RITUCHARYA

This project aimed to explore design solutions to help Arizonans, especially kids, reconnect to and raise awareness of their food resources so they can obtain good, clean, and fair food. Various methods were used in the research phase to define the facts that caused these issues, including how people's food choices affect their health and the environment around them. The design focused on making home-based nutrition education easy for parents to practice by recognizing nutritional ingredients and providing healthy meals. The project process and details were finally with both physical and electronic versions. 📖

designed in a book

Timeline:
8 months

Role:
UX research, UX design, Visual design, prototype, exhibition design

Team:
Self case study

Tools:
Figma, Adobe suite, Unity 3D, Xcode, printing

OVERVIEW

Prompt.

Today, people don't realize that food is tied to many other aspects of life, including culture, politics, agriculture, health, and the environment. Especially children have no concept of how fruits or vegetables come from the ground here on Mother Earth. We need to admit that children might never learn the reason to protect something as vital as heirloom seeds could very well become a reality. If our children never know where their food comes from, will they be able to respect, connect, or even bond with the land?

Design process.

Jump to the Juicy Part

UNDERSTAND

Interconnected circle.

Target users.

• Parents and food providers in Arizona

• Pre-K to 12 children in Arizona

• Arizona local food producers

• Anyone in Arizona that seeking healthy and fair food

• Parents and food providers in Arizona

• Pre-K to 12 children in Arizona

• Arizona local food producers

• Anyone in Arizona that seeking healthy and fair food

This interconnected circle was a "snapshot of all relationships that matter" that caused the food disconnection issue among Arizonans. It helped me frame down my focus area and provided research direction for my topic.

Focus area.

Food education and access issues in Arizona.

Research methods.

• Secondary research (literature review)

• Ethnography research

• Survey

• Intervews

Problem statement.

People, especially kids in Arizona, are disconnected from their food due to the dominant food system (DFS), a combination of habitual use of intermediaries (i.e., chain supermarkets), lacking food education, international imports, low awareness, and many other factors.

RESEARCH

Research questions.

Main question.

How to raise Arizonans' awareness of good, clean and fair food by reconnecting them to local products and producers?

People's behavior & awareness.

• What affects Arizonan's food choices?

• Why do we need to consume local foods?

• Do Arizonans know enough about their foods and producer?

• How is the food and nutrition education in Arizona?

Local products & producers.

• What are some local products in Arizona?

• What are some issues local producers face in Arizona?

• How do Arizonans access their local foods?

RESEARCH 01

Secondary research.

Due to the limited budget, time and resources, secondary research was used as the primary source of my information collection. I accumulated a considerable amount of information from scholarly articles, books, and other online sources about Arizona's irrigation, distribution, food education, general awareness of the population regarding local food, etc.

Literature review.

By searching, collecting, reviewing, analyzing, and summarizing scholarly resources, my literature review revealed various factors why food disconnection occurs in Arizona, and I discovered this critical issue from: food education and people's awareness of consuming healthy food; local producers and products; consequences of food disconnection; and solutions to reconnect people to local products.

Read full literature review

in my capstone book, Pages 22 – 41. 📖

Literature review matrix

RESEARCH 02

Ethnography research.

My research took place in different locations and demographics based. Through some methods used in this research (observation, diary studies, photography, and artifact analysis), I had some insights into people's shopping behaviors, preferences between industrialized and organic foods, types of grocery stores, and purchase methods (online versus in-store).

Outcomes.

• A higher flow of customer traffic was detected

in the large chain supermarkets.

• Shoppers I met in organic stores spent more

time reading labels on products before

putting them in carts.

• Shoppers in chain supermarkets spent more

time selecting frozen and can foods instead

raw materials.

Insights.

I inferred that most shoppers' food choices are based on 2 factors: social status and product prices.

• Most shoppers in chain supermarkets were teenagers

and students. They preferred prepared or instant food

due to limited budget, time, and cooking resources

• Most shoppers in organic markets were shopping for

families or older adults. They pay more attention to

foods' nutrition value and have more budget.

Welcome to explore more details of my ethnography research and side research about online grocery shopping in my , Pages 42 – 47. 📖

capstone book

RESEARCH 03

Survey.

This survey was aimed at understanding how we can help families with young children stay healthy and eat healthy meals at home. Questions included for parents were about their food preparation process and their children's earing patterns.

Insights.

This survey provided insights on children's food options at home, how parents are involved in their children's food education, and parents' knowledge of cooking healthy meals at home. Information I collected from parents and food providers is important for me to know the direction home meals and food education need to take to help children fully use their senses to recognize food qualities and become conscious of their choices.

RESEARCH 04

Unstructured interview.

Interviewee 01

• Theme: School lunch experience
• Name: Amy Wu

• Age: 11 / 5th grade

• Location: Ryan elementary school

• Time: Weekday lunchtime

Interviewee 02

• Name: Tonia Munoz

• Role: Local food producer

• Location: Uptown Farmers market

• Time: Saturday morning

Insights.

• Foods provided were simple but nutritionally balanced

• Most foods were delivered from the distribution center. No

ingredient information shown on the packages

• Food nutritional value was taught in some classes

• From talking to Amy's mom, I found only a few parents

know lunch menu and detailed ingredients were listed on

school website.

• Some farm frames were founded outside school buildings,

but didn't use them appropriately

Insights.

• Tonia owned an organic farm that grows pesticide-free

vegetables on close to 3 acres

• Her business is primarily based on attending regular

farmers markets and membership in Community

Supported Agriculture (CSA)

• Farm-to-school program positively supports small local

farms, but there are still some challenges

• Schools usually work with central facilities, but hard to

reach local farmers

• Central facilities prefer receiving prepped foods, but local

farms may not be able to get things processed

Analyze

Design preview.

Based on research, I realized that raising awareness of food education for children is a matter of great urgency. The design phase focused on making home-based nutrition education easy for parents to practice by recognizing nutritional ingredients and providing healthy meals.

How might we...

• How might we help parents access healthy ingredients and recipes easily?

• How might we create an attractive and joyful food education experience for children?

• How might we find a way to connect Arizonans to local products and producers?

• How might we integrate food education into our daily life, so we intuitively absorb nutrition information?

• How might we build a platform for Arizona parents to share their food education experience?

Final deliverables.

• AppetiZ app design

• App peripheral products: promotion video, poster, AR food cards, calendar design

• Exhibition design

Design

Design 01

App design.

Target users.

• Food providers in Arizona

• Children in Arizona

• Arizona local producers

Prompt.

What to eat for your next healthy meal?

Idea & goals.

This app’s functionalities and operation route cover your experience from Arizona’s local grocery stores to your dining table. This app intends to help parents recognize ingredients in the store and cook easier, faster, and healthier at home. Unlike most recipe apps AppetiZ connects Arizonans and their producers with more seasonal recipes. It is a great tool for sharing authentic AZ local food with your family.

Logo.

Appetite + AZ +

#006838

#F07167

Workflow.

Wireframe.

Final design.

Design 02

AR food cards.

Cards design.

• Illustration by Procreate

• Typography by Adobe AI

AR design process.

Image Target.

• Tools: Unity 3D; Vuforia Engine

The technology used in this AR design is "Image Target," which represents images that Vuforia Engine can detect and track. Once the Image Target is detected, Vuforia Engine will track the image and augment the content seamlessly using the best-in-market image tracking technology.

App deployment.

• Tools: Unity 3D; Xcode; iPhone 11 pro max

It's always a best practice to test the project on an actual device. By following a tutorial, I built my project as an Xcode project file through Unity 3D that I could deploy to an iOS device. The AR app was finally ran successfully on my iPhone.

Design 03

Calendar design.

There is various delicious produce grown across Arizona and have a rich history based on the state's landscape and climate. Design these products within the calendar will help Arizonans be familiar with local seasonal foods, and promote consuming fresher, tastier, and more nutritious ingredients.

Design 04

Poster design.

Tools: Procreate; Adobe Ai

Digital sketches

Color adjustment

Final design

Design 05

Exhibition design.

In the last year of my graduate program (MVCD), all students gathered extensive research and explored innovative solutions for our capstone topics. To raise awareness and initiate actions toward our topics, we designed and executed the Graduation Exhibition as a platform to display how visual communication designers can help tackle these issues and provide potential solutions.

Goals.

Our goal was to create an immersive experience that would leave our audience feeling inspired to initiate positive, transformative change in our society. It is important to us that our projects are displayed professionally, so the social issues and initiatives are taken seriously, promote dialogue amongst attendees, and act as starting points that could lead to real-world solutions.