Designing for health: developing a predictive artificial intelligence tool to examine packaging designs of healthy and unhealthy foods at scale
The Team: Dr Georgie Russell, Associate Professor Meghan Kelly, Dr Paul Harrison, Associate Professor Abbas Khosravi, Dr Priscila Machado,
Food packages are not currently designed in ways that make it easy for consumers to identify and select healthier foods. To promote healthier packaged food choices, it is important to consider the design of food packages as a whole, including all the marketing and nutrition elements (images, logos and text), and how these elements are arranged (the design hierarchy). Through the application of artificial intelligence, combined with insights from nutrition science, visual communication design, marketing and food policy, this project aims to develop an urgently needed, rigorous, low resource tool for identifying how food healthy and unhealthy packages are designed, in real-world retail environments.
The team: Dr Georgie Russell (School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition) leads this team. Georgie has expertise in behavioural nutrition including understanding how and why individuals select and consume foods. Associate Professor Meghan Kelly (School of Communication and Creative Arts) has expertise in visual communication design and participatory design practices in both commercial and academic settings. Dr Paul Harrison (Deakin Business School, Department of Marketing) has expertise in examining the effect of marketing and advertising on consumer behaviour and implications for consumers, policy and business.
Associate Professor Abbas Khosravi (Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation) has expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning and their application for healthcare. Dr Priscila Machado (School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition) is a public health nutrition scientist with expertise in nutrition policy, ultra-processed foods and assessing and monitoring food consumption patterns.