Journaling for Digestive Health: A Self-Tracking Approach to Identifying Intolerances and Triggers

Abstract

Many individuals struggle to identify food intolerances and gastrointestinal triggers due to inaccurate, incomplete, and disorganized tracking methods. Traditional food and symptom journals are often burdensome, unreliable, and lack meaningful information, making it difficult for users to recognize patterns and take action. This paper introduces Digesty, a gamified digital journal user interface prototype that streamlines symptom tracking by offering structured input, various tracking options, and a focus on mindful eating. The methodology includes literature research, user feedback, and semi-structured interviews, guiding an iterative 4-phase design and evaluation process to refine usability and effectiveness, identifying 34 requirements of such a solution. The results demonstrate that a solution like Digesty could improve the accuracy, organization, and user engagement of the tracking, addressing key limitations of existing solutions. This work provides a user-centered and practical approach to food and symptom tracking, contributing to the development of more efficient digital health tools to manage individual digestive health.