Safe Bites
UX/UI Designer | Product Space Capstone
Safe Bites is a mobile app concept that empowers people with severe food allergies and dietary restrictions to confidently discover safe dining options through personalized profiles, trusted reviews, and clear allergen information.
The Problem
Dining out with food allergies isn’t casual. It’s stressful and potentially dangerous.
Menus often lack allergen transparency.
Cross-contamination risks go unmentioned.
Existing review platforms aren’t designed for allergy needs.
According to FARE, 33 million people in the United States live with food allergies. That means…
1 in 10 Americans live with food allergies.
Despite the scale, no mainstream platform solves this problem directly.
As a 1 in 10 American with food allergies myself, I know the three biggest challenges diners like me face:
Unclear allergen information
Difficulty finding safe restaurants
Lack of Trusted knowledge
This reality became the driving force behind my project.
I aim to create a design solution that empowers people with food allergies to dine with confidence.
Market analysis
First of all, is there a need for a specific allergy app? Let’s take a look at the existing products out in the market already.
Yelp is great for general restaurant discovery, but its broad focus fails to meet the specific food safety needs of people with severe allergies.
Google Reviews is widely used, but it lacks advanced allergy filters and its broad audience makes reviews unreliable for people with severe allergies.
Fig helps users scan packaged foods for allergens, but it doesn’t solve the challenges of dining out with food allergies.
Conclusion
Yelp & Google Reviews are strong for discovery, weak for trusted allergy-specific information.
Fig is effective for packaged foods, irrelevant for restaurant dining.
There is a clear opportunity to build a dedicated allergy-safe restaurant app that balances personalization, safety, and trust.
The Solution
I will create a mobile app that allows the user to conveniently and safely navigate their way through dining with allergies.
To address the issues brought up earlier, I mapped each problem to a design solution.
PROBLEM
Unclear allergen information
Difficulty finding safe restaurants
Lack of trusted knowledge
Solution
Personalized Profiles
Users create profiles that specify their allergies and dietary restrictions, ensuring menus, filters, and recommendations are tailored to their exact needs.
Restaurant Finder
A location-based tool highlights nearby restaurants and venues that align with the user’s allergy profile.
Community Reviews
Access to allergy-specific reviews from others with similar restrictions provides trusted, lived-experience guidance.
Final Designs
Prototype
When you create an account, you are prompted with a questionnaire that lets you select your allergies. These allergies will be added to your profile.
Builds a tailored profile with each user’s allergies.
Ensures recommendations and alerts are relevant to dietary needs.
Saves users from repeatedly entering the same information.
Logging in lets existing users access their accounts.
Saves allergy profiles, preferences, and dining history.
Users don’t need to re-enter details each time.
Ties reviews to real accounts for credibility.
Syncs data across devices and tailors recommendations.
After completing the allergen questionnaire, users get personalized restaurant recommendations.
Each restaurant displays allergen tags and Safe Bites reviews from other users to ensure safety and trust.
Suggests only restaurants that match the user’s allergy profile.
Clear allergen tags show exactly what each restaurant can handle.
Users can explore restaurants directly on an interactive map. By clicking a restaurant node, they can access tabs to view the menu, browse photos, and read community reviews all in one place.
Helps users quickly see which safe restaurants are nearby.
Saves time by combining menu, photos, and reviews in one place.
Community reviews and allergen info give users confidence before visiting.
Reflection
Through Safe Bites, I learned how to:
Translate a personal pain point into validated design goals.
Use competitive research to refine solutions.
Balance user trust and usability when designing for high-stakes needs.
As for my next steps, I would like to partner with restaurants to validate allergen data accuracy and run extended usability tests with allergy communities.