Abstract
Plant-based food products are getting more popular in the market as they are claimed to be healthier and more sustainable to the environment. However, there is a lack of platform where consumers can easily obtain nutritional information of these on-the-shelf plant-based food products. Therefore, our study aimed to design a web application where the consumers could easily access this information. To design and develop the web application, user-centered design (UCD) approach was adopted to involve health and nutrition researchers, and consumers. After three iterations of design, development, and usability evaluations of UCD process, four focus group interviews focusing more on summative data were conducted using the final version of the prototype. The findings indicate that the web application was easy to learn and use but its design could be less attractive to some users. Involvement of health and nutrition researchers throughout the UCD process ensured that the web application was perceived credible and trustworthy. Started as a research-oriented study, the web application was originally developed for the health and nutrition researchers. By extending its use to consumers, the study contributes to more understanding in involving researchers and consumers throughout a UCD process and providing considerations in designing health-related digital tools.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alae-Carew, C., et al.: The role of plant-based alternative foods in sustainable and healthy food systems: consumption trends in the UK. Sci. Total Environ. 807, 151041 (2022)
Aschemann-Witzel, J., et al.: Plant-based food and protein trend from a business perspective: markets, consumers, and the challenges and opportunities in the future. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 61(18), 3119–3128 (2021)
Fehér, A., et al.: A comprehensive review of the benefits of and the barriers to the switch to a plant-based diet. Sustainability 12(10), 4136 (2020)
Banerjee, T., Liu, Y., Crews, D.C.: Dietary patterns and CKD progression. Blood Purif. 41(1–3), 117–122 (2016)
Joshi, S., Ettinger, L., Liebman, S.E.: Plant-based diets and hypertension. Am. J. Lifestyle Med. 14(4), 397–405 (2020)
Lea, E., Worsley, A.: Benefits and barriers to the consumption of a vegetarian diet in Australia. Public Health Nutr 6(5), 505–511 (2003)
Lea, E., Worsley, A.: Influences on meat consumption in Australia. Appetite 36(2), 127–136 (2001)
Lea, E.J., Crawford, D., Worsley, A.: Public views of the benefits and barriers to the consumption of a plant-based diet. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 60(7), 828–837 (2006)
Tangsripairoj, S., et al.: WhatTheHealth: An android application for consumers of healthy food. In: 2019 16th International Joint Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering (JCSSE), pp. 61–66. IEEE, Thailand (2019)
Southey, F.: Evaluating the Yuka ‘Phenomenon’: How Effective Is the Scanning App in Practice?, https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2019/08/20/Evaluating-the-Yuka-phenomenon-How-effective-is-the-scanning-app-in-practice (2019). Last accessed 16 May 2022
Wayman, E., Madhvanath, S.: Nudging grocery shoppers to make healthier choices. In: Proceedings of the 9th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, pp. 289–292. ACM, Austria (2015)
Dunford, E., et al.: FoodSwitch: a mobile phone app to enable consumers to make healthier food choices and crowdsourcing of national food composition data. JMIR mHealth uHealth 2(3), e3230 (2014)
Taufik, D., et al.: Determinants of real-life behavioural interventions to stimulate more plant-based and less animal-based diets: a systematic review. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 93, 281–303 (2019)
Lee, J., et al.: A content analysis of free, popular plant-based mobile health apps. Curr. Dev. Nutr. 5(Supplement_2), 1003–1003 (2021)
DiFilippo, K.N., Huang, W., Chapman-Novakofski, K.M.: A new tool for nutrition app quality evaluation (AQEL): development, validation, and reliability testing. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 5(10), e163 (2017)
Khazen, W., et al.: Rethinking the use of mobile apps for dietary assessment in medical research. J. Med. Internet Res. 22(6), e15619 (2020)
Dunford, E., Neal, B.: FoodSwitch and use of crowdsourcing to inform nutrient databases. J. Food Compos. Anal. 64, 13–17 (2017)
Winter, J., Rönkkö, K., Rissanen, M.: Identifying organizational barriers—a case study of usability work when developing software in the automation industry. J. Syst. Softw. 88, 54–73 (2014)
Kübler, A., Nijboer, F., Kleih, S.: Hearing the needs of clinical users. Handb. Clin. Neurol. 168, 353–368 (2020)
Joyce, A.: Formative vs. Summative Evaluations (2019). https://www.nngroup.com/articles/formative-vs-summative-evaluations/. Accessed 17 May 2022
Nielsen, J.: 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design (1994). https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/. Accessed 17 May 2022
Brooke, J.: SUS-A quick and dirty usability scale. Usability Eval. Ind. 189(194), 4–7 (1996). Taylor & Francis Group
Sedgwick, P.: Convenience sampling. Bmj 347, f6304 (2013)
Finn.no: FINN.no - mulighetenes marked, http://www.finn.no. Last accessed 17 May 2022
Van Loo, E.J., Hoefkens, C., Verbeke, W.: Healthy, sustainable and plant-based eating: perceived (mis) match and involvement-based consumer segments as targets for future policy. Food Policy 69, 46–57 (2017)
Ball, K., et al.: Influence of price discounts and skill-building strategies on purchase and consumption of healthy food and beverages: outcomes of the supermarket healthy eating for life randomized controlled trial. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 101(5), 1055–1064 (2015)
Story, M.F.: Principles of Universal Design, Universal Design Handbook, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill Professional New York, New York (2001)
Nielsen, J.: Usability 101: Introduction to usability (2012). https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/. Accessed 19 May 2022
Groce, N., et al.: Malnutrition and disability: unexplored opportunities for collaboration. Paediatr. Int. Child Health 34(4), 308–314 (2014)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bong, W.K., Yousaf, A., Li, Y.J., Chen, W. (2022). Designing and Developing a Web Application of Food Products Focusing on Plant-Based Diets for Better Health. In: Duffy, V.G., Gao, Q., Zhou, J., Antona, M., Stephanidis, C. (eds) HCI International 2022 – Late Breaking Papers: HCI for Health, Well-being, Universal Access and Healthy Aging. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13521. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17902-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17902-0_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-17901-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-17902-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)