UPDIET
Roles: IxD/ User Research / Concept Development / Prototype
Individual Work (Demonstration Project)
M. Des. Programme 2018
This project explores design issues that should be considered when developing restaurant service for people with chronic disease like diabetes. These were developed during a two-week research project investigating everyday life activities related to diabetes. The aim of the project was to apply user-centered design methods and gain understanding of the situation and the needs of primary users (people with diabetes) in a restaurant service or during a eating out experience. The project explores the opportunities digital technology could offer to people with special dietary requirements. The threats posed on the importance of healthy lifestyle of an individual and ignorance of food industry towards people’s health. In my study I have attempted to develop ways to reduce the rate of disease by providing means to live a normal and healthy lifestyle.
Vision Statement
The goal of my project was to help people to live a long and healthy life by giving them the ability to personalize their food choices as per their dietary requirements when they eat in a restaurant.
Design Problem
Restaurants does not have the resources to develop a AI system. Also the Chefs may not be able to prepare the dishes which system will suggest.
Solution
Updiet is a digital system which can be used by the restaurants to help their customers to filter out dishes from their digital menu card. The dishes will be selected based on customers dietary requirements, likes and dislikes. Selected dishes can be personalized after reviewing total nutrient content, ingredients and other details of the dish.
Interviews with Users
“It is difficult to be in restaurants because you cannot count anything. How many vegetables are there, how much fat is there, can we avoid the sauce, and when will the food arrive?”
- (partner of diabetic patient)
Five interviews with people with diabetes and with some of their family members to derive my research insights. All the interviewee expressed that they have faced inconvenience while eating-out in a restaurant as firstly they cannot count calories or control the amount of ingredients and secondly restaurants does not provide clear description of the dish for which will them to decide appropriate dish for themselves that they can eat without increasing their blood sugar level.
Research Methods
All research methods used of each phase are illustrated here
Interview Insights
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Exercise and physical activity requires time, planning, and motivation even for patients who understand its potential benefits.
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Prolonged immobility (sitting, lying etc.) worsens insulin resistance, even if caloric intake is reduced in parallel.
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Doctors do not provide detailed guidelines of dos and don’ts for patients to follow.
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People are compliant to obey the strict dietary guidelines to maintain glucose level.
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Sugar is a substance of addiction. Added sugar in food is like poison for people with diabetes.
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Eating out with family/friends becomes a tiresome job instead of becoming an enjoyable experience.
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People are compliant to obey dietary guidelines but lacks options in food choices lead them to unhealthy diets.
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Strong connections and effective communication with family members, healthcare professionals, friends, peers and even other people with diabetes can provide psycho-social care to people with diabetes
Process, Approach & Research Results
“I always regret going with the standard order and planning to have few French fries or a couple bites of rice or a slice of the bread”
Demographics
Name: Susan Ho
Age: 38yrs
Job: Relationship Manager in a Bank
Family: Married, 1 Kid
House Hold Income: $35,000/month
Location: Hong Kong
Archetype: A working mom
Bio
Susan is a working mom based in Hong Kong. She has a family and a 4year old son. She always worries about her child’s good health and tries to control his eating habits because she does not want him to get obese. She wants her family to eat healthy food but she does not have time to do groceries shopping. She wants to maintain a good healthy lifestyle for her and her family.
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Motivation
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Susan gets motivation from her son. She knows how much important it is for her to stay healthy life to provide all the love and support to her son.
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Frustration
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Strive to be healthy and to maintain her blood glucose level even though her work life forces her to eat out on a regular basis.
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Restaurants fail to alert some ingredients of their dishes to suit her requirement.
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Diabetes is always on her minds, and she has to take diabetes into consideration every moment.
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She gets into depression when ever she eats out as she knows that the food is harming her.
User Scenario
Susan is suffering from diabetes for last 5 years and she fails to follow a healthy dietary lifestyle because she has eat out on a regular basis to fulfill her professional duties. On the personal level she avoids social activity or going-out for dinner as she feels sad for her family and friends who adjusts with food for her.
Susan and her friends made plan to go out for dinner. She was hesitant in the beginning but the she agreed-ed to go out for dinner. Half-heartedly, she Google searched for restaurants that can cater to her needs and Up-diet came up on the suggestion list. She took interest in it as Up-diet serves personalized dishes specially designed to fulfill individual’s dietary requirements, activity level and fitness goals. It can cater to her and her friends at the same time and she checked the website to find out more about the place.
She scanned through the restaurant details on the website and downloaded the app to sign-up by providing her personal details. She looked through the personalized recipes decides to go there for dinner.
Stakeholder Mapping
Benchmark Analysis
using Semantic Differential
Explorations have been done on both physical and digital products, providing healthy food options to people or assisting people to follow healthy lifestyle.
The mapping reflected a clear unexplored territory of diabetic specific, prepared food service which is the focus area for this projects concept development. Prepared food service specific for people with diabetes will have first movers advantage in the restaurant segment of food industry.
Personalizes dishes as per customer's requirement through digital ordering system
UpDiet’s aim is to support and assist customers not only in the restaurant to select the right dish but also motivate customers to follow healthy diet by providing personalized assistance and rewards.
Support and safety
A restaurant service that supports individuals to follow their dietary guidelines by providing personalized prepared meals through digital ordering system.
Awareness
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Arranges for workshops to educate young individuals about the importance of healthy lifestyle in order to avoid getting diabetes or any other disease.
Assistance
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AI system embedded in Updiet’s mobile application which tracks an individual’s activity level to provide articles and videos personalized as per their age, sex, net calorie goal and fitness goal.
Motivation and rewards
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UpDiet's personalized app motivates customers to maintain a healthy dietary lifestyle by providing them with rewards for achieving their daily fitness goals which they can use in the restaurant.
Key Features
The menu will display dishes that will be suitable for all the people added as a part of multiple personalization.
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The menu will also highlight names of individuals, for whom the dish was suggested
All the items displayed in the menu are specially filtered to meet a person’s dietary requirements.
User can check total calorie count of their selected items and percentage of micro-nutrients they are eating.
User can view complete nutrient breakdown of a dish and read about the the reason why the dish was suggested to them
Single Sign-On with user details and dietary preference.
Grid View of the Menu items
Usability Testing
I have used think aloud protocol to gather data in usability testing of my tablet based app. This method was selected to assess users cognitive process while performing a task as I did not want to exhaust the user and create negative impact about the restaurant.
Task:
Users had to fill up initial personalization details and place a order by selecting an item from the menu list.
User Feedback
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The terms used during signup process were too difficult to understand. Participants were confused about which one will be best suited for the
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Participants did not know how much calorie they should eat in a day. So selecting a number from a range was tough for participants.
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Participants requires the calorie count to be customisable as per their comfort level. It can be calorie, sodium, only sugar etc. They did not understand what exactly is the meter calculating.
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Advanced search option with tag filters was liked by the participants. They thought this will helpful feature as instead of scrolling they can write their requirement and get filtered results.
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General participants were confused about this option. They thought Updiet is specially for diabetic people.
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If a general health conscious user does not have diabetes but may have some allergies or disease. Application should provide some selection option for them as well.
Incentive
for Restaurants
Restaurants can analyse customer's data to upgrade that operations and develop marketing strategies to attract new customers.
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Customer's data can be used to provider personalized notifications and offers.
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Updiet platform will not only help its niche target customer's to personalize their food but also help general customers to select dishes of their choice which will help in reduction of food wastage.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation with role based configuration of Updiet System will help restaurant owners to monitor day-to-day activities to take faster decisions,