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Published on: March 19, 2021
The Design of a Mobile Portion Size Estimation Interface for a Low Literacy Population
Beenish Chaudry1, Kay Connelly, Katie A Siek
1Department of Computer Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana USA.
Summary
Estimating food portion sizes is crucial for healthy eating, but challenging for low-literacy individuals. New mobile interfaces show promise for liquid and amorphous foods, but require improvement for solid foods.
Area of Science:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Nutritional Science
- Health Informatics
Background:
- Accurate portion size estimation is vital for dietary monitoring and healthy eating.
- Existing nutritional monitoring applications often lack accessibility for low-literacy populations.
- Cognitive strategies used in diet recall studies inform the design of portion size estimation tools.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and evaluate novel portion size estimation interfaces for mobile applications.
- To assess the usability and accuracy of these interfaces with individuals of varying literacy levels.
- To identify design principles for low-literacy accessible portion size estimation tools.
Main Methods:
- A Wizard of Oz based experiment was conducted using low-fidelity prototypes.
- Ten participants with varying literacy levels evaluated six different portion size estimation interfaces.
- Interfaces were designed based on cognitive strategies for portion size estimation in diet recall.
Main Results:
- Participants demonstrated accurate portion size estimates for interfaces designed for liquid and amorphous foods.
- Difficulties were encountered with interfaces designed for estimating solid food portion sizes.
- The study highlights specific challenges related to solid food estimation.
Conclusions:
- Mobile interfaces can be designed to aid portion size estimation for low-literacy individuals.
- Design modifications are needed to improve accuracy for solid food estimation.
- Recommendations are provided for developing accessible and effective mobile nutrition monitoring tools.
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