Family Fridge app revolutionizes the app and ERP system by bringing it into the household. Simliar to a task scheduling system or an enterprise system businesses use, Family Fridge helps families manage their finance and task allocation, food management and time all in one app.
Hello please introduce yourself and tell us your app:
Hi there! My name is Leslie, and I’m here to talk to you about my app, the Family Fridge. The Family Fridge was created to make running a household easier. Time and money are often limited and difficult to keep track of in a family, and if we want to spend time with our families it means that we have to manage everything in an effective and efficient way, and this is exactly what the Family Fridge provides.
How did this app started?
This app actually started because I needed a better financial calendar. While there are plenty of ways of keeping track of how MUCH money you have, it’s not always as easy to know WHEN that balance is going to change. With everything switching over to automatic payments, it is nearly impossible to remember off the top of your head what day of the month money is coming out. Does the electricity come out on the 15th or the 5th of each month? On top of that there are a whole host of bills to be paid that aren't automatic, and everyone needs reminders for those as well. So the financial calendar of the family fridge tracks your money coming in and going out.
Hello please introduce yourself and tell us your app:
Hi there! My name is Leslie, and I’m here to talk to you about my app, the Family Fridge. The Family Fridge was created to make running a household easier. Time and money are often limited and difficult to keep track of in a family, and if we want to spend time with our families it means that we have to manage everything in an effective and efficient way, and this is exactly what the Family Fridge provides.
How did this app started?
This app actually started because I needed a better financial calendar. While there are plenty of ways of keeping track of how MUCH money you have, it’s not always as easy to know WHEN that balance is going to change. With everything switching over to automatic payments, it is nearly impossible to remember off the top of your head what day of the month money is coming out. Does the electricity come out on the 15th or the 5th of each month? On top of that there are a whole host of bills to be paid that aren't automatic, and everyone needs reminders for those as well. So the financial calendar of the family fridge tracks your money coming in and going out.
What other features do you have
On top of finances, Family Fridge also offers help with food and activities. It manages time in three ways: Keeping track of meal plans and needed groceries, plotting out activities that involve various members of the family, and general calendar functionality. To start with the food planner: Everyone knows planning meals for a family is difficult. Cooking your own food is ultimately cheaper and healthier, but it is still very easy to get in the habit of grabbing a fast food meal because shopping for food and cooking a meal is usually very time consuming. To lessen the time needed to plan out meals, this part of the app enables you to create your favorite recipes, quickly assign that recipe to a day, and preload the ingredients into your shopping list. A black dot on the calendar lets you know that a meal is planned for that day, all you have to do is make sure you check your shopping list when you're at the store.
We can't really have a complete package without general calendar functions. You are able to add Events to the calendar that are generally designed to be a one time or yearly event, such as a doctor’s appointment, or a birthday or anniversary.
That brings us to the final aspect of time management, planning family schedules and activities. While a regular calendar allows for a person to input one-off events like a birthday, The Family Fridge is different in that it empowers each user to track their repeating events. For example: One of my kids can input all of the rehearsals, recitals, or practices related to extracurricular activities. Meanwhile, my husband and I can put in our work schedules so we can arrange childcare if necessary. Because these are stored in a separate module, they can be easily toggled on and off to reduce clutter on the calendar.
Interesting, so with kids using this app, aren't you concerned about kids editing events and deleting events or food they don't want to attend or eat?
I love my kids, but i’m not going to pretend they’re never going to try and skip practice, or delete an event they don’t want to go to. So to prevent that, you can toggle each module’s viewability or editability on or off for each user. And by default, only parents can interact with everyone’s activities, so your kids won’t have to worry about seeing everyone else’s schedules when they’re taking care of their own.
So what are the challenges?
Well, first of all, it’s pretty ugly right now. My husband threw together some quick wireframes when he was last working on it, but he then got hired by a company that legally forced him to distance himself from the project, so I’m just trying to work on the app by myself right now. I don’t know much about programming, so that slowed down the project as well. While we have a basic framework for the application, it will need to be touched up by someone who knows a lot more of what they’re doing, which will take some time and money.
But what about the future?
Well, that’s where it becomes great! While the app I want to have at launch is going to be solid as a rock, I have a lot of ideas about where we can go from here. I’d like to add in connection to the Apple Watch and other smartphones. Tablets have their own unique layout that takes advantage of their aspect ratio and added space. Things like the Apple TV and other connected devices should get their own interface, so you can view and manage your life from anywhere, any time. We'll add in magnets, in-app plug-ins which would be things like photo frames, recipe suggestions, medication trackers, and more. I’d love to add in more skins for the refrigerator, so you can customize what look you want. Additionally, I'd like to build in an icon library, so instead of choosing dots on the main page, you can choose icons to make your fridge look as unique as your family is.
Thank you for your time Leslie, we wish you the best of luck for your kickstarter campaign.
Please check out their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/thefamilyfridge . You can also get a quick hands-on of the initial wireframe at http://invis.io/6U25MHKH5 .