Gluten-Free Persona
Meet Anna — navigating life with celiac disease, one meal at a time.
Who is Anna?
A detailed user persona for the Gluten-Free Lifestyle app. Based on research with celiac disease community members, representing a 28-year-old professional managing celiac disease who needs quick, reliable information in her daily life.
Anna Wiśniewska — Full Profile
Goals
- Safe product discovery — fast and reliable
- Eat out with confidence and without anxiety
- Connect with the celiac community
Pain Points
- Confusing and misleading food labels
- Very limited restaurant options for celiacs
- Constant fear of accidental cross-contamination
I just want to eat out without worrying if I'll be sick tomorrow.
— Anna Wiśniewska, Marketing Specialist, KrakówWhat we learned from Anna
Speed is critical
Anna needs product information within 3 seconds of scanning. Any longer and the app becomes a source of friction rather than help in real-life situations like busy supermarkets.
Trust through community
Anna trusts reviews from other celiacs over official labels. Peer verification is a key trust signal — she actively avoids products with no community data.
Eating out is social anxiety
Restaurant choice affects social plans. Anna sometimes skips outings because she can't verify restaurant safety in advance. A reliable map feature could directly improve her quality of life.
Label confusion is daily stress
"May contain traces of wheat" creates the same anxiety as explicit gluten content. Anna needs clear, color-coded risk levels — not ambiguous legal disclaimers.
Rigorous, empathy-driven research
Anna's persona was built through a combination of qualitative depth and quantitative scale, capturing both the emotional weight and behavioral patterns of living with celiac disease.