Research shows that the excessive consumption of sugar is one of the primary factors leading to obesity and health problems in America.
One of the most significant sources of added sugars in American diets is breakfast cereal. The aim of this project is to explore the potential of a smartphone app to educate and mitigate the confusion caused by food labels on cereal boxes at grocery stores. This project aims to help American consumers make healthier choices by laying the groundwork for a new app that will help consumers make sensible decisions when choosing breakfast cereals. The app will provide the visual framework for providing key information on the nutritional and sugar content of common breakfast cereals, as well as make recommendations for alternative cereals that are lower in sugar. Specifically, in the project I designed a set of example screen displays of a smartphone app that provides real-time shopping assistance to compare products and receive a recommendation based on the sugar content. I conducted a literature review of the health impacts of added sugars and the marketing techniques utilized in selling breakfast cereals. This smartphone app will positively influence consumer choices at grocery stores by providing nutrition information relevant to cereals and mitigate the confusion caused by complex nutrition labels. If successful with cereals, later versions of the app can include additional food products.