Brown Jacqueline Marie, Savaglio Robert, Watson Graham, Kaplansky Allison, LeSage Ann, Hughes Janette, Kapralos Bill, Arcand JoAnne
Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON, Canada.
Faculty of Business & Information Technology, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON, Canada.
JMIR Form Res. 2020 Apr 17;4(4):e15534. doi: 10.2196/15534.
Early nutrition interventions to improve food knowledge and skills are critical in enhancing the diet quality of children and reducing the lifelong risk of chronic disease. Despite the rise of mobile health (mHealth) apps and their known effectiveness for improving health behaviors, few evidence-based apps exist to help engage children in learning about nutrition and healthy eating.
This study aimed to describe the iterative development and user testing of Foodbot Factory, a novel nutrition education gamified app for children to use at home or in the classroom and to present data from user testing experiments conducted to evaluate the app.
An interdisciplinary team of experts in nutrition, education (pedagogy), and game design led to the creation of Foodbot Factory. First, a literature review and an environmental scan of the app marketplace were conducted, and stakeholders were consulted to define the key objectives and content of Foodbot Factory. Dietitian and teacher stakeholders identified priority age groups and learning objectives. Using a quasi-experimental mixed method design guided by the Iterative Convergent Design for Mobile Health Usability Testing approach, five app user testing sessions were conducted among students (ages 9-12 years). During gameplay, engagement and usability were assessed via direct observations with a semistructured form. After gameplay, qualitative interviews and questionnaires were used to assess user satisfaction, engagement, usability, and knowledge gained.
The environmental scan data revealed that few evidence-based nutrition education apps existed for children. A literature search identified key nutrients of concern for Canadian children and techniques that could be incorporated into the app to engage users in learning. Foodbot Factory included characters (2 scientists and Foodbots) who initiate fun and engaging dialogue and challenges (minigames), with storylines incorporating healthy eating messages that align with the established learning objectives. A total of five modules were developed: drinks, vegetables and fruit, grain foods, animal protein foods, and plant protein foods. Seven behavior change techniques and three unique gamified components were integrated into the app. Data from each user testing session were used to inform and optimize the next app iteration. The final user testing session demonstrated that participants agreed that they wanted to play Foodbot Factory again (12/17, 71%), that the app is easy to use (12/17, 71%) and fun (14/17, 88%), and that the app goals were clearly presented (15/17, 94%).
Foodbot Factory is an engaging and educational mHealth intervention for the Canadian public that is grounded in evidence and developed by an interdisciplinary team of experts. The use of an iterative development approach is a demonstrated method to improve engagement, satisfaction, and usability with each iteration. Children find Foodbot Factory to be fun and easy to use, and can engage children in learning about nutrition.
早期营养干预以提高食品知识和技能对于改善儿童饮食质量以及降低慢性病的终生风险至关重要。尽管移动健康（mHealth）应用程序不断兴起，且已知其在改善健康行为方面具有有效性，但几乎没有基于证据的应用程序可帮助儿童参与营养和健康饮食的学习。
本研究旨在描述Foodbot Factory的迭代开发和用户测试情况，Foodbot Factory是一款新颖的营养教育游戏化应用程序，供儿童在家中或课堂上使用，并展示为评估该应用程序而进行的用户测试实验的数据。
由营养、教育（教学法）和游戏设计方面的专家组成的跨学科团队开发了Foodbot Factory。首先，进行了文献综述和应用程序市场的环境扫描，并咨询了利益相关者以确定Foodbot Factory的关键目标和内容。营养师和教师利益相关者确定了优先年龄组和学习目标。采用以移动健康可用性测试的迭代收敛设计方法为指导的准实验混合方法设计，在学生（9至12岁）中进行了五次应用程序用户测试。在游戏过程中，通过使用半结构化表格进行直接观察来评估参与度和可用性。游戏结束后，通过定性访谈和问卷调查来评估用户满意度、参与度、可用性以及获得的知识。
环境扫描数据显示，针对儿童的基于证据的营养教育应用程序很少。文献检索确定了加拿大儿童关注的关键营养素以及可纳入应用程序以吸引用户学习的技术。Foodbot Factory包含角色（2名科学家和Foodbots），他们发起有趣且引人入胜的对话和挑战（小游戏），故事情节融入了与既定学习目标一致的健康饮食信息。总共开发了五个模块：饮料、蔬菜和水果、谷物食品、动物蛋白食品和植物蛋白食品。七种行为改变技术和三个独特的游戏化组件被整合到应用程序中。每次用户测试的数据都用于为下一次应用程序迭代提供信息并进行优化。最后一次用户测试表明，参与者一致表示他们想再次玩Foodbot Factory（12/17，71%），该应用程序易于使用（12/17，71%）且有趣（14/17，88%），并且应用程序目标清晰呈现（15/17，94%）。
Foodbot Factory是一项面向加拿大公众的引人入胜且具有教育意义的移动健康干预措施，以证据为基础，由跨学科专家团队开发。使用迭代开发方法是一种经证实的方法，可在每次迭代中提高参与度、满意度和可用性。儿童发现Foodbot Factory既有趣又易于使用，并且可以让儿童参与营养学习。
