Gather
INTRO
Gather is a mobile app focused on making eating out safer by focusing on customers who have food allergies and helps them locate dishes and restaurants near them based on their diet and safe ingredients. For the pilot, we focused on community and corporate events that wanted to contract food trucks.
My ROLE
User experience, prototyping, UI design
Brand and identity refresh
See project
See project
Client
Sarah Klein
Year
2023
Project Type
Mobile Food Allergy Ordering App
The Core Concept
When a vegetarian-friendly or gluten-free label doesn't cut it.
Many food-focused products have dietary filters but they are often inaccurate and woefully under-developed. We quickly identified that it had to be easy to manage acceptable ingredients and not just for you, for your family as well. For some, the list of allergies are long and specific so we set out to create onboarding and management that streamlined the entry process by including common diets and allergens as shortcuts then allowing the users to easily add and customize to make precise adjustments.
Ingredients data is a challenge. It won't mean much if the app can't identify reliably safe food to match for the user.
Key Challenges
Our early prototyping centered on vendors. Using an adapted Google Design Sprint methodology, we tested and iterated to refine the features. For the platform to succeed, vendors not only needed to manage their ingredients but also see clear benefits from doing so. To address this, we developed a suite of vendor tools designed to provide tangible value. These tools offered features such as foot-traffic and revenue forecasting, as well as on-site management for location and inventory, ensuring vendors found real business value in using the app.
Strategy Highlight
Have you every wanted to try a little bit of everything from each food truck?
The potential of ingredient-based data extends beyond managing allergies. Early on, we discovered that by focusing on individual food items rather than entire vendors, we could unlock powerful features like pre-paid tasting menus and dietary-specific views. These features not only enhance the user experience but also provide vendors with more predictable cash flow. Restaurants can approach events with greater confidence, using the app to identify opportunities that align with their menus. It's a win-win.
