“In a sense we need to view the supermarket as an intervention. If you want to influence behavior and health on a population level, what would that experience need to be?” So asks public health expert Rupal Sanghvi in A Better Way to Fight Obesity: New, Smarter Supermarkets, which contains some fascinating, depressing stats about the current design of many U.S-based food emporia. 

Sanghvi founded the innovation initiative HealthxDesign after she saw data charting the direct correlation between diet-related disease and the location of grocery stores. Her thought is to harness design processes to try out a range of new ideas. And while the concept of “gamification” in a supermarket context might make more jaded observers sigh, she’s asking some interesting questions and this is certainly an area in which smart design might make a real difference.

(Image c/o British supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s.)

1. harpyphoto liked this
2. thoughtyoushouldseethis posted this