Safe Bites
UX/UI Designer | Product Space Capstone
Safe Bites is a mobile app concept designed to help individuals with severe food allergies and dietary restrictions find safe, enjoyable dining options.
The Problem
Dining out isn’t casual when you have severe food allergies. It’s stressful and potentially dangerous. Menus often lack transparency, cross-contamination risks go unmentioned, and every meal can feel like a gamble.
According to FARE, 33 million people in the United States live with food allergies, navigating this same uncertainty every time they sit down at a restaurant. That means…
1 in 10 Americans live with food allergies.
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
While existing platforms help with general dining or packaged food, none directly solve the urgent needs of people with food allergies. This leaves millions of diners without reliable tools for safe restaurant choices. There is a strong need and opportunity for a dedicated allergy-specific app designed to fill this gap in the market.
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.