Post on 14-Jul-2015
Simplifying Mobile Phone
Food Diaries
Design and Evaluation of a Food Index-Based Nutrition Diary
Adrienne Andrew, Gaetano Borriello, James FogartyDUB Group
Computer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Washington
Target Users: Healthy Adults
● Not trying to:
– Lose weight
– Control diabetes
– Treat hypertension
● Disease prevention, not treatment
● Medium level of motivation
– Interested in high-level monitoring of
food intake
Design Goals
● Flexibility
– Different people have different goals
● Reduce database interaction
● Combine a lightweight, overview and detailed, database approach
● Nutritionally rigorous
Healthy Eating Index (HEI-
2005)● A way of “grading” a diet of a
population
● 12 components
– 8 food groups
– 4 nutrients
● Attainment vs. Moderation
● Reflects USDA Dietary Guidelines
Evaluating the use of Food Diaries
In Lab
● Define foods for users to enter
● Can compare user actions to “ground truth”
● Con: Food might not be familiar
In situ
● More realistic
● Food familiarity
● Con: Researchers are unable to evaluate how correct the records are
24 participants in the lab
22 participants continued in the field (3 weeks)
Research Goals
● How do participants use POND in the lab?
● How do participants think they will use POND in situ?
● Eventually:
– How does use in the lab compare to
use in situ?
Procedure
● Participants shown a card with a food task
● Asked to “enter the food as they felt comfortable”
– As completely and
correctly as possible.
● 20 tasks
● 4 conditions
B3
Plain Bagel, Enriched, Toasted1 item(s) (3.5 in. diameter)
Cream Cheese4 tablespoon(s)
STARBUCKS Tall Nonfat Caffe Latte12 fluid ounce(s)
Result: Entry Strategy
● For each task:
– Counted the number of foods entered
via +1 or lookup
– Characterized it as:
• +1 Only: Each food in the task was
entered with +1 buttons.
• Lookup Only: Each food in the task was
looked up in the database.
• Mixed: Some foods entered with +1,
some looked up in the database.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Nu
mb
er
of
Task
s
Participant
Strategy for task entry Lookup Only
Mixed
+1 Only
Result: Entry Strategy
10 people used an overview strategy
9 people used an opportunistic strategy
5 people used a primarily detailed lookup strategy
Result: Search Terms
Search Term Number of Uses
Doritos 11
Baking chocolate 10
Egg 9
Wheat thins 9
Fiber one 9
Pepperoni 9
Starbucks 8
Mashed potatoes 8
Wheat crackers 8
Don miguel 8
Le gout 8
Salad 8
Milk 8
Conclusion
● We built a food diary that combined an overview and detail approach to nutrition tracking.
– Many people find traditional database-
driven food diaries too difficult to sustain.
– Users took advantage of the flexibility.
● Participants suggested how they would use POND in situ.
– In future work, we analyze and report how
they actually used it.