Build: Redesigning fast food for young children
Eliz Ayaydin, Vidhi Goel, & Miguel Olivares
Build is a new restaurant that reimagines fast food for children between the ages of 1 and 5. This 14-week exploration focused on deeply researching fast food for young children and integrating research findings into a design solution using Ideo’s design thinking process. The research culminated into a concept proposal to design a fast food restaurant.
Using Ideo’s research process, the project began with interviewing experts and parents with young children. The 7 interviews were conducted with a variety of people, ranging from nutritionists, healthy eating specialists, parents who take their children to fast food restaurants, and parents who do not. These interviews and user observations informed 5 key insights about children’s relationships with food.
After synthesizing the insights, the research was brought to life with physical prototypes. Prototype tests were conducted via intercept interviews. These answered lingering questions and further refined insights. Our most informative insight was that kids make spontaneous decisions about what foods they don’t like, but parents often interpret these one-time decisions as dietary law.
The final concept answers the question of not only how to get kids to like healthy food but also how to encourage parents to let kids try it. The solution is to create a fast food restaurant that serves only healthy food. This concept revolves around making nutrition simple and fun.