Functional Out-of-Home Eating: 'Towards product concepts to support people in making healthy food choices in the out-of-home context'
C.J. Oomen · 2010
Food consumed outside of our home is an increasingly important part of our diet. Every day around 4 million Dutch consumers eat one or more main meals outside the household premises. More than half of these meals are not consumed when eating out of our home in a traditional way, e.g. at a full-service restaurant, but are what is called functional out-of-home eating. Functional out-of-home eating considers food on-the-go, for instance while travelling or shopping. Also eating at work or at school is considered functional out-of-home eating. Research shows that out-of-home foods are often higher in energy and moreover, frequent consumption of out-of-home food is linked to poorer diet quality and risk for obesity. Although most people have the basic knowledge about what healthy food is, they do not yet put this knowledge into practice, often resulting in bad food choices. Especially for people leading busy lives, working long hours at demanding jobs and often being on the road – keeping a healthy diet can be difficult. This master thesis describes the user-centred research and design process towards product concepts that support these people in making healthy food choices in the out-of-home context. To get insight in the food choices of users and the context surrounding them three user studies were carried out: an online questionnaire, a probe study and a field study. With the online questionnaire the key descriptors of functional out-of-home eating in the Netherlands were found, such as locations, frequency and timeslots of functional out-of-home eating. The probe study gave insight in the experiences of users and the key motives, patterns, dilemmas and factors that influence eating habits. With the field study, an attempt was made to grasp the moment of the act of participants eating out of home, to find actual qualities, feelings and attitudes of food choices. The results were used to describe the present context of functional out-of-home eaters and defined the factors that influence food decisions. It was found that functional out-of-home eating brings about complex interactions. It became clear that the barrier to healthy nutrition is not the lack of desire or motivation, but is instead the result of lack of some of the key elements that enable a person to make healthy choices and the influence of external and internal factors that consciously or unconsciously influence choice. These barriers were translated to design goals which enabled the formulation of a design brief. Based on the design brief, four concepts were developed that differed on several aspects, such as interaction-, technological or content dimensions. In an evaluation session all aspects of these three dimensions were evaluated. Healthy food choices in the out-of-home context contribute to a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle. This report presents a design proposal for breaking down the barriers to healthy food choices in the out-of-home context. The proposal can serve as a direction for further development.