Case Study: Eatty – Designing a Personalized Dining App for People with Dietary Restrictions

In 2009, I was hired as a UX consultant and product designer to help create a mobile app that made it easier for people with dietary restrictions to find restaurants they could trust.

The idea was ahead of its time. Most restaurant discovery tools focused on ratings, distance, and general reviews. They did not address the deeper problem faced by people with allergies, intolerances, religious food requirements, or lifestyle-based dietary needs. For these users, choosing where to eat was not just about convenience. It was about confidence, safety, and trust.

Over a four-month engagement, I led the product strategy, user research, UX design, interaction design, and visual direction for a mobile experience across iOS and Android.

The Challenge

Dining out can be stressful for people with dietary restrictions. Menus are often unclear, restaurant staff may not always have the right information, and general reviews rarely answer the questions these users actually have.

The challenge was to design a mobile experience that could reduce uncertainty at the exact moment someone was deciding where to eat. The app needed to help users find nearby restaurants, understand which menu items matched their needs, and trust the recommendations they were seeing.

The goal was not simply to create another restaurant app. We needed to create a personalized dining assistant that made users feel informed before they made a decision.

What success needed to look like

Success meant giving users a fast and simple way to answer one important question:

Where can I safely eat near me right now?

To get there, the experience needed to support dietary profiles, location-based restaurant discovery, personalized menu views, trusted reviews from people with similar restrictions, and clear navigation to the selected restaurant. The experience also had to feel approachable. Users should not feel like they were filling out a medical form or managing a complex preference system. The app needed to feel lightweight, helpful, and reassuring.

My role: UX Product Design

I led the product and design work from early discovery through launch-ready design. My role included:

Defined the product vision, MVP scope, and core user experience
Led discovery with users who had allergies, intolerances, and dietary preferences
Conducted market research to identify gaps in restaurant discovery apps
Created user journeys, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity mobile designs
Partnered with stakeholders to prioritize features and align on launch goals
Led usability testing, iteration, and final design handoff for iOS and Android

Designing Process

Designing for Trust, Not Just Discovery

The first step was understanding the user's real decision-making process. I interviewed people with different dietary needs and looked closely at how they chose restaurants, what information they trusted, and where the experience usually broke down.

The research made one thing very clear: users were not only looking for nearby restaurants. They were looking for proof. They wanted to know whether a restaurant understood their needs, whether the menu had safe options, and whether people like them had eaten there successfully before. That insight shaped the entire product.

Users would start by setting their dietary profile. From there, the app could filter restaurants and menus based on their needs. Instead of showing a generic list of places, the app showed relevant options nearby and highlighted why each restaurant was a good match. Personalized menu views became one of the most important parts of the experience.

Users could see which items matched their preferences and restrictions, reducing the guesswork that usually happens before ordering. Reviews were also designed differently. The goal was not broad popularity. The goal was relevance. A review from someone with the same allergy or dietary preference carried more value than a general five-star rating.

Research and discovery

I began the project with stakeholder interviews, competitive research, and user interviews. I wanted to understand both the business opportunity and the emotional weight of the problem.

Common themes emerged quickly. Users felt frustrated by incomplete menu information. They did not fully trust generic reviews. They often avoided trying new restaurants because the risk felt too high. Many wanted to be spontaneous, but their dietary needs forced them to plan ahead. These insights helped us prioritize the core experience around trust, speed, and personalization.

Defining the product

I created low-fidelity wireframes to explore the main flows, including onboarding, restaurant search, filtering, menu view, reviews, directions, and sharing. The designs were tested with users and reviewed with stakeholders throughout the process. Each round helped refine the hierarchy, simplify the language, and improve the way trust signals were presented.

The key design principle was clarity. Users needed to understand why a restaurant was being recommended, what menu items were relevant to them, and how much confidence they should have before deciding to go there.

Visual design and handoff

The final visual direction was clean, modern, and friendly. I wanted the app to feel trustworthy without feeling clinical. The interface used simple cards, clear dietary labels, easy-to-scan restaurant information, and a calm visual style that supported quick decision-making.

I created the final UI screens, design specifications, and handoff materials for development. The product included more than 15 screens across iOS and Android, covering the complete experience from onboarding to restaurant discovery and navigation.

Outcome and impact

The final product delivered a polished, user-centered mobile experience for an underserved audience. It turned a stressful decision into a guided, personalized journey.

The project showed how thoughtful product strategy and UX design can create meaningful value by focusing on a specific user problem. It also reinforced one of my strongest product beliefs: the best experiences are built by understanding not only what users want to do, but what they need to feel confident doing.