If you don't actually know what's wrong with you or that a food is causing problems, how can you change it? If you're unaware that you're destroying your health, then what can be done? How do people become aware of health issues related to their diet, that they didn’t know existed?
These three questions are the crux of what my research is trying to explore.
Hi everyone,
A little shy of two weeks ago, I posted a survey in r/foodscience originally titled “How Health Education Impacts Dietary Choices” which I later changed to “How people’s perception of health information influences dietary choices” for better clarity and was immediately met with pushback. Some commenters thought I was implying causation. Even after clarifying the purpose of my discovery-phase UX research, the post was removed and the misunderstanding was not fully cleared. I wanted to invite discussion on the nuances of UX research in the context of health and food science.
Background:
My research explores how people perceive and act on personalized health information. The inspiration came from my grandmother and myself noticing how certain foods affected our bodies, such as aches or sluggishness, and realizing that people often do not fully understand how the foods they eat interact with their health. The “How” in the title was purely observational and did not imply causation.
Research purpose:
- Understand where people get health information
- Learn how people perceive and use health information
- Learn how they perceive the effects of foods on their body
- Identify pain points and benefits of existing health apps
- Collect behaviors and habits around diet and health
The goal is not to prove that knowledge alone improves health. Instead, I am conducting discovery-phase UX research, focused on understanding behaviors and perceptions. Insights from this survey will inform user personas and stories, which are used to design a product tailored to real user needs.
Example of personalized feedback:
Someone with hypertension may not realize their favorite sauce contains high sodium. Personalized insights like this can influence choices, but this is observational, not causal. I do not explicitly say: “use my app and your health will improve!”.
Nudging and personalized feedback:
There is something called nudging, which behavioral research has proven to be effective for some people. I am emphasizing that it is not just information alone, it is personalized, immediate feedback that outputs health facts and frames them so someone can understand how specific foods impact their health. The survey is intentionally designed to be open-ended and observational, to hear other people’s perspectives rather than inserting my own. This is to help mitigate bias.
Why this matters:
- While knowledge alone is limited, habits, preferences, and other psychological factors do matter
- Personalized, actionable feedback (nudges) can influence behaviors for some people
- UX research helps us understand how people perceive, interpret, and act on information before building features
Discovery-phase approach:
I am collecting data on:
- Health app usage
- Dietary awareness and choices
- Lifestyle habits and health conditions
- Pain points with current apps
- User perceptions of how food affects them
I would love some feedback: Are there nuances I am missing in how UX research intersects with health behavior? Could my approach be improved to better understand behavior?
Thanks for taking the time to read.
Feel free to take the survey here: https://5qk8bersmqc.typeform.com/to/KLOcu5CV
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