Millennials and healthy food
Philips Research, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Client
Philips Research
Team
3 Interaction Designers, Industrial Designer, Cognetive Psychologist
Duration
2 months
CHALLENGES

To explore what could help the Millennials to take control of eating habits in order to maintain good health condition for further longevity.

From business prospective, generate the concepts that will increase the value of Philips kitchen appliances for healthy well being.
User Research
Millennials are generally seen as the age group from 18-35 years. It is widely reported – more and more overweight and obesity are mentioned as the consequence of the modern lifestyle and food related habits and environments.
1st STEP
To narrow down the scope of the project we chose as a target group the young males of 18-25 y.o.
Since the selected target audience was not presented properly in earlier research we conducted the cohort study with the young males during their shopping in 2 supermarkets of Eindhoven.
After observation the participants during their shopping process we asked about their choices, healthy food and cooking. It was mentioned that the time issue, price of purchase and lack of cooking skills and knowledge about food are the main constraints in the way to healthy eating.
We also had spoken with a nutritionist and a cook. They both find important to have the strong motivation for building eating behavior and emphasize the benefit of planning.
2d STEP
Using crowdsourcing platform we asked 20 participants to fill in Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ).
It helped us to prove the importance of food price for the buyers but also emphasized other criteria significant as well: sensory appeal like smell, taste or visual attractiveness, convenience, and health.
3d STEP
The influence of environments on an eating behavior we analyzed using ANGELO framework and the food diaries of the participants.
Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) helps us to found that currently, environment stimulates people to snack more over than ever and mostly these kinds of food are super-processed and unhealthy.
4th STEP
For proving this assumption we run in Telegram a chat bot that had been using by 15 people during a week. Basically, it worked as a food dairy where you should upload the pictures of every meal and the picture of environment. After that the Foodbot asks how you estimate the quality of food.
In the graphic we see that there is a rather less fixed times to eat a meal and that snacking behavior becomes really common. Young males seem to eat throughout the entire day, with the most healthiest foods during lunch time.
Lack of time and skills for cooking, unhealthy snacks, emotional eating is the obstacles for Millennials on the way to healthy eating behavior.
Ideation and Conceptualization
Based on the user research outcomes we conducted a brain mapping and How Might We (HMW) sessions.
As input for this sessions we used the 5 most decisive questions:
- HMW make the preparation of food/meals less cumbersome
- HMW change our relationship with healthy food
- HMW persuade someone with lack of skills or knowledge to choose healthy food
- HMW make cooking process convenient and fun
- HMW make fresh, healthy and tasty food available

As a result, we generated 5 concepts that would solve the main issues on the way to healthy eating behavior. These concepts we described using storyboards.
C1: Avatar - the one that shows food impact on your body
C2: Food connector - the one that will help to change our relationship with healthy food
C3: Cookbot - the one that will give the basic knowledge about cooking
C4: Meal planner - the one that will help save time and make the healthy food available
C5: Cooking assistant - the one that will make the cooking process convenient and fun
Evaluation and
Prototyping
We did the evaluation of the five concepts with the online survey asked the participants what they like and don't like about presented ideas.
People likes personal suggestions about healthy diet, discovering new ingredients and simple recipes.
We combined the best features of our concepts in one prototype for a recipe app. In that iteration, we didn't include personalization, nutritional value regarding needs of a user and set up of a motivative goal. It could be the possible angle for the further development.
From the research, we found that people are often not aware of what and why they are eating something. In that case, triggering people to eat more conscious and providing solid information about healthy eating could influence on eating behavior.

At the same time, planning of food purchasing and consumption for several days in advance can save time and help to reduce the consumption of processed food.
All rights of content reserved by USI, TU/e and Philips Research. Photos by Jelle Van de Velde.