John Gist

Bio:

Co-founder of Wetawa, an online community for foodies. Prior to Wetawa I worked as a digital product consultant and have designed or contributed to software used by millions of people. I've been fortunate enough to work on a wide variety of products- everything from financial trading applications to console videos games and automobile dashboards. Trained as a user experience designer, the favorite part of my job is problem solving and making complex things appear simple.

Outside of work you can find me buying way too many things off of Groupon, playing soccer in chinatown and cooking up a mean Cincinnati-style chili.

• Title: Co-founder, CCO Wetawa
• Age: 30
• Location: Spanish Harlem
• Contact: @juanito_jugo

What are some of your favorite resources/sites to stay on top of the UX field?

New York City has a great UX community. Professional groups like the IxDA (http://www.ixda.org/local/new-york-ixda), NYC-UX (http://www.meetup.com/NYC-UX)and NYCUPA (http://www.nycupa.org/) are my favorite way to stay on top of the field. These groups host discussions, lectures and workshops  at different agencies and firms around town. They are fun, educational and a great way to meet with others interested in UX.

You are one of the co-founders of Wetawa, which your team started about seven months ago.  How do you think Wetawa is different from other food communities and websites that currently exist?

What sets Wetawa apart from other food communities is that it is not about recipe sharing but about education in the broader food space. There are already a thousand places to go online and find the best recipes or the hottest restaurants – we aren’t trying to toss our hat into that ring.Recipes are simply a guide for cooking, but it never tells you where to get the ingredients, what can be substituted (if you have allergies) or where you can try the dish before you attempt to cook it on your own. There are so many unknowns about food that we felt a more open minded approach was needed to get people what they were looking for. We want Wetawa to be like the one friend you have  who knows everything about food; whenever you have a question you go straight to them and get authentic, honest advice.

What are some of the best Groupons that you’ve purchased lately?

Groupon is great for finding deals on things you never knew you needed.  My purchase history skews toward education & classes – I’ve bought street fighting classes, stuntman workshops, salsa dancing lessons and, most recently, compré las classes de español. I've been using Dealble lately to corral my purchases to more appropriate things like movie tickets and restaurants.