Friendly Fare App
To complete the UX class at General Assembly we had to produce final projects that consisted of examining a problem space and designing solutions for it based on UX principles. I chose to explore restaurant apps- specifically for those with food allergies. In response, I created an app named Friendly Fare, which aids those with food allergies in finding allergy-friendly restaurants on the go.
Challenge
It’s very difficult to identify allergy-friendly restaurants when on the go. A large part of this problem is the lack of a single and unbiased source through which information about allergy-friendly restaurants is available.
Approach
Research
As a recently diagnosed celiac I wanted to find an easier way to find allergy-friendly restaurants when on the go. I decided to do some research to find out if there were others like me and if they had the same problems when it came to finding suitable dining options. After my initial research, I had some great statistics to validate my app creation.
15 Million Americans have food allergies
Between 1997 and 2011 there has been a 50% increase in the number of people who have food allergies
There are 0 cures for food allergies
Surveys
My next step was to survey and interview others with food allergies to see what their pain points were. In total, I conducted 32 online surveys with 3 in-person interviews and 2 phone interviews. My key takeaways were:
44% of respondents have 3 or more food allergies
69% of respondents only eat out 0-3 times a week
56% of respondents take more than a few days to plan dining-out
Competitive Analysis
I knew I couldn’t be the first person to come up with a solution to this problem so I checked out some competitors. I focused on Find Me Gluten Free, iEatOut, and Allergy eats.
Most apps cater to only one single food allergy.
There is no social aspect. You can’t connect with other users to exchange recommendations.
Reviews aren't always authentic and geared towards the allergy friendliness itself of the restaurant.
Personas
My surveys lead me to create two distinct personas. First there was Jennifer, the concerned mother with kids who suffer from food allergies. While there was also Allison, a busy working professional who enjoys going out but has multiple food allergies. (See below for details.)
User Flows
Locate allergy-friendly restaurants when on the go
Find allergy-friendly restaurants near a location I plan on being in the future
Rate a restaurant that accommodated my food allergies and made me feel like a rock star
Test & Iterate
After making my sketches and building my first rough prototypes using POP I had five users test my app. They were asked to "find a restaurant" then to "review the restaurant"
The final consensus from my users was that there needed to be more direction or an introduction on how to walk through the process.
Results
Prototype
With my user test results in mind, I made both low fidelty and high fidelity prototypes using Axure, Sketch and Invision.
