Yummy
Prompt introduction
Healthy Food Tracker for Kids.
Brief: Getting kids to commit to nutritious choices can lead to a healthier lifestyle. Schools have the opportunity to foster good habits early on. But accommodating picky eaters and dealing with outside influences, such asthe media, family, and peers, can be daunting.
Design an experience where schools can influence students’ food choices.
Immersion
School food landscape in the US
There is a complex ecosystem around kids’ nutrition involving different actors, policies, environments, systems etc. Here is my first take on the mapping:
I wanted to learn about the school food in the US, its problems, constraints and history. First, why does it matter? Simply put, school lunch matters for better learning and academic performance, for improved behavior and performance, and for the overall health of kids.
“No nation is any healthier than its children or more prosperous than its farmers.”
Harry Truman
History of school lunch: School lunch goes back to President Harry Truman who signed the National School Lunch Act in 1946. His intentions were to provide low cost or free school lunch meals to qualified students through government subsidies and surplus agricultural provisions. The subsidies were intended to safeguard the health and well-being of the nation’s children and encourage the consumption of domestic agricultural commodities.
Food quality: Since the beginning of the act the food system has been largely dominated by large corporations. These providers achieve economies of scale but they favor less nutritionally dense foods due to ease of production and cost.
A 2009 report by USA Today found that the safety standards of the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), a part of the USDA that buys meat for school lunches, were lower than the standards of the average fast food restaurant in the country.
Recent improvements: In 2010 Obama signed the The Healthy, hunger-free kids act. One of the program’s main objectives was to improve nutrition and focus on reducing childhood obesity.
Because of stricter guidelines there have been improvements in food quality but these does not seem to be enough. Menus include more whole grains, fruits and vegetable, and less salt. But they also offer an abundance of factory-farmed animal products and heavily processed foods, like corn dogs, tater tots, and cheese pizza.
Latest rules around school food: Recently U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced that they will relax some of the rules from the 2010 act which will allow schools to make their own decisions as they need. Changes relax some key nutritional guidelines, allowing schools to offer 1% milk in flavors, and maintaining the high sodium levels in the food. Additionally, only half of the grains used in menu items now needs to be whole grains, which means more products with refined white flour.
And the main reason for this change is the increased food waste as students do not favor the less salty, raw foods offered, and there is less participation in meal programs which means even less budget for schools.
In summary, I learned that the biggest problems around school food are deeply rooted in policy and food systems in the US. There are major policy, nutritional guideline, tax and budget issues as well as problems around how food is produced.
What are the existing solutions? Most promising solutions I found were on the local/district level which included school collaborations with local farmers, actively campaigning local committees, and encouraging student involvement in food issues.
Looking at existing technology-design solutions, I did not find any great solutions that used technology. There are apps for school meal payments and food trackers for children and parents. Some of them have good guidelines around nutrition but none of them seemed popular enough, some with only 4-5 reviews left. There are also some horrifying school lunch apps that look like fast food brain wash for kids.
One useful finding is that public school food menus are public data available at least one month ahead. I thought it would be interesting to use this to start talking about food with children before the cafeteria.
[rapid] user research
Target selection: Thinking about what age range to target, doing some reading, I decided to target kindergarten and elementary students. This is the stage they start getting more control over what they eat, at least in school. They pick their food and eat as much as they want. This is also a perfect time to develop good habits around food that might persist in their lives.
My primary user target:
Late kindergarten (able to read) and elementary school children (assumption, up to 3rd grade).
They go to public school and have at least one meal a day at the school cafeteria.
They do not have phones yet, but use their own or the shared family tablet for entertainment and game play.
They have one or even two full-time working parents, and at least one more sibling at home.
Quick research
I immediately started talking to my good friends who have two young children, one 2,5 and one 6,5 year old. Defne, the older one is right about my target age. She started kindergarten this year. First, I started talking to my friends about their experiences with the two kids and recently with the public school Defne started. Next, I observed and talked to Defne about food. That was pretty eye opening.
Some insights from the parents:
Kids have personalities and taste. Observing the two kids over a couple days and talking to their parents, it is obvious each kid even at 2 years old have different taste in food. The little one is an adventurous eater and will dip her finger to every food item around. Defne however can not even stand the smell of food she does not recognize. ——and one time with their friends on a playdate, it is obvious how each kid is different. In social context though they usually ==
Reality of most families: Families are busy and life is hectic… Either working during the day or having multiple kids to take care of, makes parents not able to always cook the perfectly healthy meal or fight kids to eat those peas when they are loudly screaming NOT TO…
It is emotional. Parents carry a lot of guilt around their kid’s nutrition and overall health. They also worry about forcing kids too much and causing other problems such as eating disorders. Solutions must take emotions into consideration and help ease the feeling of guilt. —-A mother i talked to said her kid mostly eats what she is given but when asked almost always says she wants pasta or pizza. —
There is way too much and contradicting information. This overwhelms parents and makes them think there is no solutions…
“Do not google “kid & nutrition guidance”! You would be lost in the “wisdom” of the internet and parents. Oh that parent bragging their kid eats everything? Right, let’s be real, they all want pasta :) Maybe we should let them eat pasta…”
Firat
“Even in the last 6 years guidance has changed. When Defne was born we were given a sheet with when certain foods could be incorporated into her diet and which could not be. With the little one, doctors said she can eat whatever and the sooner we introduce new foods the better… I mean, did Defne become picky because we did not give her variety soon enough?“
Ceren
I started talking to Defne by asking her what she did at school and then what she ate for lunch. She said hot dogs and baby carrots and juice. Her mom warned me that she probably only ate a bite out of that carrot.
Some insights from the 6,5 year old:
Children also feel guilty when they know they are not following parents’ advice. They try to be “good” but they seem to not fully comprehend why they should be.
Children have limited experience with food and they get influenced by what other adults or their peers are eating. Some fear new foods but that might not be based on any knowledge, but based on the fear of the unknown.
Children accept bribery. Defne mentioned how she sometimes eats broccoli hidden inside her pasta and how her parents then reward her candy. But this connection to material rewards, especially sweet addictive treats is not helping them develop good habits. Experiences should encourage habit forming and non-material rewarding systems.
Children love playing and competing. ——connect to challengesssssssssss.
Some interesting things Defne said made me wonder if these are common between her peers:
“Today at lunch… I ran out of time to finish my food.”
“I drink apple juice, because I have to have one fruit.”
“I chose hot dogs today because it’s healthier and i knew my mom would want me to get something healthy.“
Let’s have lunch!
Me and Defne’s mom Ceren went to Highland Terrace public school to have lunch with the kindergarten and elementary school students. NOTE: I could not talk to teachers nor students unfortunately as there are strict rules how to interview in public schools. Observations were allowed.
The timing. My first reaction was observing how little time students had to eat. They get 30 minutes and between getting in line, sitting down and getting out of the cafeteria they have about 20 minutes to eat. Teachers go around tables to tell children to eat quicker.
Kids are distracted. They are mostly busy talking to friends, even leave the table to do that, cafeteria is very loud and it all feels hectic. Not the calm and fun environment to be able to enjoy food.
The way food is served is uninspiring. That was one of the saddest and unappetizing salad bars I’ve ever seen. Kids know the rule that they have to get a vegetable or fruit from the salad bar and have 3 items at least. And they do exactly that! They take the food but from what I observed, there were very few vegetables and even fruits being actually eaten. Food kids do no favor mostly go to waste.
The way food is consumed. Kids have full control over how they eat. There are not enough teachers to sit with them, or maybe they want to let kids figure it out as part of their education. But the reality is, the school lunch or packed lunches from home, kids eat in the order they pick and as much or little as they want. My observation showed that most kids started with sweets and treats such as chocolate pudding with M&M’s, crackers etc. instead of their main dish. As they have little time, they either barely touch the main dish or rush to finish some before they have to go back.
There is not much education around the foods they consume. Cafeteria only had 3 sheets of paper and those are mostly instructions for complete meals, 3 different items at least. Or rules about salad bar etiquette. There is no inspiration or information about what they are actually eating. When we went back to Defne’s kindergarten class as well, there is walls and walls full of drawings, images etc. Not many are about nutrition. This area of education seems to be missing.
Overall, the cafeteria environment, the food itself and the way it is served, how it was consumed by the kids made the lunch feel like a fast food restaurant experience. Problems seem to be beyond the food served or if kids eat it. The way kids eat together, the rituals around food needs to be addressed as well.
After observing kids in the morning, later during lunch and then till bed time, I created a journey map focused on their food consumption throughout the day. There are multiple actors in this journey: the kid, parents, teachers and cafeteria staff. I broke the day down to major moments such as “selecting lunch” and “snack time”. Noted steps each actor is taking and highlighted the “food moments” shared between the kid and other actors. This helped me look for opportunity areas and start framing the problems I want to address.
Frame the problem & opportunity areas
Starting to ideate, I realized solution space could be broken down to 3 layers:
Core which involves humans and their behaviors. For this exercise I will be focusing on the core layer.
Environment and technology which addresses redesign of spaces and enabling sophisticated solutions through technology. I did some very quick sketches as this is an exciting space (see below).
Policy, budget and food which address the deeper and hard to solve systemic problems around schools and kids’ nutrition. I believe the issues around child obesity, unequal opportunities for many school districts and the major problems around the food itself can only be truly solved when this layer is addressed by politicians, policy makers, food and farming industry, and local communities.
Some sketches for the middle layer, cafeteria design:
My hypothesis
Food is a choice based on kids limited palette and experience. They seem to select foods that they know they will enjoy. Parents have very little transparency to what kids eat at school. Solutions need to start from encouraging good behaviors not from rules. Schools are key as kids get to control their own food choices for the first time but them seem to be doing a poor job. School can address not just food but rituals around it by making lunch an enjoyable, calm, food-focused experience.
To solve for these:
Make food a part of kids’ education (at school and at home) so they can make more informed decisions as they grow up.
There is a lot to learn… Break things down to tangible small goals that parents and kids track against. Celebrate small wins and show children outcomes they’ll enjoy as they develop habits.
Schools need to inspire good rituals around food. Make kids talk about food, improve conditions to enjoy food experience in school. Reward good behaviors.
Design implications, some feature area ideation:
Simple self-reporting and food tracking, providing a holistic view of kid’s nutrition and activity
Teacher/school communication to kids when out of school. Direct communication between parents and teachers.
Food suggestions based on kid’s taste. Provide parents ideas for their kid’s nutrition based on kids food preferences, new food explorations etc..
Parent communities, let parents share tips and tricks based on similarities such as kids’ age, family needs.
Goal setting and celebration of achievements. Send progress summary to parents.
Collaborative setup of the experience by kid and parent.
Design principles and objectives
Before i jump into solutions I set up some design disciplines and objectives rooted in my research. These helped me frame the upcoming thinking.
The experience should be:
Supportive & reassuring, respond to emotional needs of kids, parents and teachers.
Simple & realistic, relate to family and school constraints and their daily struggles. Provide a simple system that gets adopted which could evolve over time.
Educational, always provide meaningful bits of information to kids.
Fun fun fun, be playful! Kids will lose interest if it feels like a chore.
Colorful & active, kids are constantly moving themselves, their whole world has patterns and colors. And engage when there is movement in screens.
Kid-driven, for adoption kids need to be driving the experience not adults. Get to know them and guide them, lightly that is.
Not rule based nor authoritative, target habit forming for longevity. Do not enforce rules that can be broken at the first chance. Talk to kids as a peer, not as another authority.
final concept
Yummy is a kid driven experience. It is a habit forming and food education tablet app for late kindergarten and elementary school kids. Kids learn about school food, have the option to track their selections, they get to pick and accomplish tiny weekly goals while getting rewarded.
Yummy learns from kids as every kid has a different taste and personality. They might not know much about nutritional guidelines but they for sure know that they want pasta, like all the time...
School lunch items are surfaced via the colorful and simple UI, kids select their food, learn about unfamiliar foods and get to track their own food. They can track non-school food such as packed snacks as well. Being realistic about daily food tracking, yummy starts with breakfast, lunch and the after lunch snack. School food tracking is a major benefit to parents, who usually do not have much information about what kids have at school unless they ask.
Food is never only about nutrition. Food is comforting, it is enjoyable, it has rituals and it is a part of social life. Yummy starts to support these aspects of food and food education. It surfaces kid selected goals and school selected challenges around food rituals.
User types: I imagine having 3 users on the yummy platform: Kids, parents and teachers.
Here, I am exploring the kid tablet app as they are the primary user out of the 3 user types.
3 main sections of the kid app and their objectives
Goals: Habit forming through weekly goals and celebrations with rewards. Goal selection is a shared moment between a kid and a parent. They see list of goals, add one if they wish, discuss which and why. Next they pick a reward for completing the goal.
This section aims to build good habits around food and its rituals. It creates short term goals that are achievable for the kid and easy for parents to monitor. When kid achieves the goal their small win is rewarded. Rewards are encouraged to be non-material, mostly social, active and family-oriented.
My school: This is the section for schools to inspire kids about making thoughtful choices during school meals and snacks, and get to know their food choices better. Light and fun education is embedded in every step. Schools also provide weekly challenges that are held during lunch, these are around social food rituals and mean to improve habits and behavior around food consumption at school.
After certain amount of usage, yummy created shortcuts to let kids easily log their usual foods such as the cereal and milk breakfast during weekdays.
School lunches are public data provided by food contractors, so this section only needs schools to provide weekly challenges. If a school wants they can send messages separately to kids’ parents though parent UI (not explored).
Fun fun fun: This section includes the kids’ favorite foods collected from their interaction with yummy. As they view new foods and favorite them or select them for lunch, yummy learns the kid’s taste and habits. The social aspect surfaces what other kids love to eat or have discovered recently (direct friends or with similar taste). It also could include recipes a kid collects to cook with parents.
Sketching
I started sketching the main sections of the app by making a list of content/functionality a user would need to achieve their goals. No UI yet just pure copy…
Next I sketched different ways to interact with the app. I realized I was creating different ways of interactions on My school section (a partial horizontal scroll) and on Goals section (a vertical scroll). Wanting to simplify and streamline how kids will use the UI, I decided to use horizontal scroll in all 3 main sections.
NOTE: I did not do UI explorations for the 3rd section, Fun fun fun.
Interaction model
I used a simple structure: 3 main sections of the app make up the base layer and detailed views are presented on modal layer.
The 3 main sections are scrolled horizontally to view content, an interaction kids seem to be familiar with (reference UI Youtube kids).
Modal views are used for selection and educational moments, letting kids focus on the task. Modal views slide up on top of base layers, surface content vertically - differentiating them from the base layer. They close and return kids back to their starting point. Modals also have the advantage of being independent of the base layer structure, the same modal view can be activated from any section of the app.
On the base layer, navigation bar is fixed on the left as I wanted to make sure kids could way find with ease.
2 flows
This is the first flow where Defne and her dad are setting up Defne’s yummy by answering questions and selecting her first weekly goal.
This is the second flow where Defne opens her yummy and taps on My School to pre-select her lunch.
InVision click through of the two flows:
visual design explorations
Explorations for starting a visual design system of the kid interface. Considering the age range, 6-9 year olds, I wanted to keep the UI chunky, simple and colorful. Kids are not as efficient readers and only have experience with gaming, video, content apps at this age. UI had to be light but expressive.
I wanted to make yummy lovable, for that I used organic and imperfect shapes to accompany the work mark. These shapes loosely look like foods, connecting to the mission around food. Word mark itself uses italics to seem more dynamic and lower case to be friendly.
Playing with shapes, I wanted to identify main content types and give each a shape that helps kids start to identify them even before reading text.