Friendly Fare App

Living with food allergies can make dining out stressful and unpredictable. Existing restaurant apps often focus on a single allergy or provide inconsistent information, leaving users to piece together recommendations from multiple sources.

Friendly Fare is a mobile app designed to help people with food allergies quickly discover restaurants that can safely accommodate their dietary needs while building trust through community-driven reviews.

The Challenge

People with food allergies face significant barriers when trying to find safe restaurants, especially while traveling or making spontaneous dining decisions.

The key challenges included:

  • Limited trustworthy information about allergy-friendly restaurants

  • Apps focused on only one dietary restriction

  • Reviews that rarely address allergy accommodations

  • No way to connect with others who have similar dietary needs

My Role

I led the project from research through prototype development.

Responsibilities

  • User Research

  • Competitive Analysis

  • Surveys & Interviews

  • Persona Creation

  • User Flows

  • Wireframing

  • Prototyping

  • Usability Testing

  • Iteration

User Research

As someone recently diagnosed with celiac disease, I experienced firsthand how difficult it was to confidently choose restaurants while away from home. Rather than designing from personal experience alone, I validated the problem through secondary research and user interviews.

Industry Insights

  • 15 million Americans live with food allergies.

  • Food allergies increased by 50% between 1997–2011.

  • There is currently no cure for food allergies.

These findings confirmed that this was a meaningful problem affecting millions of people.

Surveys

To better understand user behaviors and frustrations, I conducted:

  • 32 online surveys

  • 3 in-person interviews

  • 2 phone interviews

Key Findings

  • 44% of participants manage three or more food allergies

  • 69% dine out only 0–3 times per week

  • 56% spend several days planning where to eat before going out

What I Learned

Users weren't simply looking for restaurant reviews—they were looking for reassurance. They wanted confidence that a restaurant understood food allergies and could safely accommodate them.

“It will mean a lot to me if my child can enjoy a special birthday dinner in a restaurant, rather than just other hot dog somewhere easy,.”
“Someone always seems to have to compromise in the, and its usually me.”

Competitive Analysis

I evaluated existing solutions including:

  • Find Me Gluten Free

  • iEatOut

  • AllergyEats

Opportunities

Although each app addressed part of the problem, several gaps consistently emerged:

  • Most apps focused on a single allergy.

  • Reviews rarely discussed actual allergy accommodations.

  • There was little opportunity for community engagement.

  • Users couldn't build trust through shared experiences.

These insights helped define Friendly Fare's unique value proposition.

Personas

My surveys lead me to create two distinct personas. First there was Jennifer, the concerned mother with kids who suffer from food allergies. While there was also Allison, a busy working professional who enjoys going out but has multiple food allergies. (See below for details.)

Jennifer, The Concerned Parent

Jennifer plans every family meal carefully because her children have food allergies. She needs reliable recommendations before taking her family to a new restaurant.

Allison, The Busy Professional

Allison has multiple food allergies but enjoys trying new restaurants. She needs fast, trustworthy recommendations while balancing a busy schedule.

These personas guided feature prioritization throughout the design process.

Design Process

Beginning with paper sketches, I created low-fidelity wireframes before moving into interactive prototypes.

Tools Used

  • Sketch

  • Axure

  • POP

  • InVision

The design focused on making restaurant discovery simple while emphasizing trustworthy community reviews.

Usability Testing

I conducted usability testing with five participants.

Participants were asked to:

  • Find a nearby restaurant

  • Submit a restaurant review

Key Insight

Users successfully completed their tasks but consistently requested more guidance when first opening the app.

Design Iteration

To improve the onboarding experience, I refined the navigation and introduced clearer instructional cues to help first-time users understand how the app worked.

Solution

Final Solution

The final prototype enables users to:

  • Discover allergy-friendly restaurants nearby

  • Search restaurants before traveling

  • Read reviews focused on allergy accommodations

  • Share personal dining experiences with the community

The experience emphasizes trust, simplicity, and confidence throughout the user's journey.

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