Conducting Some Competitor Analyses

Before I start to plan my project, it’s good practise to conduct a competitor analysis and see what other related apps are doing.

I downloaded a few different IBS apps to have a look at.

These include:

• Nerva
• Bowelle
• Low FODMAP Lifestyle
• Endive

Nerva

Nerva is an IBS app that uses hypnotherapy to treat symptoms. I personally don’t believe in hypnotherapy, so I don’t really see how this could work. However, I really liked their interface, as well as the features that the app includes.

Here are some screenshots:

Onboarding questionnaire and information:

The whole process begins with a questionnaire, as well as asking you to begin logging your symptoms and mood. I think how they displayed these questions and interactive symptoms/mood trackers was really nice. I think I’d like to do something similar with my design as it has a really calming and friendly feel to it. In order to use some other features in the app, you have to pay for premium so unfortunately I was unable to access these at this time.

Bowelle

Bowelle is mostly about tracking your mood, bowel movements, and food intake. I think all of these things are great features to have in an IBS app, as both food and stress are big causes of IBS flare-ups. I also really liked how everything seemed to be in the one place, and you don’t need to tap through a bunch of different pages to get to where you need to be.

A problem I saw with this app, however, is that you don’t get to see how your IBS was affected by each of these factors day by day. This has given me the idea of including a screen for an overview of the statistics, and how everything adds up.

Low FODMAP Lifestyle

I only have one screenshot from this app, as it was all about which foods to eat on a low FODMAP diet (a diet that helps many IBS sufferers).

I wasn’t too sure how keen I was of this interface as it feels a bit cramped and dark. It doesn’t seem too inviting – which is the opposite of what I want for my design.

I did look at it more for IBS related research, though, as I know that following a low FODMAP diet can be very useful for IBS. If I do end up including something about a low FODMAP diet, I will be looking to this app again to check which food to suggest eating.

Endive

After thinking that I wanted to include a statistics screen within my design, I looked at this app because one of the screens displayed on the app store included a little line graph that changes as you drag the symptoms bars across.

Once you choose which symptoms and triggers you want to track, they are added to the screen above, where you can use the drag bar to adjust the severity of your symptoms.

I really liked this drag bar feature, as well as getting to see the data form above it. I think I would have to put the stats and statistics on separate pages, however, because the bowel movements and food diary would also yield results for the data.

This screenshot shows the process of adding symptoms and triggers that you want to track:

Thoughts:

I have gotten some good ideas from conducting this competitor analysis, and I also feel like I’m beginning to have the foundations for a project plan. I am looking forward to doing some user research and actually beginning the process of designing my digital product.