Table 2. Themes identified for the proposed diet app features.

Themes	Related content	% [N=10]
Specific disease	“Very important to address specific diseases”	70% [7]
	“Useful if patient does not like to go to the doctor”
	“Understand own condition and learn how to improve”
User involvement/investment/compliance/motivation/encourage participation	“More motivated to use app specific to own needs and disease”	100% [10]
	“Progress updates help users feel more motivated to continue when they see how far they’ve come”
Unique needs	“Each patient has own proper needs”	70% [7]
	“Cannot generalize”
	“Makes user feel more invested”
	“More likely to use app if tailored to needs”
App appearance	“Personalized appearance is more enjoyable”	30% [3]
	“Personalized content appearance”
	“Should be able to pick screen used the most but
	should not be editable so that people can skip parts”
Patient factors/lifestyle	“Based on patient age and socioeconomic status”	40% [4]
	“Understandable information for all”
	“Not everyone will chat, some more private”
	“Scheduling of reminders/notifications”
Disease information/disease and weight management/improvement	“People should have information on how to manage their disease”	80% [80]
	“Good to have resources to help manage and learn about disease”
	“More educated regarding their disease”
	“Allows for optimal patient outcomes”
	“Must be understandable for all”
	“Helpful to learn if you are managing disease well or ways to improve”
	“Food log can help in weight and condition management”
Knowledge of own health status	“Important to know if you are improving or not”	70% [7]
Reminder to complete a task or log	“This is very important because patient may forget his or her medication time”	90% [9]
	“Must! I think the biggest problem with tracking is remembering to do it”
	“Letting them know its time to eat and not to forget to track foods”
Burdensome if notifications too often	“Reminders could be important but some people chose to ignore or turn them off”	30% [3]
	“So that the person remembers but not sure it is necessary to record every day could become annoying”
Communicate with doctor/RD/obtain relevant feedback/questions answered accurately, aid clinician decisions	“Tracking their progress will also be important to share with their doctor or RD”	80% [8]
	“If they can reach out to a dietician if they have questions, the app will be much more helpful to them, but probably not completely necessary”
	“Talking to a medical professional when a question arises provides a sense of safety and security”
Community/social support	“They should be able to chat so they can build social support”	50% [5]
	“If this is just chatting with other users then it’s not something that is very much needed. They can do that separately”
Track progress, activity, food	“Seeing changes from time to time will allow patient to continue making changes” “People become more motivated when they see how far they’ve come”	40% [4]
	“Shows user how they might be improving, but also how they have gone backwards”
	“Absolutely necessary to determine if they are following their diet/nutrition recommendations”
	“Tracking what? your progress? activity? Foods? Should do all”
	“Needed to show any progress”
Quick access to favorite foods	“Quick access to favorite foods when tracking (if eat same thing many days)”	10% [1]
Know correct amount of insulin to take	“Diabetes can track carb to take correct insulin”	10% [1]
Reference for doctors/providers patient data	“Enables RD to track progress of patient and provide relevant feedback; provides user data”	60% [6]
	“We need to learn from the patient, this can help with strategic change”
Nutritional food knowledge	“They can see what are good foods vs bad foods”	20% [2]
Knowledge of own consumption	“Need to know what you’re consuming”	50% [5]
	“It’s important for these individuals to know what and how much they have eaten”
Tools, education, recipes, support links	“Tips for meal plans and recipe suggestions to help make food changings”	50% [5]
	“Gives tools to ensure optimal outcomes. IE, recipes, education, support links”