Bánh Mì Near Me
Web App demo (limited functionality – Yelp API and YouTube playback via Web Viewer do not work in a browser):
Video demo:
I think this is a great WDC theme but I was a little overwhelmed thinking about how to make something for it. It feels like something that would take me a while to create.
But what popped into my mind was… food! I’ve been on kind of a mission to find the best Bánh Mì sandwich in the SF Bay Area. Bánh Mì are Vietnamese sandwiches. I’ve so far sampled about a dozen restaurants’ faire.
And I realize that what I’ve created here is just a limited version of Yelp but… once in a while it’s good to be able to narrow the focus and just create an app for me. 
And the beauty of this approach, which is API based, is that by changing one text string from “Bánh Mì” to anything else (“steak”, “dessert”, “vegan, etc.”), I could instantly have an app that focuses on another type of cuisine. Here’s the exact same app but with “hot fudge sundae” replacing “Bánh Mì”:
Cultural caveats:
I realize that food in of itself does not represent a culture holistically and also that this particular food is born from colonialization. So focusing on it is potentially problematic. The video I included in the app does go into that history briefly.
Components used:
Web API (Yelp Fusion API)
Web Viewer
Location Sensor
Data Viewer Grid
External Sites used:
https://getemoji.com for text-based button icons
Best JSON Viewer and JSON Beautifier Online for re-formatting API results
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4HA1ejw_hA
Color Palettes for color palettes with hex values