Application smartphone

WP1 – Developing a smartphone application

The first work package focuses on the design and development of a digital experimental platform to collect information on food behaviours, both purchase and consumption, and implement interventions in real-life settings. The ultimate objective is to turn a smartphone application into a fully-fledged experimental platform, i.e. allowing researchers to set up an experimental campaign all in one place, from recruiting participants to archiving data. Anticipating the consortium's possible suggestions and ignoring the technical feasibility, here are some of the features that the application could provide:

• Registration platform. By connecting to the application from the web or downloading it from a store, volunteers would be able to browse and sign up for upcoming experimental campaigns. Dedicated pre-experimental questionnaires would allow for stratified sampling by filtering participants according to their characteristics. Once enrolled, the smartphone application will provide participants with the necessary instructions and notifications for the smooth conduct of the experiment. Recruitment can also be done outside the app in order to target specific populations.
• Observation platform. The application will collect new/fine-grained information on the food behaviour of consumers in real-life situations, whether in markets for shopping or at home for cooking and eating. A wide range of multi-dimensional information may be collected: nature of the items purchased/consumed and their characteristics (prices, quantities, nutritional and environmental qualities, claims, etc.), dates, purchase/consumption contexts, cooking modes, etc. The application will also enable to supplement the data with individual information on perceptions, beliefs and motivations.
• User-friendly interface. Filling in standard nutrition questionnaires is often tedious for participants. High efforts are often required to maintain a high level of commitment from participants and thus ensure the quality of the data collected. This is why the application will need to make it as easy as possible for consumers to enter the data. For example, the application could include barcode scanning, receipt uploading, vocal acquisition, etc. Existing AI-based technologies will be integrated where possible (photo identification of dishes, tag recognition in shelves, etc.). To ensure the usability of the application, it will be developed involving consumers from the design stage and incorporating gamification concepts.
• Indicator calculator. The application will be able to evaluate in real time the quality of individual food decisions on the different dimensions of food sustainability (nutrition, environment, processing, taste, price, etc.). These indicators can be reported back to consumers aggregated at different levels (food/meal/basket/diet).
• Social platform. The application will include an interactive forum that will allow participants to exchange information or communicate in a social network-like way. This feature will allow to measure the impact of social norms on food behaviour.
• Trial platform. The application will enable researchers to conduct Random Controlled Trials. That is, the application will automatically assign participants to different treatments so that the impact of different actions on homogeneous populations can be compared, all other things being equal. Standard post-trial questionnaires (e.g. socio-demographics, FFQ, FCQ) will also be included.
• Intervention platform. The application will provide support for interventions (e.g. individual diet information, dietary recommendations, information on product characteristics and qualities) and evaluate how and to what extent the provision of this information affects individuals’ perceptions, beliefs, motivations and food choices and consumption within and between moments of consumption.
• Compensation platform. In most experiments, volunteers receive monetary compensation for their participation. The application will technically allow participants to be paid directly by bank transfer, but the use of this feature will not be mandatory.

The project is organised in three stages. The first stage is the design phase which will bring together experts from different scientific disciplines (consumer sciences, economics, psychology, sensory evaluation, etc.). Operating as a think tank, the objective of this stage is to determine the app specifications so that the platform is functional to largely meet the needs of scientists and to enable innovative research questions to be addressed. The second stage is the development phase. In collaboration between scientists and computer scientists, this stage provides for the technical realisation of the envisioned specifications. The last stage is the proof of concept phase. Several pilot studies will be launched as the application evolves in different use cases. The aim is to confront the platform with the reality of conducting experiments and, ultimately, to correct any bugs and improve the experience of users, whether they are participants or researchers.

WP1 will build on the existing experience of the consortium. In particular, the smartphone applications developed by CSGA and GAEL could be used as a basis to build the foodXPtools application. But rather than only meeting a specific need for a particular research project, the foodXPtools app is intended to become a tool that can be used by a large scientific community dedicated to consumer behaviour. The ultimate objective is to build and open, generic, configurable and scalable platform.