The Food Challenge

In Sweden 25% of purchased food is thrown away. If people only bought the food they needed and ate the food they bought the amount of food waste would undoubtedly sink. This project looks at what role design can play in changing people’s consumption behaviour. The focus of are skills and knowledge on how to treat food. Three skill domains were defined as food management, storage knowledge, and the art of cooking. In the course of the project “food skills“ was defined more narrow as insights into one’s own routine behaviour.
The final concept is the service ‘The Food Challenge’ that is a collection of tasks that are meant to engage people in doing things differently. ‘The Food Challenge’ does not tell people how they should behave to lower waste. Instead, it triggers them to reflect on their daily routines and offers inspiration to try out new things.
The Iphone application holds a collection of challenges that are all fun and vary in how much time and effort one needs to do them. People are encouraged to do challenges with their friends and exchange their experiences via the website. Doing something different on your own is difficult. Doing something different with your friends makes most people feel proud.

Pauline Spengemann
C. Bakker, A. De Jong
master thesis, August 2011