SafeEats: Elimination diet made easy

A smart food and symptoms logging tool that helps you better avoid allergens and intolerances

/ Background

Easy and efficient access to accurate nutritional information is growing need for many Americans. According to a 2014 study (“Households with Dietary Restrictions, 2014), over 60% of US households contained at least one member monitoring or limiting consumption of at least one macronutrient or ingredient. Our team aimed to understand the problem space and design a product for users with dietary restrictions.

/ User Research

// Research Problem Directions

After background research, our team came up with 4 general themes of questions for users with dietary restrictions:

1. Current process for determining food safety

2. Usage of existing systems

3. Need for educational content on dietary restriction practices

4. Demand and risk tolerance level for new food

// Research Methods

Semi-structured Interviews

We conducted eight video interview sessions with target users. Our participants have ages between 22 and 50. Their dietary restriction types include allergies, intolerances, vegetarian/vegan, and religious.

See our full semi-structured question script here.

Fun time: user interviews!

Qualtrics survey blocking logic

Joining an online support group

Surveys

We reached out to a wider user population through online surveys. Our primary goal was to answer two questions: "what problems/contexts do our users find challenging to meet their restrictions” and "how do those challenges differ among users with different restriction types". These questions would help us narrow down our user group and problem space, giving us a specific design direction. We designed the survey in Qualtrics and distributed the survey via social media platforms. We also reached out to online support communities for dietary restrictions for more targeted users.

See the full survey here.

Contextual Inquiry

We conducted with one in-person contextual inquiry. We were primarily interested in the process by which someone with complex dietary restrictions shops in a grocery store. We payed close attention to how they utilize food labels when determining what to purchase. The data collected from this inquiry would facilitate the creation of a task analysis for the process of using food labels and packaging to determine what was safe to eat.

// Result Analysis

Affinity map

We held interpretation sessions after each interview. Interpretation notes were pooled into a spreadsheet together with questions and design ideas. Those sessions resulted in over 200 notes. We imported them into a Miro board and created an Affinity Map. The process helped use condense the data into seven major categories of user needs. 

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Creating an affinity map in Miro

Survey data analysis and visualization

We first cleaned the survey data ​by removing any abnormal responses with extra short response times. Results were recoded and conditionally formatted in Excel. Visual inspection and basic statistical measures such as mode, quartiles were adopted. We made various charts to compare inter-group (different restriction types) differences in responses.

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Conditional formatting for visual inspection

Task analysis for elimination diet

Task analysis

We used task analyses to break down common tasks our users must go through. This method helps us discover potential subtasks that are not addressed by existing tools.

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On the left is a task analysis for Elimination Diet, a diet where users test their body’s reactions to certain ingredients by adding them to their safe diet one-by-one. This is a common process many users with food allergies go through voluntarily or under doctors' suggestions.

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// Research Findings

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From the result analysis, we summarized the following eight user pain​ points:

1. Determining whether food fits within one’s dietary restriction is stressful. This is especially true for people with food allergies and intolerances. It can take years for them to feel comfortable selecting food.

2. Food Packaging and labeling can be confusing and lacks information. Jargon is a commonly mentioned source of confusion. The actual amount of ingredient is a commonly missing piece of information.

3. Some users learned about some of their allergens using  self-devised testing strategies similar to an Elimination Diet.

4. Restaurants pose a difficult barrier for people to navigate their dietary restrictions. 

5. Taste and price sometimes out-weight dietary restrictions for users without life threatening restrictions during decision making process.

6. Desires and anxieties about exploring new foods.

7. Youtube is a popular source of information for vegan users. Some allergy users would get manufacturer information via customer hotlines or websites.

/ Identifying Needs

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// Problem Statement

​After reviewing our team capabilities and environmental limitations, we proceeded with the specific problem space:

"Help users with allergies and intolerances improve food product selection process by helping them better understand their conditions and offering product information relevant to their restrictions."

// User Persona

// Usage Case Storyboard

/ Brainstorming and Design

We did a group brainstorming session via a "wall walk", during which each team member generated and posted idea notes onto related section of the affinity map. We then discuss ideas one by one, building connections and condensing them into "systems of features". We finally came up with four major systems for our mobile app:

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1. A user dietary restriction profile that accommodates users who are unclear about their full restriction list. The profile should also incorporate the idea of consumption threshold

2. A mobile implementation of the Elimination Diet process that features food and symptoms tracking. The result will update user's dietary restriction profile accordingly

3. An ingredient detector that reports product risks based on user profile

4. A product search filter that helps users to select food suitable for their user profile

Design ideas connected to form systems of features

How four systems of features interact to enhance the service

/ Design Sketches

/ Wireframes