Introduction
The idea of this project is to provide a digital service that will encourage students to keep track of what they eat. As well as ensuring that the application can work across many formats, so as to allow as many students as possible to use it, it also needs to enable the user to keep a record of what they are consuming. The main feature of this application will be to keep a real time log of meals and based on this input the user should be able to monitor their intake of things such as fats, salts, sugars, etc.
The application could also offer services such as meal ideas, diet programmes and potentially allow the user to produce a shopping list based on this information, which in turn could provide the user with the potential cost by way of an online comparison website. The ultimate aim of this application is to allow users to make a more informed decision on what they have in their diets, thus leading to a better understanding of what they consume and help them make decisions based on their own values.
Approach
The approach to this design challenge will be based around user centred design, this will allow stakeholders, developers and users to get involved in the design and implementation of this application.
“For solutions to be useful and effective for the end-users, information about their needs, requirements and perspectives must be elicited through the design- and development process” (Das et al, 2013, 2).
The use of user centred design can be found in a journal in which a study was conducted into the design of an e-health system. The conclusion from this study showed that using an iterative approach and user-centred techniques, it allowed them to elicit the needs, perspectives and requirements of all stakeholders involved with the project. The findings stress the importance of including multiple stakeholders throughout the process, and that it may be beneficial to include the various stakeholders separately, at certain points, to collect knowledge from all points of views (Das et al, 2013).
Data gathering
Taking into account the various methods of gathering data, for this project gathering data through use of diaries and follow up interviews will be utilised. Firstly the chosen participants will each be asked to fill in an identical food diary over a period of five days (Appendix A).
Although often thought of as unstructured, usually within an exploratory study when used to gather reflections, thought and feelings, diaries can also be used in a descriptive study such as this. By using a dairy in this way, we can provide a structured format for the recording of data (Sim and Wright, 2002, 78 - 79).
For instance “a sample of people with diabetes might be asked to record particular aspects of their symptoms, their fluid intake and their use of medications, at specific times of the day on a specially designed sheet” (Sim and Wright, 2002, 78).
The next task will be to utilise the responses from the diaries and conduct a face to face interview with the participant, allowing in-depth data to be gathered for analysis. It is very important to gather as much information as possible at the start of the project to enable a comprehensive outcome with the finished product. Structured interviews in particular will be used, not only will this fit in with this descriptive study, it will allow the participants a chance to discuss issues, questions and any problems they encountered whilst filling in the diaries (Sim and Wright, 2002, 77).
Structured interviews have many advantages (Sim and Wright, 2002, 77):
“A respondent does not have to possess the ability to read the questions or write the answers”.
“When well-trained interviewers are used, there are fewer omitted questions and fewer
