Our Design Process

Competitive Analysis – Dimensions/Criteria Utilized

What Allergies/Restrictions are Accounted for

The quality of the collection of dietary restriction , both in quantity and quality. We chose to compare this dimension across apps because bigger collections of restrictions and allergies would prove to be more representative of the target users and more effective than a database with a minimal set of dietary restrictions.

Crowd Sourced Content

Input that is created and shared by a large group of people online, rather than solely by a company or individual. We chose to analyze this dimension across apps because lack of CSC would render our application to solely rely on restaurant cooperation for their ingredient database. Incorporating CSC adds another avenue for users to self report their experiences with the ingredients in food items and certain establishments. Our user base would ultimately build our database in the long run, with proper moderation, to be able to accurately represent the ingredients of food items at any restaurant.

Monetized

The action or process of earning revenue from an asset, business. Monetization is an aspect we decided to compare across apps because certain paywalls can serve as a barrier of entry for people who are already dealing with the financial hardships of having to tailor their diet to something very specific, as assigned by their doctor.

Personalization

Personalization is an important aspect of allergy or dietary based applications. Allowing users to personalize their applications based on their dietary needs, allergens, or food avoidances allows applications to better tailor to users needs in whichever aspects they require.

Map Search

A map search feature is simply a feature that allows users to visualize locations based on their relative position. A map search feature facilitates a users experience within an application by allowing them to view nearby locations where they can experience an ideal meal which suits there dietary restrictions or allergies the best in regards to a dietary based application.

Trust and Credibility

Trust and Credibility is essential for applications that focus on diets and allergens. Without the proper steps taken to ensure a secure, trustworthy, and credible experience within an application, the health of users can be put at severe risk. We decided to compare this aspect between all of these different applications as it is a must to actually allow users a safe user experience.

User Research Plan & Interviews

Participants

We aim to interview 10-15 people (2-3 people each) who have experienced difficulty dining out while having to abide by their dietary restrictions and/or allergies. If possible we would also like to interview restaurant workers or waiters who have been asked about menu items that abide by dietary restrictions. We also aim to interview people who all own a smartphone and have it with them when they’re typically eating and utilize it for their diet or allergies. We aim to shed light on the flaws in existing methods of finding out whether a particular menu item will pose a health risk, meaning that there must be a memorable experience where the participant had to inquire either verbally or nonverbally about the ingredients in a dish on the menu.

Key Insights

Insight 1 - Details 

Details are important, especially for those who need to know what they are eating due to allergies they may have or dietary restrictions they may follow. Participants who were interviewed were very vocal about issues many menus had when it came to the details that were provided to them about certain items. 

Menus with more detailed descriptions, more detailed lists of ingredients, and more detailed allergen information would be much more appreciated by many individuals with allergies and dietary restrictions. 

• “I think just like… After the dish name, if it… had all the ingredients that it contained, it would be nice you know. Not just like last night where I could only see the ingredients that were in front of my face.”

• “More detailed menus…[and] Breakdowns that tell you the ingredients of the other parts of the dish comes like what may be in a sauce used in the dish I ordered.”

Insight 2 - Crowd Sourced Confidence

People with food allergies and dietary restrictions are more prone to utilizing reviews as their form of research for restaurants and the types of food items they may serve, rather than applications specifically tailored to help with food allergies and dietary restrictions.

• “I use Google maps, Yelp, or food bloggers for vegetarian friendly places. I also use doordash or grubhub since they will occasionally have more detailed ingredients. Sometimes I also use menu pdfs with photos from restaurants.”

• “Instagram travel bloggers. I regularly Google things I want. Google maps. Yelp reviews.”

Insight 3 - Health Risks

Individuals with dietary restrictions, and especially allergies, are more prone to health risks if they are given certain foods that they are not able to properly ingest. Because of this, individuals must be very cautious of what they order. However, even with extreme caution restaurants can sometimes, accidentally, serve an item that may put certain individuals’ health at risk.

• “Yes. Vegan fast food place [accidently served my dish] with secret cashews. Starlight circle macaroni salad with tuna was fed to my boyfriend Noah (20) and it went terrible, it feels like a betrayal when there’s things you weren’t aware of in your food [are found].”

• “Yes, entrees will occasionally have surprise meat that’s not mentioned which means that I can’t eat anymore.”

Insight 4 - Customization

Individuals with dietary restrictions, and allergies need specific items to tailor to their nutritional needs. Because of this, it is beneficial to these individuals to eat at restaurants where they are able to customize or change certain items to fit those needs, and to fit their allergies and dietary restrictions.

• "I wanted to get the Wednesday burger so I had to call and ask and then they told me I couldn't substitute it [the patty] and I got really sad."

• “I have to look for certain kinds of restaurants that are willing to make changes. I also check reviews to make sure changes are something the restaurant does.’

Personas

Based on our personas, we wanted to create a way to make it easier for users to go out and eat without having the need to remember each and every item they are or are not allowed to eat. There are a huge number of individuals, each with very different dietary restrictions and allergies, and for each of these individuals it is hard to always remember what they are allowed to eat which is what our Lo-Fis were designed to facilitate. We created a restaurant and item search that would allow users to either search a restaurant and view their menu(s) in advance, or view and item and view all the dietary information. The second design we created was a text and QR code scanner, which would help users scan menus or items to get dietary information so that users can view what they may be able to eat or not.

Mid-Fi Explanation

Whilst creating our previous sketches we did focus more on the features that we hoped our application would provide, but we had not designed a way for users to input their exact dietary restrictions or allergies for the application to actually filter and sort the information users need to receive back after having utilized the functionalities of the application. Because of this, we developed a design for users to input their information in relations to their dietary needs and restrictions.

Below, we present a very early design of what our onboarding process was going to look like. We wanted to develop a total of 4 different stages and a number of different options from users to choose from in regards to their dietary restrictions or allergies. These options will be divided into 4 different pages to make it easier and less cluttered for users while they navigate.

The second screen below, is also very new. Our first restaurant search was mainly focused on simply giving a list and icon of restaurants as results whenever users search. However, we decided that it would be best to add further assistance for users in finding the restaurants, which resulted in a map and search feature for users. This would allow users to not only search for establishments based on their information, but also make it faster and easier for users to locate where these establishments are based on their relative location.

Our third screen, had no change. It was still a scanner that allowed users to scan a menu, QR Code, or Barcode in order to find and filter dietary information based on the users information. This screen shown simply demonstrates how we would want the pages functionality to work. A user would scan a menu, the application would scan the text of the menu, and the application will then return the items a user can and cannot eat.

For our High Fidelity Designs, the overall functionalities and design of most of our screens did not change.

Through our first screen, our onboarding screen, users will be able to add all their allergies and dietary restrictions. Though it is not shown in this page, users will also be able to also choose restrictions based on their pregnancy or Gastrointestinal (GI) Health as well as their religious and cultural restrictions. Based on the information input by users, the application will be able to automatically filter dietary information whenever users scan or search.

For our home page/search page, users will be able to search any type of restaurant to their liking, which will then yield results automatically filtered based on a users onboarding information. Of course, users will be able to freely filter to their likings as well. Users will be presented with a map view so that they can visualize where establishments are based on their own locations, and will also be presented with a list view so that users can more easily scroll through all their results. Each result will have their own page which will have menus, user reviews, and ratings.

The third screen also stayed relatively the same to its Mid-Fidelity counterpart. A user will be able to scan a menu, adjust the size or area of the capture, and submit the capture for text scanning. The results will then present the user with what they can eat and what they cannot eat with color coding.