Assisting the transition towards a more plant-based diet
Individual student project at Loughborough University
Behaviour change strategies, creative research methods, UI & UX design
As awareness grows regarding the link between food and health, one in eight UK young adults intends to adopt a plant-based diet (Raven, 2023).
Receive feedback and guidance from mentors.
Benefit mentors by empowering them to maintain their diet through prescribing change
Log meals to contribute to the team.
Using social conformity as an extrinsic motivation.
Enable users to complete the given challenge.
Encourage trying new ingredients with personalised suggestions.
Overcome user's concerns about meeting their nutritional needs.
Empathise
Autoethnography
Interviews (6)
A Day-In-The-Life
Define
Thematic Analysis
Insights
HMW
Vision Statement
Ideate
Crazy 8s
What Ifs
Divergent Ideas (3)
Co-Design
Prototype & Test
Storyboard
Roleplay
Wireframe
Experience Prototype
Method: Autoethnography
Therefore, I started my research by challenging myself to follow a plant-based diet for a week and documenting it. By experiencing the diet transition first-hand, I got to identify the enablers and blockers.
Method: Contextual interview and a day-in-the life study
It is crucial to get the user's perspective to validate the data I got previously, preventing personal biases. Therefore, I decided to delve deeper on my assumptions through contextual interviews.
To get more relevant data on how to make the transition frictionless, I asked the participant to eat a plant-based diet for a day and prompted them to report their experience through a messaging app.
I first analysed the accumulated data with an empathy map to understand the user better before sorting the findings into an affinity diagram. Then, I question the meaning of the clustered findings to draw the following insights.
Insight 01
Why It Mattters?
This prevents dietary changes because, to them, removing meat feels like pulling the nutrition away.
Insight 02
What matters most is the feeling of being mindful of food choices, not the actual nutritional content.
Why It Mattters?
Insight 03
Why It Mattters?
It feels exciting at the beginning, but then it becomes tedious. Therefore, it has to be a mundane-breaking experience throughout.
Method: Storyboard and experience prototyping
1
out of 2
Participants failed to complete the task
Due to varying personal goals, assigning the same task to both individuals resulted in one failing. For one of the participants, the task was far beyond their comfort zone.
Switching from pairing
to channels
Pairing users can hinder progress when one is less engaged. To minimise this risk, I switched to a communication channel to connect a group of users and a chosen mentor.
Designing the challenge
Allow users to get personalised challenges to increase each member's engagement.
The first task should require minimum effort, something they may have already achieved.
Limit the user to focus on one task at a time to prevent overwhelm.
Building the trust
For this concept to work, the user needs to trust the mentor. To facilitate this, I added a page where users can get to know the mentor before selecting one.
To back up the long-term success while working within a short timeframe, I evaluated the product using a study by the American Dietic Association.
By ensuring that the product answers users' needs throughout the stages of change and iterating based on user feedback, here are the outcomes:
Outcome
86
System Usability Scale (SUS) score
Outcome
ꜛ50%
potential increase in task completion
Before the iteration, 1 out of the two participants failed to complete the task. Focusing on why the participant failed and iterating based on it can potentially lead to the success of both participants. However, further tests are required.
