Practicum - Eric (1)

So I finally got around to starting my practicum project the other day. My topic is specialized information sites. I was a bit dumbfounded for a while when I began to brainstorm what sites I wanted to study, because I wanted to focus on one specific specialized information topic, so I could better compare how different sites treated the topic. I also was determined to find a topic that I was not only interested in, but that I could find increased knowledge useful to my everyday life. Eventually I realized the topic I needed to cover was cooking. I already like to cook, probably because I like to eat, and cooking allows me to experiment and try new tastes and foods.

To start off I decided to visit a website that I have used on occasion in the past, www.allrecipes.com. The site is basically an expansive collection of user-submitted recipes. Many recipes include pictures, and there is a review feature for all recipes. Users can rate how much they like a recipe on a 5-star scale, and then also provide feedback on the recipe. Having such a large collection of recipes in one central location is very convenient, as all a user needs to do is type what they are searching for into the searchbar on the homepage, and then look through the results.

I also decided that in order for this study to truly be effective and for me to learn anything substantial, I should actually find recipes and use them to make food. That way I can study cooking/recipe websites on multiple levels, as an outside analyst, and as an actual user. I had been having a taste for ham recently, so I did a quick search of "glazed ham" and looked over the first few results. After comparing the reviews on the three most popular recipes, I decided I wanted to try a hybrid of the three. I took the best features of all three recipes, based on user feedback, and made myself some ham for dinner tonight. It featured a glaze based on honey, mustard, and ground chives, and it turned out to be quite delicious. I have written down exactly what I used and did to prepare my meal, and I plan on submitting my very own recipe to the site in the next few days. It'll be interesting to see if anybody provides me with feedback or tries my recipe.