Promoting Healthy Eating
Healthier Experience
Keywords
Multi-sensory Design, Sensory Map, Experience Map, Human Centred Design, Fast Food, Healthy Eating
Goal
Fast Food chains like McDonald’s have a large presence in cities all over the world. They provide a cheap, convenient, quick and informal dining experience. This helps them appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds. However, these restaurants often do not serve any food that would classify as healthy. Since the food they serve is mostly greasy and heavy, people usually also end up buying a sugary drink like a cola.
How do we make this a relatively healthier experience?
We discuss an intervention that is designed to be implemented at the MESO level in the environment of a fast food restaurant.
Fast Food Restaurants
Fast food restaurants have been the centre of multiple researches. Design elements like the informal, well lit and usually clean environment lead people to eat there very frequently as it is an extremely casual experience. A study done at Michigan State University showed that around 40% of college students ate at fast food joints 3-4 times a week (Knutsen 71). Good advertising and brightly coloured, recognisable logos achieves the status of being a household name that everyone recognises. Another study done in a school in the US shows that children on average seem to recognise fast food logos significantly more than any other food logos (Arredondo et al.). In this way this culture of eating at these restaurants starts early and habits are created around the food and drink available here. This slowly also makes people relate the food available there and the experience with something exciting and ‘cool’.
The Intervention
The intervention aims to encourage people to drink water as instead to the sugary drinks that people usually consume at food restaurants. A study done in primary schools showed that the children drank a lot more water when there was free access to it in class (Kaushik et al.). Extending this idea, if water was available freely and in an exciting way people would probably be inclined to drink more of it and avoid purchasing another drink. Other studies also say that drinking more water can reduce your calorie intake (Holohan). This can make a huge difference. If people start to get into the habit of drinking more water, it can really lead to them living a healthier life.
The Concept
The water is rebranded to make it enticing. Use of flavoured water under an exciting name instead of just regular water. Flavoured water has recently been coming up in various countries as a good alternative to sodas, juices and even water as it provides the benefits of water with more taste and does not contain the high sugar content that sodas and juices do (Neerman). Using this flavoured water and providing it for free will encourage people to try it out as an alternative that could help them save money, stay refreshed and be healthier.
Sensory Experience Map
