Brainbuild is a health scheduling app for college athletes. It syncs the athlete’s daily schedules with dietitian recommendations and on-campus food options to notify them of ideal times to eat during the day and provide specific choices. It uses Google Calendar & an external app to provide timely reminders based on athlete’s unique practice and class schedules. The app also makes nutrition education more accessible, and explains the importance of nutrient combinations.
The Problem
There has recently been a shift for the NCAA to put a lot more importance on athlete nutrition. The NCAA ruled in 2014 that teams should provide unlimited food -- since this ruling, the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association reported that major college athletic programs on average more than doubled their nutrition spending from $534,000 to $1.3 million. However, despite this rise in attention for athlete nutrition, there are still only 53 full-time college dietitians in the country, which equates to about one for every 9000 athletes. At Duke, we have only one dietitian for 600 athletes.
The food you eat literally fuels your body, and in some ways is more important than working out. Because of this, it is incredibly important for athletes to manage their nutrition intake, but many of them do not know how to manage their nutrition in the best way for their unique bodies, practice schedules, and academic schedule.
User Definition
The users of this app are currently NCAA college athletes at several universities including Duke, Cornell, Columbia, UC San Diego, and Emory.
Their need:
- Strict practice schedules and difficult class schedules can cause chaotic days if they are unplanned
- The right nutrition and rest schedule so they can perform their best everyday
- NCAA ruled that schools must provide accessible nutrition to athletes -- this led to many all-you-can-eat buffet-style food that is available to athletes at all times of the day
- This can cause overeating or under-eating if food consumption is not regulated
- This can also cause overeating in particular categories of food and neglecting important food groups that are important for health
- The majority of athletes are health-conscious and are eager to learn why they have to make certain health/nutrition decisions
The App
The app was created to give athletes an easy way to check their daily schedules and receive notifications at certain times of the day when they should be focusing on a snack, meal, or activity. It uses algorithms to analyze training and class schedules to give the most optimal times for Meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), Daytime/Nighttime snacks, Pre-workout fuel, Post-workout recovery, Hydration, Sleep reminders, and Calendar events.
The Solution:
- Calendar view on the home page lets athletes quickly view their schedule. The line indicator updates with the current time, decreasing the amount of time spent figuring out what is up next.
- Each card is color-coded so that athletes can easily understand what their schedule is telling them they should be doing. Yellow indicates snacks, Blue indicates practices, Red indicates meals, Teal indicates classes (or other calendar events), and Purple indicates rest time.
- Clickable cards lead to suggestions for each category. For snacks and meals, the card leads to a list of food options and where to obtain the food. For practices, the card leads to education on hydration during practice.
- Each card page also includes a 'Why now?' and 'Athlete's plate' to further educate athletes the reasoning behind their food suggestions and what they should keep in mind for future food decisions
Interactive Prototype
Future Implementations
- Currently working on an onboarding process for new users to become familiar with the app. We are experimenting with tooltips.
- Incorporate nutrition tips/advice in different parts of the app
- Include nutrition information for the suggested foods once that information becomes available