As the prevalence of febrile illnesses continues to increase, there is a growing need for reliable, low-cost means of diagnosing these diseases. To address this, a highly sensitive point-of-care fluorescence lateral flow immunoassay is being developed to diagnose dengue in its earliest stages. Through use of different fluorescent labels, multiplexed test strips will eventually be created to test for several diseases simultaneously. To quantify the resulting signals produced by the assay, a corresponding optical reader was designed, built, and tested in accordance with design thinking principles. The effectiveness of the design was verified through usability testing. The reader works in conjunction with software run on any internet-enabled device to take an image of a test strip and analyze the signal levels by comparing them to predetermined calibration curves. Through use of the fluorescence lateral flow immunoassay and corresponding optical reader, users in resource-limited settings can diagnose dengue rapidly and accurately.