Mobile App: Gluten Free Me
a resource to help navigate the world with celiac disease
Role | Team Lead, Visuals, Interaction
Project Duration | July 2024
Project Vision
Being diagnosed with celiac requires a huge life change. No matter the age, it can be challenging to learn how to live and eat healthily with a disease that can have serious consequences if you slip up. This app will help kids, teens, and young adults (and their parents) who have been diagnosed learn about the disease and how to live with it and offer resources for maintaining a GF diet.
Challenges
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​Provide an intuitive interface where users can not only learn about celiac disease and gain knowledge, but can also find tools and resources they can use to plan meals when not at home.
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Offer age--appropriate resources so the app can be widely used.
Kickoff
In this project, I used a goal-oriented approach which was effective. I utilized qualitative research methods which I found to be most useful. I began by asking some initial key questions:
"How will this app be used by different age groups?"
"What does each age group need most in this app?"
"What challenges could we face moving forward?"
Meet the Users
Primary
Name: Liza
Age: 4
Education: Pre-School
Goal: "To learn how to live with celiac."
Frustrations: It’s hard to be diagnosed so young, you can't advocate for yourself and you don't understand why certain foods are off limits!
Liza was diagnosed with celiac at 2 years old. It was a huge change for her entire family who has to now learn how to make sure their home is safe, and her parents who need to know how to advocate for Liza until she’s old enough to do so herself, while also teaching her the necessary tools so that she’ll be able to live a healthy lifestyle as she grows up.
Primary
Name: Trina
Age: 21
Education: Student
Frustrations: "Receiving this diagnosis is a blow, and there’s gluten everywhere. It can be so challenging to understand how to make changes to be safe, or find the GF foods."
Trina was diagnosed as a teenager, and is now living alone and has to navigate the world without her parents being there to buy everything and make sure her food is GF. She would like to have some resources to finding GF options in her area, and advice and tips for various settings such as eating out, navigating grocery stores, etc.
Goal: "To have the resources to live healthily with celiac."
Primary
Name: Elise
Age: 38
Education: MS
Occupation: Project Manager
Goal: "To have the resources to help her son learn how to live with celiac."
Frustrations: "My kid’s diagnosis came out of nowhere. I’ve never had to learn about this before, and I have no idea how to tell a young child he can’t eat crackers anymore."
Elise’s son was diagnosed with celiac after months of doctor’s visits. This disease is nowhere in her or her husband’s family so they were completely blindsided and had to learn all about it in order to then teach her son. She would like to have some sort of tool available to help her son learn as he grows so that he can understand on his own.
Preparing the Journey
I constructed two basic user flows of what a start to finish journey would look like for both the activities and for checking foods at a grocery store to determine if they're safe. This helped in understanding ways users can interact with the product as well as allowing me to see a navigation path.
Wireflow
After sketching out some paper wireframes and thinking through the preliminary flow, I reviewed what was necessary, unnecessary, and needed improvement. I then moved onto digital wireframing and low-fidelity prototypes.
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View the low-fidelity prototype for the app here.
Iterations
After creating the low-fidelity prototype, I performed a usability test to determine the flow, what worked, and any issues to address and solve during the next set of design iterations.
Separate parent page
Keep the parents and kids info separate and have the kid pages with just resources for the age group.
More information.
Having a page with information on celiac disease would be helpful as well.
Restaurant Search.
People should be able to search for GF options by both location and restaurant.
Addressing Challenges
intuitive interface
This app is designed so that anyone can easily navigate through the pages to find what they need.
age-appropriate
This app is broken up into different age levels, with appropriate activities, videos, and resources based on the user's age. A young child can learn about their disease in a fun manner while still getting the necessary information, while older individuals can find resources for choosing restaurants, or determining whether foods at the grocery store are safe to consume.
Style Guide
Takeaways
This app is designed to be used by young kids, teens, and adults. It has different pages for the different age groups with activities and resources based on the user’s age. Anyone can easily navigate through the pages depending on what they need!
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This project means a lot to me, as my niece was diagnosed with celiac young. It was a huge learning curve for my sister and brother-in-law, needing to take care of the young child who couldn’t even understand what was going on at the time. I learned a lot about designing for a cause with this app, and what might be most useful to someone in my sister's shoes, and my niece's!