Design.

Again, the goal of the device is to encourage thoughtful food choices before consuming food. These simple questions listed below could help people to self-evaluate.

What do I feel?
How hungry am I?
What do I need?

Process

Initial User Flow

The prototype encompasses a range of options that we believe are essential for fostering self-reflection. The output is designed to be diverse, engaging both visual and auditory elements to enhance the experience.

Process

Physical Interface

For the final product's interface design, we went through multiple iterations to achieve a balance between functionality and the physical interaction experience across various buttons.

Iteration 1
The initial version emphasizes an OLED screen for visual output. All input interfaces are integrated into a single rectangular device, with their placement and design prioritized according to the significance of each input.

Input
Food Category (discrete): Slider
Purpose of open fridge (discrete): Rotary Knob
Hunger level (continuous): Slider
Time of Meal (continuous): Encoder
Play & Stop & Unlock: Button

Output
Dietary Story: Speaker
Entertainment lighting: OELD Screen
Servo

User feedback - Iteration 1
Goal: Use the device to self-reflect before picking up the food
Average time used: 1min21s
Frustration:

All of the participants showed a certain level of confusion about the functionality of each button without instructions due to an overwhelming number of input options.
All of the participants found it difficult to distinguish between a full meal and individual food items or lacked the necessary knowledge to analyze or categorize the food they were inputting
2 of 3 are struck at first because they don’t know where to start.
1 of 3 expressed his concern about the excessive size of the device to be attached to a fridge.
1 of 3 felt pressure when inputting the amount of the food she’d like to consume.

Satisfaction:

2 of 3 found the mandatory pause before the fridge would help them set up their mind and push them to craft their food choice.

Iteration 2
According to the user feedback, we switched to the emotion wheel that might impact the user food choice.

Input
Purpose of open fridge (discrete): Hall Effect Sensor + Magnet
Emotion (discrete): Encoder Knob
Hunger level (continuous): Rotary Knob
Time of Meal (continuous): Computer Data
Play/Unlock: Button
History: Button + LED indicator

Output
Dietary Story: Speaker
Servo

User feedback - Iteration 2
Goal: Use the device to self-reflect before pick up the food
Averge time used: 0:34
Frustration:

All of the partipants are confused between the long-term goal and short-term goal of eating
All of the partipants are unsure about the importance of each button.

Satisfaction:

All of the partipants expressed satisfaction towards the simplifed interface and minimized button number.
All of the partipants loved the design of the emotion wheel, which displayed emotions within metrics while keeping the other options hidden.

Final Design
Updated User Flow
The new user flow simplified the choices user need to consider and automate the process of locking. For the output result, inspired by the poetic simplicity of Haiku, our product transforms these reflections into personalized, thoughtful verses.

The Power of Artifical Intelligent
For transforming the user input into the poetic haiku, we design our LLM prompts in code.

Physical Interface

The final design refines the previous one-box layout by dividing it into two rectangular sections, creating a natural gap that allows the servo to control the unlocking mechanism more efficiently.

To enhance usability, the system limits users to three key data input categories. This reduction simplifies the learning curve and minimizes interaction time while still ensuring users can self-evaluate.

What do I feel? - Emotion Wheel
How hungry am I? - Hunger level
What do I need? - Long/Short Term Goal of Eating

Blueprint
The following blueprint showcase the hardware layout inside the compact box.