Aflatoxins
A Mobile App UX Case Study
A mobile application which allows you to understand your food and how it affects your health and immunity.
Prolonged exposure can cause cancer
Aflatoxins can cause cancer.
They are a type of toxic metabolites that are present in our daily food. These mycotoxins; toxins produced from fungi, can cause serious ill health within human beings , for instance; liver cancer and Reye’s syndrome.
Prolonged exposure to these compounds can also prove to be fatal. It is of utmost importance that these toxins are well known to common man.
My Role
UX Designer
Skills
UX Research
Duration
6 Weeks
Tools
Adobe XD, Figma, Miro
The Process
Discover
Discovering The Problem
Aflatoxins is well known within the scientific community but needs awareness amongst the masses.
These toxins are carcinogenic in nature and are a mutagen. These mycotoxins are present in our everyday found such as almonds, peanuts, milk, corn, maize, dried chilies, figs, dairy products etc.
Challenges
- Little or no awareness amongst masses. No knowledge about prevention and reversal techniques.
- No easy way to know permissible limit of toxins.
- Which group of Aflatoxins are present in what quantity and which one of them is harmful.
- Existing research about Aflatoxins requires subject mastery.
- Existing detection techniques available are expensive,requires technical knowledge of the subject.
Solutions
- More awareness and the ability to know about prevention and reversal techniques.
- Will be informed about the permissible limit of toxins.
- User will be informed about the group of Aflatoxins are present and which one poses threat.
- Easy to use and easily accessible to common man.
- Gives users the opportunity to get toxin related information without having to invest or gain technical knowledge.
Discover
Qualitative Research
The approach towards qualitative research for this particular project was a bit different if compared with others. I interviewed around 10 people across age groups to know their views about Aflatoxins and whether or not they wanted more information. to undertsand the depth , qualify or quantify . The challeneg is to create awareness to know, to gauge i interviewed.
To understand how users feel and think about health and wellness.
How receptive and willing they would be with understanding new information.
What are their existing views about health and fitness.
Discover
Quantitative Research
Survey forms were sent out to validate the same. Hence, verifying the challenges whether the users are willing to gain more information.
90 % do not know what Aflatoxins are and 78% would like to know the content of toxins present in food.
88% would like to know about the content after gaining surface level knowledge but do not know any prevention and reversal techniques.
Define
User Stories
User stories gave me a perspective from the user’s end. How they would like to use and what they would liked to accomplish from the said service. The three interviews mentioned, tackle different situations and experiences and give insight into the user’s thought process.
Masters in International Business,
23 years old
Prospective Masters Student,
23 years old
Self Employed,
32 years old
Discover
Competitor Analysis
It helped me better in recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of products. It determines where your product strategy stands and lies, how different is your product and how it identifies the gap.
Define
User Persona
Consequently, two personas were created; Mr. M.K. Pandita who happens to be an industry expert in the subject matter of Aflatoxins and has been spreading awareness since the last 35 years and Mr. Piyush Relan, who has been maintaining a healthy lifestyle and would like to gain more information on these toxins.
Thus this highlights the awareness and the willingness to obtain knowledge and make conscious choices for wellness. Hence, synthesizing further, gave me insight to the different sides of struggles, goals, motivation and frustrations.
Here, Piyush Relan’s persona gives us insight into the mindset of a person who would like to maintain a healthy lifestyle and make right choices for self.
Define
Empathy Mapping
Ideate
Ideation
I ideated the user pains and goals. App goals and pains to find something common. Business objectives. Common place.
Ideate
Customer Journey Map
Mr. M.K. Pandita has undergone through the process of creating awareness at multiple levels about Aflatoxins. Needs, goals, emotions and activities specific to him have been drawn out thus giving a greater insight into his customer journey.
Up until now, we were mostly focused on the product design aspect of this project. Mapping out these interactions made us realize that our solution would require a strong service design component to ensure that the solution is well-maintained and sustainable in the long run. This exercise helped us identify where in the process we would need a product design solution and where we would need a service design solution.
Ideate
User Flow
A user flow is a visual representation of the journey that a user takes to complete a specific path. This can be acquired in different ways. It is important that their tasks are achieved in the easiest way possible. The same was kept in mind while building this user flow. It is vital to engage the users. Hence, the approach was a step by step procedure that enables and guides the user towards understanding the content or amount, prevention and reversal techniques.
Design
Information Architecture
Information architecture is a key element of UX research and design. It helps in organising information and structuring of websites and mobile apps. The purpose is to let users easily navigate through with minimal effort. Individuals, irrespective of age groups should be able to understand how things are organized and that it can be accessed easily.
Design
Low Fidelity Wireframes & Prototyping
This is just an example of how the User will login and choose from the pets
Design
UI Style Guide
We knew we had to make an app because students would access this tool constantly, even when they don’t have a computer near by. We created low fidelity wire frames using pencil and paper which we tested on 5 people. We were aiming to get some early feedback on interaction and thoughts about the idea of the app.
Colour Palette
Typography
Aa
Aa
Aa
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
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Iconography
Design
High Fidelity
We knew we had to make an app because students would access this tool constantly, even when they don’t have a computer near by. We created low fidelity wire frames using pencil and paper which we tested on 5 people. We were aiming to get some early feedback on interaction and thoughts about the idea of the app.
Next Steps
The Journey Ahead
Awareness about Aflatoxins is very limited. It is well known within the scientific community and research in order to prevent and contain it still continues.
The Right Reach
Till today, sampling is an issue that is faced by industry experts in order to detect the content of these toxins. The existing database is either present in scientific journals or research papers.
In this evolving field, it is of utmost importance that the data is presented in a way that can be comprehended by the common man.
User Satisfaction
As the case study projects, the awareness is little amongst people about the presence of these toxins but showed willingness and curiosity towards acquiring information about it.
It is important to understand the user's contentment after gaining knowledge about the same and if it has led to any lifestyle changes as intended.