Design for Behaviour Change: Cooking towards a better future

Abstract

Design for behaviour change is an area that is gathering much attention these days in the design field. Its momentum probably spurred by decline in different areas seen around us. This is probably why there are uprisings of movements that attempt to move us away from current scenarios. We cannot really quantify the state of cooking behaviour due to its complex composition; but with the presence of food movements and their growing exertive pressures around the world, one cannot help but respond with some proposal to not only aid the situation but on a reflective level, realise that there is something to protect and maintain. Cooking behaviour is my response to part of these provocations; and because it deals with an individual on such a personal level, it can perhaps put the control back into our hands, the way we handle food choices with everyday situations. The exploration of this thesis therefore tackles cooking behaviour headlong, seeing that a comprehensive understanding of this construct will allow one to address behaviour holistically and ultimately inculcatively. For when the behaviour has been inculcated, external forces will hopefully lose its power and supportive forces can be activated because the individual has been primed. To reach this destination, the understanding of cooking behaviour is run through an iterative design-research process to form a draft framework of cooking behaviour. This research process synthesises existing information on cooking behaviour with behaviour theory concepts to really address the core of the activity. User studies are contextual avenues to evaluate and update the generated information. Behaviour change concepts come in on an explorative level to evaluate the outcomes of this process and steer the iterative cycle in potential directions to solidify the framework. Essentially, we not only get an understanding of cooking behaviour at the end of this thesis but also a point of departure regarding the handling of behaviour change. All this in hope that the outcomes can be an inspiring and acute guide for behaviour changing design in the area of cooking and then food.