MyAllergyPal
challenge
About 32 million people in the U.S have a food allergy.
Every three minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room.
Each year in the U.S., 200,000 people require emergency medical care for allergic reactions to food.
Childhood hospitalizations for food allergy tripled between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s.
More than 40 percent of children with food allergies and more than half of adults with food allergies have experienced a severe allergic reaction such as anaphylaxis.
Medical procedures to treat anaphylaxis resulting from food allergy increased by 380 percent between 2007 and 2016.
solution
MyAllergyPal is a platform to help minimize the risk of these allergies, through the ability to scan the barcodes of food items and be informed whether the food is allergen-free or not.
As a UX and Visual Designer for this project, my role was to contribute all phases of the research and design process and to individually create all the visual design elements.
Overview
Coursera
Google UX Design Course
Platform
iOS Mobile App
Android Playstore
Methods
User Research
Personas
Storyboarding
Journey Mapping
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability studies
Tools
Figma
Timeline
August - October
Process
Understand
User interviews
Surveys
Define
Personas
Problem statement
Ideate
User journey
User task
Design
Paper wireframes
Digital wireframes
Lo-fidelity prototypes
Hi-fidelity protoypes
Test
Usability testing
Phase 1: Understand
Research Objective:
To understand the experience of those affected with a food allergy
To find out what people with food allergies do on the day-to-day
Survey questions:
What are you allergic to?
How often do you go grocery shopping?
How often do you eat out?
How many times have you had an allergic reaction to food?
What are your protocols when buying new foods?
"I always have to triple-check with the waiter because I have experienced so much miscommunication in the past and it doesn't create a nice experience." - Anonymous
Phase 2: Define
Goals
To be able to worry less
To be happy
Find cheaper alternatives
We found that users want to try new foods at the supermarket and feel safe about purchasing new items from the grocery, but they did not want to spend time reading the ingredients list because it was always very overwhelming and at risk of misreading.
Time
Spending time to read through the ingredients list
Human Error
When reading the allergens information, chance of human error may occur
Options
When buying in-store, they want to try new recipes and foods
Financial
Spending money on dietary requirement foods are much more expensive than normal foods
Phase 3: Ideate
User Task
Phase 4: Design
Phase 5: Test
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Most fatal food allergy reactions are triggered by food consumed outside the home.
Future enhancements would be to start scanning restaurant menu items so we can target more people and create a better experience for them when eating out.