I Built a Little Food Truck Finder and the "Crave Wizard" Is My Favorite Part
Most of the site is what you'd expect: a map, a truck directory, check-ins. Useful stuff, but not particularly exciting to build. The Crave Wizard, though... that one was fun.
The Problem It Solves
The browse page lists every truck in the database. That's great if you want to scroll through options, but sometimes you don't know what you want, you just know you're hungry and you want something specific that you can't quite name yet. You want to answer a few questions and have the site tell you where to go.
That's the Crave Wizard.
How It Works
It's a multistep questionnaire. Nothing fancy, just one question at a time:
- How far are you willing to drive?
- Do you want only trucks that are live on the map right now, or show everything?
- What cuisine are you in the mood for?
- Craving something specific, tacos, burgers, a gyro?
- Does the truck need a Facebook page?
- Does it need an Instagram?
- If you're signed in: filter by your favorites, your bucket list, or your eating history
The last three steps are where it gets personal. You can say "show me only trucks I've favorited that are live right now," or "show me trucks I've never been to that serve Mexican food within 10 miles." If you're not signed in, it nudges you to create a free account and saves your progress so you don't lose your answers during the login round-trip.
The Part I'm Most Proud Of
Gulf Coast food truck community
Follow the fleet on Facebook.
Truck locations, pop-up alerts, and local food news straight to your feed.
The live counter at the bottom of the screen. As you answer each question, the number of matched food trucks updates in real time showing how many trucks match what you've picked so far. It counts down as you add filters.
You're not filling out a form and waiting, you're watching the field narrow in real time, and that number becomes a little hook that makes you want to keep going.
It's Not Perfect
The location step still trips some people up. If you pick a distance radius but haven't shared your GPS coordinates, the distance filter can't actually do anything. I tried to handle this gracefully with a nudge panel, but it's the part of the flow I'm still iterating on.
Also, nine steps might be one or two too many for some users. I've been watching where people drop off and thinking about whether some steps should be combined.
Why I Built It This Way
Honestly, I didn't want a filter sidebar. Sidebars with twelve checkboxes feel like work. A wizard that asks you one question at a time feels more like a conversation, and food choices are kind of personal. What you're craving on a Tuesday afternoon is different from what you want at a Saturday event. The wizard respects that.
If you're in the Gulf Coast area, give it a try here. It's free, no account required for the first six steps, and it might just help you figure out what you actually want for lunch.