KidneyCare
An application developed to serve as a convenient tool for chronic kidney disease patients and their caregivers, focusing on personalized nutrition planning with a faster and more convenient approach to promote better health and quality of life.
Created by: KidneyCare Team
Date: 2025
My Contribution
What I worked on in this project
UX/UI Designer
Designed the end-to-end user experience, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma. Conducted user interviews and synthesized research findings into design decisions.
Frontend Developer
Developed the medication reminder (Pill) interface and integrated LINE notifications system using TypeScript and Tailwind CSS.
AI Developer
Developed and integrated AI features including meal plan generation and food analysis using Object Detection to identify ingredients or dishes for nutritional database comparison.
Project Overview
Application for Chronic Kidney Disease Patients
KidneyCare is a LINE OA-based application built to address the complex nutritional challenges faced by chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. The app integrates AI-powered meal planning, real-time food analysis, and medication reminders into a single platform that both patients and caregivers can access through LINE — a familiar, low-barrier channel.
Problem & Goals
Key challenges faced by CKD patients that KidneyCare was built to address
Problem
Kidney disease patients often face difficulty calculating and planning meals, as well as managing daily medication schedules. This increases the risk of complications when nutrition is not managed correctly.
Goals
Build a platform that helps calculate nutrition and create personalized meal plans, with medication reminders to improve quality of life for kidney disease patients.
User Research
Survey of 29 participants — 18 CKD patients and 11 caregivers
CKD Patients18 participants
50.0%
9 users Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease
22.2%
4 users Difficulty choosing or thinking of meal menus
33.3%
6 users Experience boredom or monotony of food options
33.3%
6 users Unsure about which foods are safe to eat
Caregivers11 participants
72.7%
8 users Struggle with complex nutrient calculations
45.5%
5 users Difficulty selecting menus that patients find appealing
63.6%
7 users Find it difficult to plan suitable meals for patients
54.5%
6 users Feel unsure about planning nutritionally appropriate meals
45.5%
5 users Need reliable nutrition data to assist in menu planning
User Pain Points
Six core pain points discovered from user research
Difficulty Managing Meal Menus
Patients and caregivers struggle to consistently come up with varied, kidney-safe meal options without repeating the same dishes.
Complex Nutrient Control
Manually calculating potassium, phosphorus, sodium, and protein levels for each meal is too complex for most patients to sustain.
Hard to Access Reliable Information
Online information is often inconsistent or not tailored for CKD stages, making it difficult to trust dietary guidance.
Forgetting to Take Medication
Without a structured reminder, patients frequently miss scheduled doses, increasing the risk of health complications.
Increasing Dietary Restrictions
As kidney disease progresses, the list of forbidden foods grows, making meal planning more restrictive and stressful over time.
Insufficient Nutritional Knowledge
Many patients lack enough nutritional education to independently evaluate whether a specific food or portion size is safe for their condition.
Competitive Audit
Comparing KidneyCare against existing kidney health apps
| Feature | KidneyCare | KidneyDiet | CKD Rak Tai | Hello Kidney |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meal Planning System | ||||
| Nutritional Info per Menu | ||||
| AI Chatbot | ||||
| Medication Reminder |
Key Features
Five core capabilities designed around real patient needs
Meal Planning
Use AI to generate personalized meal plans for each day or week, tailored to individual dietary needs.
AI Chatbot
Consult about food, health, and nutrition with an AI Chatbot available around the clock.
Food Photo Analysis
Snap a photo of your meal and AI instantly breaks down the nutrition — calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
Nutrition Search
Search nutritional data for any dish to help choose the healthiest menu options.
Medication Reminder
Set daily medication alerts so you never miss a dose and stay on top of your health routine.
User Flow
Two primary user journeys designed for patients and caregivers
Meal Planning Flow
The user selects their CKD stage and dietary preferences, then the AI generates a weekly meal plan. Each meal can be swapped or adjusted, and the plan is saved to the daily schedule.
Nutrition Search Flow
The user searches for a specific dish by name or photo. The system returns a full nutritional breakdown and flags any minerals that exceed the recommended daily limit for CKD patients.
Redesign UX
Add Medicine Flow
The original flow split the add-medicine process across three separate screens — medicine info, scheduled times, and duration.
After an internal team discussion, we consolidated everything into a single screen.
Medication reminders are a secondary feature. The multi-step structure placed too much effort on a non-core task, pulling focus away from the app's primary functions.
Fewer screens reduce cognitive load for older users and lower the risk of dropping off before the setup is fully saved.
Usability Testing
Results from real users — scored 1–10 per task (9 users)
| Testing Tasks | Mean Score |
|---|---|
Register Register and complete personal health profile | 8.6 |
Meal Planning Generate and adjust weekly meal plans | 6.8 |
Nutrition Search Search for nutritional info via text or photo | 8.4 |
Medication Reminder Set up medication schedules and alerts | 3.4 |
Eating History Review past nutritional intake and trends | 8.6 |
| Overall Average | 7.16 |
UI Iteration
UI improvements applied after usability testing feedback
Meal Planning — Day Overview
After the AI generated a meal plan, the original UI displayed every meal for every day all at once. With a 30-day plan this became an extremely long list that was hard to navigate and edit. We restructured it to show a collapsed day-by-day view first — users tap into a specific day to view or adjust meals.
Organizing daily meal lists felt cluttered and overwhelming — it was hard to know where to look.
Daily meal lists are now easy to read and manage at a glance.
Medication Reminder — Grouped Status
The original view showed all medicines in a single flat list, making it difficult for users to tell at a glance which medicines still needed to be taken and which had already been completed. We split the list into two clear sections — medicines to take and medicines already taken — so users can see their status immediately.
Tapping each medicine felt more like editing than actually logging that I had taken it.
It's now clearly visible which medicines have been taken and which still need to be taken.
Design System
You can pan, zoom, and interact with the live design board below.
UI
You can pan, zoom, and interact with the live design board below.