Understanding Foundational Japanese Food Habits and Decision-Making on Meals

A design company from the U.S. was working on a food search related app for one of their giant tech clients. In order to create a consumer-centric app, our client was looking for consumer insights to inform the content, features and design. The research explored common food and eating habits across generations and their decision-making process on the meal plan.
Our Work
- Conducted a 4-day online diary, documenting their meals on weekdays and weekends, habits around eating out/take-out/delivery and homecooked meals, their behaviour related to app usages to search for restaurants and making bookings
- Followed by 6x 3-hour ethnographic interviews to gain a deeper understanding about their eating habits, especially when it comes to dining out, take out food, and ordering food
- The last round considered 1-hour interviews with only selected participants to test some concepts and mock-ups of the app
The Outcome
- From the comprehensive research, the clients were able to gain fruitful insights about the cultural differences and values that are influencing eating habits and food choices
- The findings informed the localization of the app content, navigation structure and features

“It was very interesting to witness the Japanese food habit and understand the Japanese culture.”
– Client Voice