Motivating User's Understanding and Reflection on Their CO2 Usage Based on Their Food Consumption
Authors
Andersen, Sigurd Schelde ; Thode, Martin ; Jepsen, Thea Skovgaard
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2022
Submitted on
2022-06-09
Abstract
This project explores how a mobile application can help users understand and reflect on the CO2 emissions from their food consumption to motivate more sustainable choices. We extend the FoodEmissions app, which scans receipts, recognizes many types of meat, vegetables, and fruit (using the Føtex database), and calculates emissions based on Concito’s Den store klimadatabase. To provide meaningful context around numbers, we add several features: an alternatives screen with smiley ratings and recommendations, icons that convert CO2 into transport equivalents, a guessing game, graphs showing weekly and four-week footprints and category breakdowns (e.g., beef, pork, vegetables) including a suggested “optimal” level, default values for missing data, and new categories for meat and meat alternatives. A 4-week field study with 6 participants who used the app after grocery shopping found no improvement in users’ understanding of their total CO2, but improved understanding for individual products. The alternatives feature was most effective in prompting reflection and understanding, with negative smileys more impactful than positive ones. Icons and the game were hard to relate to but could aid understanding over a longer period. Graphs were less useful due to limited product coverage in the database, and default values helped some users but were often inaccurate. Participants who engaged more with the app reflected more and gained better understanding. Overall, contextualization and product-level comparisons appear promising for fostering learning and reflection, while broader data coverage and longer-term use may be needed to affect overall understanding and behavior.
Dette projekt undersøger, hvordan en mobilapplikation kan støtte brugeres forståelse og refleksion over deres CO2-udledning fra madforbrug for at motivere mere bæredygtige valg. Vi videreudvikler appen FoodEmissions, der scanner kvitteringer, genkender mange typer kød, grøntsager og frugt (via Føtex’ database) og beregner udledninger baseret på Den store klimadatabase fra Concito. For at give tal bedre kontekst tilføjes flere funktioner: en side med alternativer og smiley-bedømmelser samt anbefalinger, ikoner der oversætter CO2 til transportækvivalenter, et gættespil, grafer med ugentlig og fireugers forbrug samt kategorier (fx oksekød, svinekød, grønt) inkl. et foreslået “optimalt” niveau, standardværdier for manglende data og nye kategorier for kød og kødalternativer. Et 4-ugers feltstudie med 6 deltagere, der brugte appen efter indkøb, viste, at den overordnede forståelse af egen samlede CO2-udledning ikke forbedredes, mens forståelsen af udledninger for enkelte produkter gjorde. Alternativer-siden var mest effektiv til at fremme refleksion og forståelse, og negative smileys var mere virksomme end positive. Ikoner og spil var svære at relatere til, men kunne hjælpe forståelsen over længere tid. Graferne var mindre nyttige, da databasen kun dækkede få produktkategorier, og standardværdier hjalp nogle, men var ofte upræcise. Deltagere, der brugte appen mest, reflekterede mere og opnåede bedre forståelse. Resultaterne peger på, at kontekstualisering og sammenligninger på vareniveau kan støtte læring og refleksion, mens bredere databasedækning og længere anvendelse kan være nødvendigt for at påvirke overordnet forståelse og adfærd.
[This apstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]