Overview: Designed with digestion in mind

The SafeDiet app is an imaginary mobile app that aims to help all the foodies out there with specific digestive issues like myself find their perfect plate of food! This is the UX Design process of how I would go about designing it.

Competitive Market Research

I gathered information about the competition in order to see what my app would be up against if it entered the market.

• The strongest competitor apps have the ability to search for recipes and create weekly meal plans for users.

• Only some of them have advanced filtering functions for people with food allergies or special diets. This leaves room for my app to take some of the more niche market share.

• None of the competition has predefined weekly menus specifically based on dietary needs or preferences.

During the discovery and ideation phase of my project, I interviewed people who I knew suffered from a range of digestive issues in order to better understand the problem. Here's what I discovered.

• People with food intolerance struggle to decide what and where to eat on a daily basis.

• They tend to cook for themselves, since in most cases that is the most convenient solution.

• Restaurants sometimes offer modified foods, but usually at an increased cost.

• They use multiple blogs, and websites to find the recipes they need and can eat.

• They tend to plan ahead, although this does not always works out as planned.

• Life comes at you fast, lactose intolerance comes at you faster.

User Interviews

Initial Research

Design Phase

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

What Users Can Do

I start most of my design processes with low-fidelity wireframes. This is the way I iterate through many options for design layouts quickly. With my wireframes, I was able to clearly define the basic layout and main user journey of the app.

• Users should be able to specify their dietary preferences and filter their results.

• They should be able to choose from a predefined weekly menu and edit these menus based on their wants and needs.

• They can view their saved recipes on their menu pages.

• They can assemble a shopping list based on their menu.

Look & Feel

• Early in the UI design process, I usually experiment with different colors and styles.

• I used white and light grey as base colors.

• I added pink, blue and green neon gradients as accent colors.

• I used rounded edges and circles for a softer and more friendly look.

Usability Testing

Using VS Code, I created a low-fidelity, clickable prototype. I tested this prototype with 5 users and collected the following data:

In Conclusion

I really enjoyed working on this project. However, I learned the hard way that I was, unfortunately, lacking the sample size necessary to conduct proper user research sessions.

Regardless of research limitations, I believe that if an application like SafeDiet were to reach the market, it would be relatively successful due to the lack of customizable search features and meal planning options from the competition.