Project name: Who’s ordering you food?
Partner: Xueping
Project Statement of Purpose:
This project is targeted at anyone who is devoted to improving their dieting. Through this project, we expect the users to realize how easy we can be affected and misled by our surroundings, such as the social media and who’s eating with you. Initially, we got the inspiration from our observation that many classmates care about their diets but don’t have an overall knowledge of what they should eat. They like to watch the Youtuber sharing their dieting experience, or look for quick tutorials in TikTok, most of which are sponsered by businesses and published only for promotion. Some friends are also used to checking the calories whenever they buy food.
The first research I did is to think about the proper targeted audience. In “Gender differences in food choice: the contribution of health beliefs and dieting”, results show that “women were more likely than men to report avoiding high-fat foods, eating fruit and fiber, and limiting salt (to a lesser extent) in almost all of the 23 countries. They were also more likely to be dieting and attached greater importance to healthy eating”. Also, conclusion is made that “further research is needed to understand the additional factors that could promote men’s participation in simple healthy eating practices”. So we may choose the female as the specific audience considering that they are more exposed to the social media. But generally, the project will raise the awareness of a reasonable food choice both for men and women. After all, the social media can provide some health inspiration.
The second reseach (in Chinese) is about the analysis of weight-reducing industry in China. It discovers that many businesses promote their products in various forms. Indeed, some of them are effective in the short run but it turned out to be harmful to our health in the long run (e.g. disorders of digestion). More importantly, more consumers are not really over-weight. They just think they are not skinny enough compared to those famous models. This research gives some insights for us to explore how the fake news puts consumers in a fraud, and how the consumers make their food choices simply based on visual experience.
There are other related research we’ve made. Since they cover the similar topics, and due to the space constraints, I will put them at the end of the essay.
Project Plan:
Generally, we want to build three scenarios with processing, and the users are expected to make their own food choices with Arduino. At the beginning, there should be a girl (or comic person) sitting alone in the restaurant. She (now suppose it’s “she”) is looking at the menu and about to order. Possible interactions here are flipping the pages or talking with the waitress, Then she can push the bottons that represent various food.
After the beginning scenario, the user enters the first scenario, and the dieting videos of some Youtubers will be played. We are considering adding a captured cam picture/live video, or putting the reaction of the girl on screen. After that, the user will be asked to make the food choice again. To give some psychological implications to the users, feedback will be sent in form of voice message or images in accordance with the food they choose. (Here, we can create an array so that the notes are not given at random but determined by everyone’s choice.) It’s similar with the second and third scenario. They focus more on the influence of news/reports, and the person you eat with. For the week after Thanksgiving break, we plan to have all the video clips ready (create the arrays if possible) and do the fabrication work; For another week we are going to start on the coding.
Context and Significance:
After doing the preparatory research and analysis, I find to create a successful interactive experience, the project should be (1) self-explanatory, clear, and obvious (2) put the user in a continuous loop to make responses (3) be multi-dimensional with visuals, audio and other factors involved so that the user will be more engaged. Also by reflecting on our midterm project, we decide to use various media like sound or touch to enrich the user experience. Our current idea is built on the first one in our project proposal, “Doctor’s training kitchen”. As discussed with Prof. Marcela, although it has educational significance in it, we need to spare more space for the users to explore the meaning by themselves, rather than directly infuse the meaning to the users, in which case interaction is not fully involved. Although generally we give the notes whenever you make your new food choice, but the notes are different between user and user, creating a “personalized experience”. Through this project, we hope more people can realize how their food choice is influenced by our surroundings, as well as the potential bad results like digestive disorder or malnutrition caused by the social media.
Notes and Resources:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15053018
- https://www.healthline.com/health/social-media-choices#discussion-vs.-isolation
- https://yourhealthjournal.com/the-influence-of-media-on-our-food-choices/
- https://wenku.baidu.com/view/1e3c8503bed5b9f3f90f1c2c.html (Chinese)
- https://wenku.baidu.com/view/1e3c8503bed5b9f3f90f1c2c.html (Chinese)
- http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2018-06/27/c_1123040998.htm (Chinese)
- https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-social-media-influence-what-your-child-eats/
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/S10964-012-9898-9
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1176/appi.ap.30.3.257\