The food waste habit tracker
Interested in building good habits around food waste?
This tracker was developed as part of my doctorate studies on how vernacular visualisations (data visualisations designed by non-experts) can influence and help build long-term sustainable habits around the reduction of household food waste. The results of the study showed the potential of this playful method in changing behaviours through physical, social, affective and intellectual means.
If you and your family would like to give this a go, you can download the template here. This is best printed on an A4 sheet of paper or thick card. Sit down with your family to decide on how you want to represent the behaviours you do everyday — it can be as simple or complicated as you like. You can draw, use stickers or any other material of your choosing. For inspiration, see the images above; these were done by non-designers of all ages who were able to form new habits doing this exercise! Mount on your fridge door with magnets or place in a prominent area in your kitchen. Ideally, this would be done for a period of 9 weeks, broken down into 3-week blocks. You can select a different method of visualising your behaviour to keep it interesting! However, if you think you’re already forming good habits in the first 3 to 6 weeks, you can leave it there. This is best done as a collective exercise with all members of the household so you can help remind each other to do a food-saving behaviour or to fill in the tracker.
Do send through a photo of your tracker and feel free to send some feedback on how you went on hello@studioregina.work. I’d love to hear from you!