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Iowa State Fair food finder

This app was born out of an experiment with Google maps and custom tiles. I had created a 3D map of the Iowa State Fair fairgrounds and wanted to see if I could use that as a map layer, so the first year this was just a map with dots on it marking the location of various food vendors. I then expanded it into a web app, cross referencing foods with vendors and building an admin app (see screen capture) to keep track of everything.

The following year, I used this as an excuse to learn how to build an iPhone app, and that’s when it really took off. Iowa State Univeristy joined on as a sponsor and provided nutritional information for many of the foods. I added filters for new foods and healthy foods, and a calorie calculator, showing how much effort you’d have to put in for a variety of activities to work off that bacon-wrapped corndog. I also added an event calendar we had been publishing separately on the Register’s website.

Then the next year, I added the ability to create a list of foods you wanted to eat so you could check them off as you did.

Sadly, after I moved to another development team and lost responsibility for the app, it failed to find another home. Still, I remain proud of my little contribution to the tradition that is the Iowa State Fair.