MASTER THESIS / 2023-2024 / SOLO Project

Preventive Nutrient Tracking and Guidance

This project is a future exploration of how continuous tracking of nutrient values through Raman Spectroscopy at home could help users understand the correlation between their dietary behavior and impact, reducing the number of dietary-related illnesses.

* EMPOWERING the PREVENTIVE HEALTH MOVEMENT THROUGH every-day guidance

In short

* Home device for mineral, vitamin and toxicity testing

A poor diet causes 22% of global deaths

An unhealthy diet is one of the leading risks for the global burden of disease, mainly for noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer.

  • High number of dietary-related illnesses through nutrient deficiencies, high sodium intake, and imbalanced minerals. As well as a rising number of people with pre-depositions for dietary-related illnesses.

    Badly impacting the healthcare system through more illnesses, longer recovery periods, and lack of information for diagnosis.

  • Improving your diet is incredibly challenging and time-consuming, requiring extensive knowledge to make informed and effective decisions.

    • More available food data through a push for food system transparency.

    • Financial support from municipalities to improve dietary education.

    • Advancements in Spectroscopy for Intercellular Nutrient Tracking.

  • Tracking nutrient patterns over time for personalized behavior changes and using long-term nutrient trends in diagnostic data to catch dietary illnesses early for better treatment.

    Utilizing data management tools and AI to calculate, predict and support on a highly personalized level.

    • Increase diagnostic ground through implementing nutrient trends.

    • Visualize how one’s dietary behavior impacts one’s health (Positively and negatively).

    • Offer highly personal suggestions for behavioral changes.

After testing their values with the home device, a new assessment is made for the user. Depending on what nutrients are lacking, a phytonutrient color is assigned to the user as an easy-to-understand "focus color" for the week.

While focusing on Phytonutrients is essentially an easy way to nudge the user to consume more fruits and vegetables from a specific group, it is often not specific enough to cover the whole nutrient needs of the user.

* weekly testing result example
* PERSONALISEd supplements and guidance

“Improving your diet is incredibly challenging and time-consuming, requiring extensive knowledge to make informed and effective decisions.”

Problem Statement

Using gathered data on vitamins and minerals, NORI can suggest highly personalized supplements to ensure a balanced consumption of essential and supportive micronutrients.

Each color in plant foods usually corresponds to certain health benefits, and eating a variety of colors is a practical way to ensure a broad intake of phytonutrients.

Guidance through the digital companion

Phytonutrients, also known as phytochemicals, are natural compounds found in plants that contribute to their color, flavor, and resistance to disease. They are responsible for the wide variety of colors found in plants, which often indicate the presence of specific phytochemicals.

Project Process and Background Information

Method

The Three Horizons Method is a strategic foresight framework used to explore and plan for the future. Its a tool to think systematically about the present, near future, and distant future, and how they influence each other. The method divides the future into three "horizons".

Target User

Users with long-term dietary limitations, such as Pre-deposition, dietary related illnesses as well as Illness, are heavily influenced by diet.

Health-conscious users to improve preventive behavior possibilities Individuals starting from different points may have varying levels of motivation, urgency, and goals when it comes to making dietary.

User Journey

Leveraging food and health data

How is the user experiencing today?

Today, deciding to improve your diet often involves a significant educational journey and often ends in information overload. It requires understanding the impact of food, personal nutritional needs, the quality of ingredients, and the effects of various cooking methods. Additionally, we often have little insight into why a diet is or isn’t working.

Starting a nutritional journey can be time-consuming, exhausting, and complex, demanding considerable self-awareness and a readiness to embrace change, often without immediate rewards. However, it can greatly enhance your quality of life and boost your health.

In the coming decades, food data could be gathered from purchasing data such as groceries or restaurant orders. By combining consumer nutrient data with personal preferences and restrictions, as well as healthcare data like blood test results and doctor recommendations, we could tailor preventive behavioral actions to each person's needs.

For the majority of users, detailed knowledge of all tested values and their history is generally not required. Some users may seek suggestions for groceries or recipes, while others may be interested in learning how various vitamins and minerals impact them. To tailor to each user's needs, the information is organized into four layers. This categorization helps facilitate the integration of recommended behavioural changes into daily life.

* the algorithm learns from you to give tailored suggestions

Translating complicated data

Project goal

Develop a comprehensive dietary guidance system that tracks vitamins, minerals, and toxins for patients and health-conscious consumers, create a blueprint for the necessary infrastructure, and design a solution for non-invasive, accurate home testing with easy interpretation of results for users.

The solution should integrate seamlessly into the routine of the user and become a helpful lifestyle companion.

Layers of information

Mount device on the wall or place on a tabletop
Place your palm on the device surface

Physical component

The technology I am focusing on for Nutrient testing at home is Raman Spectroscopy. Although already in use today, in the next decades the accuracy, reliability, and user-friendliness of Raman technology will advance, making a home testing device more integrated into personal and clinical health management, especially for individuals with specific health conditions or dietary needs.

Wireframing

wait for the testing to be complete
Device goes into standby mode

I am creating wireframes of app journeys as well as base graphics on how to communicate the users tested minerals, vitamins, and toxicity levels. The application will be transitioning between colors depending on the phytonutrient to focus on each week, so the app should be simple and clear to understand even without colors.

How could the user experience be tomorrow? 

Imagine an every day helper, a tool that knows your nutrient values and guides you through the food market. That can help you deduct why you are overly tired and exhausted and to avoid feeling that way. A tool that can let you know about certain risk factors in your diet early on, that can sort the overwhelming amount of information into short understandable messages and suggestions.

To improve the User Experience, I want to create a nutrient testing tool which guides, educates and empowers the user long-term, a preventive health tool.

Final result

I am creating wireframes of app journeys as well as base graphics on how to communicate the users tested minerals, vitamins, and toxicity levels. The application will be transitioning between colors depending on the phytonutrient to focus on each week, so the app should be simple and clear to understand even without colors.