HealKitchen - a persuasive, artificial intelligence driven, mobile application to influence healthy dietary habits
department or school: Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Sowande, Iyanuoluwa
issued: 2025-08-21T22:27:41Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Unhealthy dietary habits remain a global concern, particularly among individuals managing health conditions. While many mobile nutrition applications exist, they often emphasize calorie counting or weight loss, overlook personalization, and lack a foundation in behavioral change theories. This research presents HealKitchen, a persuasive mobile application that aims to support healthier dietary behaviors by leveraging behavioral science, artificial intelligence, and user-centered design. This research addresses five main objectives: the development of a mobile health app that aims to influence healthier dietary choices, the implementation of behavioral theories into the mobile application, the implementation of a recommendation system that delivers personalized nutritional guidance, the development and evaluation of an object detection model capable of identifying grocery items, and the assessment of the mobile application's usability, perceived usefulness, and engagement. HealKitchen integrates a range of personalized features, including a recipe recommendation system adapted to user health requirements, a recipe curation engine, and an image recognition model that identifies grocery items and provides nutritional information. The application design also draws on five foundational behavior change theories, operationalized into persuasive features that nudge users toward healthier choices. To evaluate the application, a mixed-methods user study involving 20 participants was conducted. Quantitative survey data revealed a high level of usability (mean = 4.6), perceived usefulness (mean = 4.45), and aesthetics (mean = 4.49). Thematic analysis of qualitative feedback highlighted the need for recipe diversity, improved multimedia support, and additional features, informing iterative design enhancements. This research demonstrates the feasibility of building a persuasive and theory-driven mobile health application for personalized nutrition support.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/92016
note: HealKitchen - A Persuasive, ArtificialIntelligence Driven, MobileApplication to Influence HealthyDietary HabitsbyIyanuoluwa SowandeA THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMASTER OF SCIENCEinThe College of Graduate Studies(Computer Science)THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA(Okanagan)August 2025© Iyanuoluwa Sowande, 2025The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommendto the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled:HealKitchen - A Persuasive, Artificial Intelligence Driven,Mobile Application to Influence Healthy Dietary Habitssubmitted by Iyanuoluwa Sowande in partial fulfilment of the require-ments of the degree of Master of ScienceDr. Ifeoma Adaji, Irving K. Barber Faculty of ScienceSupervisorDr. Gema Rodr´ıguez-Pe´rez, Irving K. Barber Faculty of ScienceSupervisory Committee MemberDr. Abdul-Fatawu Abdulai, The University of British Columbia (Vancouver)Supervisory Committee MemberDr. Nicolas Peleato, School of EngineeringUniversity ExamineriiAbstractUnhealthy dietary habits remain a global concern, particularly amongindividuals managing health conditions. While many mobile nutrition appli-cations exist, they often emphasize calorie counting or weight loss, overlookpersonalization, and lack a foundation in behavioral change theories. Thisresearch presents HealKitchen, a persuasive mobile application that aims tosupport healthier dietary behaviors by leveraging behavioral science, artifi-cial intelligence, and user-centered design.This research addresses five main objectives: the development of a mobilehealth app that aims to influence healthier dietary choices, the implementa-tion of behavioral theories into the mobile application, the implementationof a recommendation system that delivers personalized nutritional guidance,the development and evaluation of an object detection model capable ofidentifying grocery items, and the assessment of the mobile application’susability, perceived useful…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0449823
language: eng
degree discipline: Computer Science
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Adaji, Ifeoma
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/92016