Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

VeggiTopA conceptual design by

Kristy Allenby & Marcus Catsouphes

Design ChallengeEncourage vegetable eating business school grad

students to eat more of them over 5 days

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

VeggiTop

Persuasive Purpose Increase graduate business school students’ vegetable

consumption by changing their computers’ desktop background for 5 days

Industrial Design

+ =

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Our Users Are

• Business school grad students who…

• Already like vegetables

• Want to increase consumption of vegetables

• Own personal computers

• Have habits of doing work every day at their desks

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

How it works…

Flexing His Behavior: Every time Matt sees the desktop image during the week, he eats a vegetable from his bowl.

Tracking Behavior: Each night for 5 days, Matt receives a text asking how many extra veggies he ate. He replies back to the text message.

Setting Up the Cue: He sets the photo as his computer’s desktop background.

Increasing Ability: Matt makes sure he has his favorite veggies on hand. He keeps a bowl of his favorite veggie on his desk next to his computer.

Following Up: One week later, Matt receives an email survey asking him some questions about the intervention’s effectiveness

Signing Up: Matt, a grad student, receives an email on Monday morning with a picture attached. The email explains that he should eat a vegetable each time he sees the picture on his desktop for the next 5 days.

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Prototype of VeggiTop

We provide participants a chance to choose the desktop photos they like best. Some examples:

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Features/Functionality

• Participants choose the image they feel will best motivate them, and they set it as their desktop

• Participants place a bowl of vegetables next to their computers, so they are easily accessible

• Progress is reported nightly via text message

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Theoretical Justifications

• Our main research question is to find the simplest behavior that matters. Since these are flex behaviors, we are hypothesizing that a very small cue may encourage the desired result

• This design attempts to “piggy back” an increased vegetable consumption habit on business school students’ extensive daily computer usage

• Because business school students sees their computers’ desktop background multiple times per day, the cue can be repeated a lot

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Results of User Testing

1 2 3 4 5

37.5%

50.0%

62.5%

75.0%

62.5%

Respondents Eating More Veggies

1 2 3 4 5

3.0

1.8 1.8

2.3

1.3

Serving Increase Among Participants

Day # Day#

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Shortcomings of Design

• Unclear if the desktop will become “stale” after the 5 days are up (i.e. was the dip in performance we observed on day 5 indicative of decreasing returns)

• Will users continue eating more veggies after the intervention has completed?

• Sending follow-up emails & tracking participation becomes tiring

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Expansion - What else is possible?

• This project helped us to show…

• A very small behavior change can lead to formation of a new health habit

• The viability of a “low touch” solution that can be easily expanded (e.g. it’s easy to allow many people to download backgrounds)

• Desktop wallpaper might be an overlooked intervention opportunity

Stanford University, Spring 2010CS377v - Creating Health Habitshabits.stanford.edu

Next Steps in Design Process

• Explore ways to automate the “check-in” emails and tracking process

• Identify other health habits that could be motivated using desktop background changes

• Collect longitudinal information to see if participants continued new habits after the intervention ended