Since this semester begins, I have been working on researching the problem area of mental health and worrying if I should keep exploring this direction. Last week, however, a role-play/storyboard exercise shifted my focus a little and let me try out different topics. So I made my first pitch presentation based on the idea of HMW better tracking our nutrient intake. Click here to take a look at my Thesis Pitch #1 on 10/7/2021. The following is snapshots of the problem and solution in this pitch.

Here are some key objectives that I got from an in-class discussion:
> Effortless
> Accurate 
>Motivation
>Affordable
>Routine/ lifestyle changing

Top: objective exercise Bottom: two sketches from Cyan

Some comment I got from my two peer designers in class Cyan and Wenxiao:
> Focus on a more specific group, or serve for mainstream users?
> Weekly plan is seems too strict for most of the people
> Gaining weight is harder than losing weight, I think.
> If it allows people go out and also have a health diet, that would be good.
> What if a you can have a way for getting enough nutrients in food as convenient as taking a vitamin pill. And then it can be as customized as you said about delivering ingredients.
> Make it easier to set up a health diet. Many people take vitamins because they don't want to spend time on cooking or looking up healthy ingredients. Eating is about what people want to eat and what they don't like to eat (I don't eat carrots, for example), and a nice glass of juice may be more acceptable. Drinking, on the other hand, is more acceptable to users than eating, and is integrated into their daily eating habits, and does not require a specific time (eating needs). It's also easier to do it anytime, anywhere.I think the nutritionist is good.
> Because when it comes to health and nutrition, there should be someone providing professional support. If we want to take it further, maybe we can look at how dietitians measure people's nutritional status? And finding incentives for people to keep taking supplements: they feel better, their body scores are higher...
> Easily integrated into everyday life would be good
> Health detection method?

Some interesting sketches from the class

> A restaurant recommendation app that using AR to give suggestion
> An app that help set up health big friends gathering
> A ubereats feature/membership that recommend side dish for balancing nutrition purpose
> An app using AR to analyze nutrition, make predications, and generate advice on good meal 

Key questions that need to keep in mind:

> Who are the targeted audience? Are they international students/ young adults/parents?
> For people who want to have healthy diet but feel like taking too much effort to make the first step
→ HMW help them choose the best-matched diet?
→ will social media impact on lifestyle changing help anything for my project?
→ there’s a gap between awareness and taking actions

Next Step

• Iterate on pitch presentation
• Keep research more for defining problem area

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