Case Study

Rumbl - Gut Health

Product/App Design & Research

📖Project Overview:
‘Rumbl’ is a wearable ‘wellness device’ that tracks and monitors your gut’s activity continuously throughout the day by listening to the users abdominal acoustics, and uses signal processing/machine learning to relay insightful information about your gut’s health through the supporting app.

‘Rumbl’ helps build a sustainable lifestyle through gut health in an informative, motivational and accessible way. This product aims to change the way we as a society look at gut health, and show that good gut health should be thought about and encouraged by all, as it can help you become your best, healthiest self.

🔍Problem Area:
"Gut health and nutrition is a very topical subject as researchers are increasingly discovering and recognising that other organ systems are influenced by the gut environment."

We are all affected by bad gut health or bad eating habits at some point in our lives and we may not even realise it. Our microbiome aids in food digestion, influences your mood and energy levels, and protects you against harmful organisms. The neglection of gut health can lead to very serious repercussions such as developing diabetes, obesity, chronic illnesses, Alzheimer's disease, depression, anxiety and cancer.

🎯Problem Focus:

The gut health is intertwined with the 5 axis of human health: immmune system, metabolism, hormone balance, cognition and gene expression
Gut health has been decreasing due to the rise of our current 'westernised lifestyle' which lacks nutritional focus, self-care and outdoor activity.
Many people are still in the dark about the topic and its importance while others are aware but fail to make lifestyle changes on their own.
Survey from 2019 of 1000 Irish adults: 46% are unsatisfied with their level of gut health knowledge, with 79% saying they want to do more.

🗂️Opportunity:
'To develop a product that improves and educates the user about their gut health and nutritional intake through motivational means, and develop sustainable habits for a more diverse, balanced gut microbiome.'

📁Primary & Secondary Research
Primary research was focused on interviews and focus groups to collect the data needed for better insights into certain areas founded in the secondary research. This research helped gather first hand insights from professionals and the general public. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, interviews and focus groups had to be conducted over voice or video call.

Medical papers and articles were used in secondary research to understand more about the gut and certain diagnosis of different ailments surrounding the gut.
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✏️Insights & findings
Insights were developed by analysing research and findings to extract interesting and important information. They helped push the project forward into a new area of research which narrowed the projects objective.

Lack of products to help: There are very few products to aid in FODMAP diet which is mainly done through human sense which can have many errors and cause frustration. A non-intrusive way of monitoring gut reaction may be the solution to help people understand their gut.
Education & encouragement: The mis-understanding with our own unique microbes can lead us to looking for a quick solution such as medicatio, which will make things worse in the long term. Sustainable solutions lack support, education and continuous encouragement.
People want more control: Increase in popularity in fitness wearables highlights the want for more personal health information and monitoring. People want to know more about their health to feel in control and improve their future well-being, and shows a high success rate because of it.

Abdominal Sounds was identified as a non-intrusive method to monitor, track and extract useful information about your gut's activity and condition. Important features from the sounds are loudness, frequency, tone, quality and regularity. Sounds can be simplified into 4 categories:
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Normal: Most bowel sounds are normal. They simply mean that the gastrointestinal tract is working.
Hyperactive: Indicates an increase in intestinal activity. Loud, gurgling rushed sounds (high frequency & volume.)
Hypoactive: Indicates a decline in intestinal activity. Soft, low, widely seperated sounds (low frequency & volume.)
Absent: Silent abdomen - could be serious and needs further medical examination.
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💭Conceptualisation
These findings led me into my conceptualisation phase and lead me down multiple avenues for potential solutions to explore, through sketching, prototyping and testing.

🤗Solution
An accessible, wearable 'wellness device' that tracks and monitors your gut health through acoustics continuously throughout the day while giving encouraging and informative feedback to motivate the user to live amore sustainable lifestyle.

The product is worn around your abdomen where the two microphones sit either sides of your belly button. The device listens/records bowel sounds so you can visually see changes or patterns with your gut’s activity, as well as receive an easily digestible breakdown of information and features.

The complementary app serves as the primary interface between the user and the device's data. Through the app, users can access their gut sound analytics, listen to and visually compare their gut sounds over different days, and gain insights into their unique gut responses to various factors. Additionally, the app allows users to manually log information for historical reference and enhances the app's algorithm through machine learning to build the users personal 'sound library'.
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Daily education and insight into your own unique guts activity and condition
Continuous encouragement, support and motivation to stay on track.
Building sustainable habits and lifestyle changes that last.
Brings gut health into 'main stream' health & wellness industry.

🎨Product Design Phase
The design's primary goals were functionality, discreetness under clothing, user comfort, and a sleek appearance. Initial low-fidelity prototypes and sketch models were crafted using cardboard and various disassembled household items like Bluetooth speakers, headphones, packaging, and clothing. This process progressed to mid-fidelity prototypes and, ultimately, the final model through user testing and feedback.

The wearable was created for easy mass production with cost-effective materials and manufacturing processes. Its design ensures it is discreet, comfortable, and sleek, allowing users to wear it under clothing for extended periods. Customisation options include different colour choices. The main electronic casing and belt assembly are detachable, facilitating easy washing of the fabric and interaction with the main casing. The belt comes in three sizes and features an adjustable mechanism to fit a wide range of body shapes, while the flexible electronic casing conforms to the user's body.

🎨App Design Phase
Primary, secondary features and main goals were outlined before heading into design of the app:

Primary features: Turn rumbl device on/off, display analysed & features extracted sounds recordings, collect manual data, and compare sound data and manually logged data to previous days.
Secondary features: Community social board, information tab with updated artciles and resources for all 'gut' information, and profile to share your posts and save others.
Main goal: Be a safe space for users to learn, share and improve their gut health through the community and developed app algorithm/machine leanring.
Steps in completing this involved mapping out a user flow, creating wireframes to support. I then moved into mid-fidelity designs, both on paper and digital to conduct user tests and get real-time feedback on interactions. This then led to the final design decisions and overal experience of the app.