This project brings together students from the two streams of the Applied Psychology course (psychology with technology and pure psychology) to work as a team on production of an IT solution that is underpinned by  significant, credible, research-based psychological knowledge and understanding.

This project is still ongoing and culminates in the development of a prototype and it’s showcase at an Interactive Display in May of this year.

I have included this project in my portfolio because it brings together many of the skills I have honed during my degree and applies them in the development of a proposed solution to an identified user need, from the idea stage right through to the high fidelity prototype.

NutriClear

A Scientifically-Researched User-Friendly Nutrition App

The Team consists of four students, two from the pure psychology stream and two from the technology stream.

As one of the two technology students, the skills I brought to the team included:

• an understanding of user-centred design principles and their application
• knowledge of the process of user testing and iteration
• experience compiling low and high fidelity prototypes, using software like Photoshop, Illustrator & Axure

The Idea – Various ideas were discussed in the early stages. One area of common interest between team members was nutrition – specifically the fact that there is a lot of contradictory information available which is confusing for the layperson, plus there are some important areas which are not sufficiently highlighted.

In spite of the huge number of nutrition apps that are available, or perhaps because of them, we felt strongly that there is an existing need for a user-friendly app that provides unbiased, clear and scientifically-researched information to help users in making healthy food choices. Some possible features we discussed included:

• a barcode scanner which provides nutritional information in a traffic light system so that users can easily make informed choices about the food they buy
• information about the food pyramid illustrating to the user how many portions of the various food groups they should aim to consume
• information about how diet affects health, with a special focus on mental health and immunity
• clear scientific information about various popular diets, e.g. gluten-free, paleo, vegetarian, vegan
• link to a website that would go into more detail

Background Research – in order to investigate this further we researched a number of existing nutrition apps.

One of the most relevant to our proposed IT solution is Fooducate. This app includes a barcode scanner with traffic light system for displaying nutritional information, and it gives feedback on quantity and quality of daily consumed calories. However the mobile app is not available outside of the United States.

Another nutrition app that we researched was My Fitness Pal, this app allows users to keep track of their diet and exercise patterns in order to help them loose weight. Although this app had some similarities to our proposed solution, we felt it was aimed at people who are actively seeking to loose weight while our vision was an app that would educate users about food and health.

We decided as a result of researching many more nutrition apps that it would be useful to include recipes appropriate to foods that the user scanned, as well as a feature to save favourite recipes.

Identifying a Need – at this stage we decided to carry out a survey to ascertain the level of interest in our proposed solution. A ten question survey was compiled on Survey Monkey and circulated via social media. Results of the survey showed most interest in 2 areas: the barcode scanner and information on how diet affects physical and mental health. Due to the low level of interest in the various diets (gluten-free, paleo etc) we decided not to include this in the prototype.

Developing IT Solution – the first step in development was to put ideas on paper. We drew up paper prototypes and user tested them as a mobile app using POP and received some very useful feedback which was incorporated into the high fidelity prototype. Some of these suggestions included

• link the barcode scanner with the food pyramid so that when a user scans an item, the user receives feedback as to where it belongs on the food pyramid
• record daily calorie intake and compare it with recommended levels
• clearly explain nutritional jargon
• include a section on weight in the health section and explain the effects of being overweight on health
• navigation was confusing and needs to be more consistent
• include a search function so that the user could search for recipes / health content

These suggestions were implemented into the design and work began on the high fidelity prototypes, which are currently being developed. Some of the high fidelity screens can be seen above.

User Testing and Iteration

Dissemination