INTERACTION DESIGN

My Pyramid

Description

The CHI 2006 Student Design Competition challenged students with designing a service for personal monitoring of diet, exercise, and health for individuals. Given the broad scope of the design challenge, acceptable solutions could have included, but were not limited to, addressing certain groups with specific health needs, educating consumers about processed and pre-packaged foods, teaching children about diet and exercise, or addressing the needs of a sub-group suffering from some form of malnutrition.

In a team of four, I researched the nutritional needs and values of college students and then designed a service concept that aims to improve health by educating students about nutrition and basic cooking skills.

Solution

We discovered that a major challenge new college students face is the establishment of healthy habits that will affect their long-term health. Our solution, myPyramid, is a dining hall service designed to support the development of healthy eating habits for busy and impressionable students.

myPyramid offers an integrated student environment that builds basic nutrition and cooking skills in a fun and social manner while addressing unique student needs. In the myPyramid dining hall, students customize and cook meals that are tailored with the advice and recommendations of an “intelligent shopping basket”.

By teaching students basic cooking skills and educating them about how foods affect their dietary balance, myPyramid empowers students with knowledge and skills to establish longterm healthy nutritional habits.

For more details, please read the official CHI submission.