First Round Sketches

My first round of sketches aimed at looking at all of the places where a family might interact with food—at home, in school, while playing, online, at restaurants—and the brainstorming stemmed from these locations. How can I address and create a concerted attempt to create more pointed and sophisticated approach to changing how Americans think and feel about food?

According to Judith Warner in a recent article in the New York Times Magazine, it will take both knowledge about best nutritional practices and cultural change to back it up.
 

“Eating too much, indiscriminately, anywhere, at any time, in response to any and all stimuli, is as central to our freewheeling, mavericky way of being as car cupholders and drive-throughs. You can’t change specific eating behavior without addressing that way of life — without changing our culture of food. You need to present healthful eating as a new, desirable, freely chosen expression of the American way.”

A look at a few rough sketches:

Changes to the food shopping experience

1. At Stop & Shop, there is an option for self checkout that involves a hand-held scanner. What if that scanner could show you the nutritional breakdown of the contents of your cart, and steer you to make choices to achieve a better balance?
2. If your grocery receipt was categorized into groupings based on healthiness of your purchases, would it tempt you to make better choices on your next trip? Suggest a revised shopping list for the future?
3. What if you could generate your shopping list from a list of foods categorized by healthiness, encouraging you to shop for more healthy items?

Making it a game

1. Associating junk foods to a time value for burning the calories in that food could encourage better choices and fitness habits
2. A fun mirror could show different distortions of your image based on different eating habits
3. A doll to teach healthy eating to young children, the doll feels better when you feed it healthier foods

Changes at school

1. Simplifying the food pyramid: arranging your daily intake by portions to foster an understanding of food types that should be incorporated into your day
2. A healthy food vending machine
3. A healthy food truck cafeteria

 

In the home

1. A central “food hub” in the kitchen shows current stock, bar codes help make an easy shopping list
2. A comprehensive meal planning guide to help create meal plans, shopping lists, and simple, delicious recipes

Online

1. If your meal plan was a part of your social networking websites, could you “like” your friends’ weekly meals? Suggest alternatives?
2. 28 days to habit change—An online checklist of simple changes that will make big overall improvements to your health, diet and fitness over time
3. A website that educates by showing how food in + energy out creates your caloric balance, and it should be equal!
4. Similar to the old Richard Simmons “Deal a Meal” diet, an online card game to help you manage your nutrients to create a balanced diet and fitness tradeoffs

These sketches are just a start, but will help me start prototyping some ideas with families interested in trying something new.