BULIMIA
Diet.me was a project I developed some time ago, as a thesis of my course conclusion, which aimed to develop an application for a mobile device. In Brazil, the design faculty has a total of 4 to 5 years of study, which is more than usual in some European countries. masters and others.
But what is Diet.me about? This app has a focus on behavioural health, it is in short an app to help treat eating disorders and promote a healthy lifestyle for its users.
Research
EAT
DESORDERS
RELATED
TOPICS
ANOREXIA
CARRIERS
OF NSED *
OTHERS
OBESITY
*non-specific eating disorders
BULIMIA
This project had a lot of research, interviews with patients, doctors and a lot of studies. This is a simple way of understanding the problem. The APP should help to treat eating disorders which are classified as Anorexia, Bulimia and Non-specific eating disorders. But also help to identify problems like obesity and other problems related to the lack of proper nutrition.
Following the survey, young people are the ones who suffer most from these problems, so the app had to have a younger appeal, the idea then came up with creating an app that would work as a Tamagotchi of your own. Where you would have an avatar and you would be able to mirror it, as in fact, people with these problems do not understand the harm they are doing to themselves because they do not see themselves as they really are. they have very strong gender dysphoria. People with bulimia think they are much fatter, people with bulimia believe they can maintain their ideal weight by throwing up their meals and compensating for their meals, and obese people do not understand why they are obese.
BULIMIA
User flow
This is a simplified version of the user flow for one of the app's actions that is adding exercises to the app.
People with anorexia cannot use this feature, because their bodies are suffering from severe disability and the exercises often do so badly that they can die, but this feature can help regulate other cases, obese people need to do more exercises and bulimics find a balance of food and active life for example.
Wireframe
This is a study done on wireframes, the wireframes were tested between patients and doctors and were modified for better usability.
The most important thing was to keep the avatar as the main object of the screen, as this is the great differential of the product and ensures a unique and fun experience helping to treat a serious problem that affects many teenagers and young adults.
Screens
Splash Screen and first interaction: Here the user can log in and in their very first time, they need to identify gender, age, corporal density to start the app, probably this step is done by the doctor who is following closely the patient.
Onboarding and survey: When a patient uses the app for the very first time, it needs to do a brief survey this method is the method used by clinics to identify the patient state of mind, In this case, not only that but also, with the result of this survey, the app can modify its behaviour and turn into the best version for that patient.
The idea is to have an AI to change the way the app behaves to better help the user.
Avatar creation: Since the idea of the app is to have your own avatar, the avatar is a reflexion of yourself, but since you previously answered the survey with your information, the avatar just let the user change its style looks like hear, eyes, clothes and accessories. The body measurement is provided by the app with AI technology.
In the end, this character it's you, but seems in another point of view. A true version that you cannot see since your perception doesn't allow you to see how you truly look like and since is also your Tamagotchi you need to provide all stuff it needs to live.
Adding meals and exercises: In case of meals, this is a very important feature, that way a person can monitories its meals and the doctor can have access and identify if the patient is following their instructions. Do long fastings is so common in these cases but is not allowed to be done, so that way the doctors can see if they are really eating or not and how much food.
As I said before, exercises are not allowed if your body is not healthy for that but it is when you are better or if your problem can allow you to do some exercises. In this way, you can create a diary of exercises and follow your medical team prescription.
Mockups
Conclusion
This is definitely not an app to treat eating disorders but to help with treatment by assisting the medical team of patients. This app is an interactive form of treatment tool, using cognitive behavioural therapy for its effectiveness. Unfortunately, this product is not on the market, but I would love to with all my heart can create it, since just like these patients I have a strong personal connection with this health problem.
As I said earlier I did the whole project on my own with a mentor accompaniment, but it was all done by me, except for the 3d character part, since I used someone else's hand. However, I did the concepts.
Thank you so far and hope you enjoyed following this case.