JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Smartphone apps can aid consumers in making healthier and more sustainable food purchases. However, there is still limited understanding of the different app design approaches and how they might impact food purchase choices. An overview of existing food purchase choice (FPC) apps, and an understanding of common challenges, can help speed up effective future developments.

Objective:

We scope the academic literature on FPC apps and provide an overview of a) design characteristics, and b) opportunities and challenges for effective implementation. Thus, we contribute to an understanding of how the technologies can effectively improve FPC behavior and recommendations for future design efforts.

Methods:

Following the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR), we consider peer-reviewed literature on FPC apps within IEEE Explore, Pubmed, Scopus, and Science Direct. We inductively coded and summarized design characteristics. Opportunities and challenges were addressed from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. From the quantitative perspective, we coded and summarized outcomes from comparative evaluation trials. For a qualitative perspective, we performed a qualitative content analysis of commonly discussed opportunities and challenges.

Results:

We retrieved 55 articles and identified 46 unique apps and grouped them into five distinct app types (ATs). Each AT supports a specific stage of the purchase choice and shares a common functional design. Most apps support the stage of product selection (Selection Apps; ~60%), commonly by scanning the barcode and displaying a nutritional rating. Eight out of 12 evaluation trials report significant findings and indicate the potential for FPC apps to support behavior change. However, relatively few evaluations covered selection app type and these studies showed mixed results. We found that a common opportunity is found in apps contributing to learning (knowledge gain), while infrequent engagement presents a common challenge. The latter was associated with a perceived burden of use, trust, and performance, as well as with learning. Also common were technical challenges in establishing comprehensive product information databases or achieving performance accuracy with advanced identification methods like image recognition.

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that designs of FPC apps do not encourage repeated use and long-term adoption, compromising the effectiveness of behavior change through nudging. However, we find that smartphone apps can enhance learning, which plays an important role in behavior change. Compared to nudging as a mechanism for behavior change, this mechanism is less dependent on continued use. We argue that designs that optimize for learning within each interaction will have a better chance of achieving behavior change. This review concludes with design recommendations, suggesting FPC app designers a) anticipate the possibility of early abandonment as part of their design process and b) design apps that optimize the learning experience.