Tracking Bowel Movements App

Research & Discovery

Overarching Questions

Who is my target audience:

• People who have IBD or IBS
• People who want to track their bowel movements and food

What features are important to include:

• Food Tracking
• Bowel Movement Tracking
• Mood Tracking

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Interview Summary

After conducting several interviews, I realized I needed to narrow down my audience. I decided to specifically target those who are following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, as they would benefit most from an additional tool to help them document their bowel movements, food, and mood.

In addition to this several mentioned additional resources they would appreciate. I took what they said into consideration and I included sections about talking to their doctor, and where they can discover recipes, articles, or useful podcasts. 

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Competitors

I spent time examining the market to see who my competitors were.

Duncan Donaldson created: “Poop Tracker - Toilet Log”

• PROS: They captured all the elements someone who has IBD would want to track, and provide easy use with sliding scales.
• CONS: It only tracks bowel movements, a user has to pay in order to get their data compiled onto a graph, and it does not seem to be functioning.

Bowelle AB created “Bowelle: - The IBS Tracker”

• PROS: Brings all the concepts together under one app, regarding what one would want to track when following a lifestyle looking to heal.
• CONS: They do not include any additional resources for recipes, nutrition, importance of sleep or exercise.

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Persona Building

After collecting user research data, I worked to build out a persona that captured my audience and represented their biggest pain points.

My persona was the center of my focus as I built out the features of the app.

User Flow & Wireframes

During this phase I focused on building out each feature

User Flow

I created a user flow that my persona would follow in a regular day

Wireframes

Bowel Movement Diary

• Included sections for the various symptoms that are important to pay attention to while in a flare

Food Diary

• Included sections for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks

Medical Information

• Included sections for procedures, medication, supplements, and anemia

Discover

• Included sections for medical research, relevant articles, relevant podcasts, and recipes

Design

Bringing the design to life

Colors

I used various shades of purple to emit a sense of softness and calm while having an uplifting theme as well.

Logo

I designed a simple sketch of the large intestine which appears similar to a thought bubble. I felt this matched the theme of my app as it is a diary to record bowel movements, food and mood which all work together as in the mind and gut connection.

Background Heading

I used the image of a sea anemone because they appear similar to villi, which line the small intestine and are meant to absorb nutrients.

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Hi-Fidelity Prototype

During this phase I was able to build out each feature for ease of use

Food Diary

• Included overlay for the user to select a saved food
• Included overlay for the user to select a saved meal from a previous day

Bowel Movement Diary

• Included slider for user to quickly select from a range of 1 to 10 of the severity of a specific symptom

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Support Website

I created this as an additional support resource for app users

It will highlight testimonials and success stories

Users will have access to communities dedicated to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet

Reflection

If I had more time I would

• Integrate nutrition tracking. It is vital people with IBD and IBS are getting enough nutrients to help their bodies heal
• Display collected data in a graph. This would help users clearly see how their symptoms are progressing or regressing.