Promoting Healthy Eating Through Packaging Design

The imbalance of excess intake of high energy density foods and inadequate intake of nutrient dense foods contributes to the prevalence of obesity and other nutrition related non-communicable diseases worldwide. The ongoing challenges in maintaining a healthy diet demonstrate the need to foster a supportive environment for healthy eating. Beyond a marketing vehicle, food packaging has gradually evolved into a communication tool. The impact of food packaging on consumer intake is evidence-based. Designers can provide a supportive food environment for consumers through packaging design. Despite the known impact of packaging features on consumption there remains a notable gap in addressing the support for designers grappling with this emerging design domain. Thus, the aim of this research was to explore the role that packaging could play in promoting healthy eating and provide necessary support to designers.

Through a systematic review of related experimental research, a comprehensive understanding of packaging attributes and their impacts on food intake has been established. A photo-elicitation approach combined with semi-structured interview was applied to gain insights from consumers themselves, to understand what they notice, the ways in which packaging affects portion choices and their values when making purchasing decisions. The needs of designers in practice were identified through one-to-one interviews with designers using a packaging design task.

The findings from these studies have been integrated into the initial support materials (design tool version 1) for designers consisting of information and inspirations. Concentrated background knowledge, like food energy density and portion size, was included to build understanding. Experiential data and findings of the intake effect of packaging attributes were visualised in digital cards. Consumer insights and experiences on interaction with packaging were summarised. Five main aspects of design strategies integrating the Theory of Reasoned Action, Persuasive Technology and Health Belief Model were proposed. Some design examples from other designers have also been provided. The design tool has then been developed and improved through a series of studies with student designers. Feedback from designers was analysed and applied to the improvement of the tool into design version 2. The design tool version 3 was developed into a web-based prototype and evaluated with professional designers to demonstrate its value in providing support to designers.

This research concludes with a reflection on the application of packaging design for behaviour change as well as the integration of social psychology theories and design, supportive design tool development and evaluation of the potential benefits and scenarios of the design tool application. Further research implications have been highlighted including: the improvements in the presentation and expected functions of the web-type design tool, the impact of more packaging design elements, the evaluation of packaging design concept with consumers. Overall, this thesis contributes to the evidence-base of how packaging design can inform consumer choice and support healthy eating.