or iPod Touch) start 'App Store', touch Search and search for 'Tesco'. You'll get "Tesco.com R&D Team" and "Tesco Finder" results - select either to reach the Tesco Finder application.

This application is the first piece of innovation that has come from Tesco.com's R&D-run IT Innovation Club, where we provide the resources, time, and stamp of approval for our staff to quickly create innovation for our customers outside of our standard production work schedule.

The Tesco Store and Product Finder was designed and built by Tom Courthold who works in Tesco.com's IT UI team; the data was - and is - sourced by Mike Brearley who now works in our IT branch dev team, with backend API server programming, a spot of iPhone programming (and support for the service & application) by myself.

Going forwards we'll be enhancing the application to offer:

1. The ability for a customer to search for any grocery product and then find out the nearest stores that stock it.
2. A link to a home shopping customer's favourites list so they can find these products in any Tesco store that stocks them.
3. Work with the business to extend the range beyond groceries to include more non-food items such as electricals, household items and more.

Enjoy the application, and please feedback any ideas and issues to me.

Here is a set of walk-through screen shots for the Tesco Store and Product Finder. If you are a journalist and would like to use any of these images, you can - and for free without any further permission. Just click the images to get full-sized versions. The exception to this is the first screen-shot (surrounded in blue) - which consists of an excellent photograph from Flickr contributor 'LoopZilla' which has been cleared for our use (and yours) as long as you assert that he is the owner of the photo and that you link to the original at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loopzilla/2910558518/

The opening screen starting the application on your iPhone:

The application uses iPhone's location service to detect where you are, then connects to our server to find out your nearest stores. Touch the circular arrow to get the latest location update:

Here we've touched a store name above, which causes the application to display information about the store, including its customer facilities. Note that you can bookmark the store so you can find it quickly using the 'Bookmarks' button infuture if you visit it regularly. "View Directions" starts the iPhone's Map application to help get you to the store:

Touch 'Find products in this store' above and you get to the following screen. Tap the 'search box' to make the keyboard appear, and type a product to find, followed by the 'Search' button:

The application asks our server for the product and location list based on your search:

Back comes the product list (up to 20 products) matching your search. If we have photos of any of these products, they will be shown alongside the product:

Now touch the desired product to bring up its location details, alongside a bigger image of the product - and its full location information. Tap the big question mark for extended help.