Sugary drinks consumption and teenage obesity A user-centered design approach addressing this problem
Zixi Zhu
Background
Project Summary and Objective Overweight and obesity have become prevalence among teenagers in recent years across UK. More than 1 in 3 teenager aged 11–15 years are overweight or obese and obesity levels have tripled in 15 year-olds over the last ten years.
Research has shown sugary drink consumption would increase body fat, and young people are main consumer of sugary drinks. On a typical day, 80% of youth consume sugary drinks.
Background
According to a US public health report, promote the access to healthier alternatives such as plain water is considered as a main strategy of reduce sugary beverage consumption.
Project Audience 11-15 years old UK teenagers
Project Objective Reduce teenager sugary drink consumption by promote water
1 Inspiration Phase Learn from people I am designing for
Inspiration
Start a Recruit Plan Find audiences include both mainstream and 'extremes' assures that the result of my research can be representative for the whole group. Include different age from 11 to 15 years old, different gender, different ethnicity, different household income.
3 Slim Kids
3 Average Kids
3 Overweight Kids
Different age from 11-15 Different gender Different ethnicity Different household income
Inspiration
Interview with individuals Need to know: 1. What are kids doing, thinking and feeling? 2. What motivates them? 3. What frustrates them? Based on the Need to know questions, I developed a semi-structured interview guide, which can deeply engage participants around the topic I want to investigate while enabling more stories come out to let me gain deeper insights.
Semi-structure interview guide: 1. What will you do when you feel thirsty? 2. What is your favourite drink? Why do you like it? 3. How often do you buy sugary drinks? 4. At what occassion will you buy/consume soft drinks?Where do you usually buy it? 5. Do you often buy bottled water? Why? 6. Do you bring water bottle to school? Why?
Inspiration
Stories of kids
Ronnie 14 years old, Slim, Male Ronnie is a 14 year-old boy from Sobell Badminton Club. He plays very well badminton and he has a very healthy slim body shape. His parents not allowed him to drink fizzy drinks so he can just have them once a week. He would buy sports drinks like Lucoazde after sports when he feel thirsty. He usually get his drink at corner shops after school because his school does not allow fizzy drinks to be sold in the campus. Fanta is his favourite drink because he enjoys the orange and citrus flavour. He does not like cocas and never buy them. He thinks fruity is a key factor for him to buy a drink and he prefers a bright colour in package. As for water, he never buy bottled water because he thinks that is a waste of money. He usually top-up his reused bottle at home for sports. He never brings his water jug to school because there are already some water fountains available to use. But bottled water still have its market because some people think the fountain is dirty.
Inspiration
Isaaz 12 years old, Slim, Male Isaaz is a 12 year-old boy from Sobell Badminton Club. He never buy bottle water, he thinks it is a waste of money because he can drink from the tap directly without cost. He usually buy soft drinks at corner shops and have them during his long sporting because he believe it gives him supplements from dehydrate. Also during parties and eat out are some occasions when he consume soft drinks. But he adds that his parents not allow him to consume too much sugary drinks: no more than once a week. His favourite drinks is ginger beer because of its flavour, and it is influenced by his father. He said he would never buy things he does not familiar with. He does not have his own water jug and he just drink directly from tap or fountain, he would reuse a bottle when sporting.
Inspiration
Jordon 13 years old, Slim, Male Jordon is a 13 year-old boy training trampoline in Sobell. He would have a concentrate juice or lucozade when he feels thirsty. And his parents usually put them in fridge so he can drink when he wants. He would go to corner shops to buy his drink, and he consume soft drinks 3 times a week. His favourite drinks is M&S apple juice, “The package is all right, and it’s nice to be not too sweet.� He neither buy bottled water nor bring his own water jug to schools, because he just use the drinking fountain.
Inspiration
Karim 15 years old, Average, Male Karim is a 15 year-old boy training trampoline in Sobell. His favourite drink is Lucozade, and he first had it when he was 10. The energy suggestion and fruity flavour attract him, because he thinks he need some energy when sporting. He usually get them in the corner shops, and consume about 3-4 times a week. He never purchase bottled water, and drink just from the tap which is for free. And he not usually bring a water jug to school.
Inspiration
Ricky 14 years old, Average, Male Ricky is 14 year-old boy training trampoline in Sobell. When he feels thirsty, he would grab an energy drink or coca depends on outdoor or indoor. He usually has them twice a day during the break/lunch/at home, and buying his drink at corner shop. He sometimes would choose flavoured bottled water. His favourite drink is Lucozade because his mates also drink it and he thinks it would keep him up. His parent not allow him to have it but he said he likes to against the rules. He does not have his water jug because it’s not cool, he just use the water fountain and sometimes grab a bottled water.
Inspiration
Aaliyah 11 years old, Average, Female Aaliyah is a 11 year-old girl training trampoline in Sobell. She usually goes for soft drinks like 7-up(corner shop) or homemade lemonade when it’s Friday and Saturday to give herself a little treat and it would no more than 2 times a week. She had her first 7up in 9years old at a party and other people recommended to her. She likes the sweet flavour. She likes to drink water and she drinks three bottle a day. She often buy bottled water sometimes vitamin water because she thinks the water fountains in school are dirty. She sometimes brings her reused bottle but not often.
Gabriela 12 years old, Overweight, Female Gabriela is 12 year-old girl in badminton session and she only comes once a week. Her favourite drink is Highland Spring mineral water and she really enjoys its clean taste it offers. She does not like sugary drinks because she would get dizzy if she had too much sugar. She usually buys them when she’s active and she can easily buy it in Tesco. She sometimes brings her water jug to schools.
Inspiration
Manu 11 years old, Overweight, Male Manu is a 11 year-old boy attend badminton class occasionally. He would go for an apple fizzy drink when thirsty. He has a slight overweight body shape. His parents are easy towards sodas. And his favourite drink is apple juice which he consume twice a week. He usually buys them in the school vending machines during the class break. He is OK with the bottled water because he does not quite like how tap water tastes and he would drink bottled water 4 times a week. When being asked by Evian which is in his hand, he thinks the bottle design is good and he likes its taste and prefers normal caps to sports caps. He doesn't bring water jug to school, just buy bottled water when he need one.
Saskia 12 years old, Overweight, Female Saskia is a 12 years old, and she is in the junior badminton club. Her favourite drink is Tropicana apple juice because she enjoys the apple flavour. She usually gets it in the nearest corner shop when she going out. She consumes sugary drinks once a week and her parents are OK with those drinks. When she feels thirsty outdoor she would buy a bottled water and sometimes keep the bottle to reuse it, and she does not have a water jug.
Inspiration
Self Documentation Self documentation, also known as cultural probe, is a powerful method to let participants document their own life to let researcher gain firsthand, visual informations. 'What people say is not always what they are actually doing everyday. ' Using this research method gives me a scope of what is happening on their daily basis.
Inspiration
I prepared some disposable cameras with tasks written on the back and gave to participants to ask them help me document themselves around the topic.
After which I went back to the field with developed photos and review these photos together with participants, to let them tell me the stories behind each image. During this process, I have found many unexpected things from my own understanding of the pictures.
Inspiration
21. This is my lunch. By Ronnie "I usually have a sandwich for my lunch, and I drink squash with it.
21. This is my lunch. By Karim "This is my lunch today, I just grab it on the way here. I have my Lucozade for drink."
Inspiration
21. This is my lunch. By Jordon "I usually go Subway for lunch, because I can get free refills there."
12. I spend time with friends here. By Ronnie "We usually go camder town, there are so many Asian food there, I love Bang-bang Chicken, and I would grab a fanta for a deal."
Inspiration
15. I use this to drink water. By Karim "I sometimes reuse the bottle to drink water."
22. I drink this every day. By Ronnie "It's apple & blackcarrant squash from Morrison. I sometimes bring it to the badminton court."
Inspiration
22. I drink this every day. By Jordon "I bring my reused water bottle to the trampoline every day."
22. I drink this every day. By Karim "I drink from fountain every day, in school and in court."
Inspiration
20. I usually do this between class. By Karim "We like to play basketball sometimes when class break."
22.This is popular in my class. By Ronnie "It's FIFA 15 a football video game which is quite popular in our class."
Inspiration
In Context Immersion Because what people say is not always what they are actually doing, I decided to choosed 3 places to immerse myself in the context to see what are teenagers really doing. The 3 places are a leisure center, a cafeteria in a secondary school, several corner shops near secondary schools.
Leisure Centre During the immersion in leisure center, I spend 6 weeks times every Tuesday and Saturday with a junior badminton club. I found some kids would bring their own drinks to the court. For example, Ronnie bring squash from home because he thinks his body needs some sugar when active. And boys tend to buy sports drinks like Lucozade and Redbull while girls prefer vitamin water and juice to give themselves supplements. Another key finding is they are quite competitive between each others, and yearn to win. And boys are keen on little tricks in terms of badminton skills, trying to stand out.
Inspiration
School Cafeteria I also went to a cafeteria in a local secondary school during their lunch time, many kids are usually having a soft drink like juice along with the meal. And I have also found that there is no vending machines inside the school. When a stranger like me holding a camera in the school, kids are very curious about who I am and what I am doing.
Inspiration
Corner Shops When interviewing kids individually, the corner shop is the most popular place they would buy their drinks, so I decided to go to the corner shop and see what is happening there. The popularity of corner shop is because of its avalability, they are everywhere. I went to 5 corner shops near two different secondary schools from different regions(Holloway and Isle of Dogs). And the things I have found in common were quite surprising. The variety of bottled water(healthier option) is very limited while the sugary drinks option is enormous, even more than a local supermarket. In addition, the price of sugary beverages is slightly cheaper than the supermarket.
2 Ideation Phase Translate what I have learned
Ideation
Identify Patterns After learned from my audience, I wrote down interesting stories and inspiring patterns I have identified during my research on the post-it notes, and organise them by person.
Ideation
Find Themes In order to find the connection between the information I have collected, I tried to explore the commonalities, differences and relationships between the patterns identified. After several times of group and re-group, I finally found four main themes: Conveniency, Conformity, Value and Incentives.
Conveniency
Value
Conformity
Incentives
Ideation
Extract Key Insights After uncovered four main themes which affecting the choice young people are making, I then transform each theme into an insight statement which could best represent it.
Conveniency
Kids tend to use the Ready Services rather than provide themselves.
Conformity
Drinking sugary drinks are sometimes considered as Social Norm among kids.
Value
Many kids never buy bottled water, as water is considered as Free Resource.
Incentive
Kids consume sugary drink partly because they just want to Treat Themselves.
Ideation
Create Opportunity Areas Based on each insight statements, I then convert them into opportunity areas to inspire possible ideas and solutions using a How Might We question. Each one of them could lead to many solutions which suggests a mindset of possibility.
Conveniency
How Might We create ready services for kids to consume water?
Conformity
How Might We create ways to make water more popular among kids?
Value
How Might We find new ways to facilitate free water consumption?
Incentive
How Might We add incentives to water consumption?
Ideation
Ideas Highlight Using the opportunity areas I have created in the last step, I then come up with many whether practical or unrealistic ideas and choose 3 promising ideas from them. With the prototype on hand I went back to kids, parents and teachers and ask them for feedbacks.
Idea 1: Smart phone application Nowadays smart phones are extremely popular among teenagers in this age. This idea tries to use this platform to make a self record application to let teenagers record the amount of water they consume everyday, with daily tasks, infographics and money have saved for sugary drinks.
Feedback from teenagers: "We can't take out our phones during schools." "This is for someone who want to drink more water, not for me."
Ideation
Idea 2: Home based water reminder Considering kids are not willing to spend money on water, this idea aimed at facilitating the free tap water consumption at home. This product is for parents to purchase for their children. There is a container on the top with float inside indicates the daily amount of water for consumption, and a valve with reminder inside is sitting below.
Feedback from teenagers: “If there is some fizzy pills would fall into the water when half finish it would be fun.” Feedback from parents: “I don’t want to buy more stuff in my kitchen.”
Ideation
Idea 3: Gamifying school water consumption This idea is to bringing gamification to the existing school drinking fountain by add competition and game senario to it, in order to make drinking water more playful and enjoyable among kids. The insight comes from my observation during leisure centre immersion that kids in this age are quite competitive and yearn to win.
Feedback from teenagers: "It looks really fun, I'd like to have a try." "I like the idea of competition." Feedback from teacher: "I like this idea, we also use gamification in our teaching quite a lot, but kids do not care about each class, Boys VS Girls would work better."
Ideation
Create Storyboard The Person Name: Manu Age: 12 Gender: Male Level: Junior Student Characteristics: curious, like new things, competitive
Awareness - He was attracted by arcade music and found there is an arcade game machine inside school. - Heard someone else talking about the arcade fountain game and decided to have a look.
Interaction - Found the arcade and began to check how does it works and then understand the machanism. - Found his team is behind girls team so he decided to contribute his own and start drink water.
Adoption - Frequently come back and check which team is leading and drink water more often. - Tell his friends to join this game to collect more points.
Behaviour Shift While more water is consumed, the amount of sugary drink would drop.
Ideation
Prototyping Considering the suggestion from the secondary school teacher, I develop the drinking fountain game idea into boys VS girls scenario for some iterations.
In order to make the prototype more appealing to teenagers, I also designed a name and identity for the game.
3 Implementation Phase Deliver the solution
Implementation
Live Prototyping To put my idea in the real world context, I need to develop my rapid prototype into live prototype with a 'higher resolusion' which the user could actually engaged in the game. The heart of the Fountain Fighter test model is Arduino parts and the exterior is made of MDF wood board.
Implementation
Test in School I proposed my design to George Green's School in Isle of Dogs, London, and they allow me to run a live prototype in their school to test and gather feedbacks. The test is quiet successful, over the one day test, over 60 teenagers have used the fountain, while the number before in a typical day is less than 20. It can really boost the usage of the fountain. And I also gather lots of feedbacks during the test.
Implementation
Feedbacks The Good Without surprise, kids like it, they are so excited and try to figure out what is this and how to play. And they are convinced by the competition between boys and girls, just like the teacher I interviewed said, they are try to beat each others all the time.
The Bad Some kids at first don't know how does the game work until I explan to them. Some technical details of the prototype have little problems and frastrate kids which need further improvement.
The Unexpected Some kids just drink too much water to win the game, however drink too much water is on the contrary not good for health. Some kids are getting so excited that they don't even see the instruction so they don't know how the game work. Some kids ask me what is it for? They don't understand why there is a competition in drinking water.
Implementation
Future Iterations During the test I found many problems and collected tons of feedbacks towards the live prototype, which need future iterations.
Technical Improvement In terms of technical part, the game needs to intergrate better with the drinking fountain to improve functions such as detect the water consumption and the push button with switch.
Game Scenario Development A well considered game scenario can keep the player's passion and engage more players. Epic meaning and calling would improve the user experience.
Reward Mechanism To keep a long term success in this model, reward mechanism is also critical. I designed Fountain Fighter water bottle and stationeries as reward for the daily/weekly winner.