(4B) Publix: Rethinking the User Experience

Portfolio

Will Garcia

Portfolio

Colin Phillips

Nutrition Shelves

Aslyn Mattson

Nutrition Shelves are a type of a modular, mobile shelving that stores items from a particular food group in proportional, color-coded boxes. The size of each box component of the shelf directly relates to the amount of that food group that should be included at every meal. In our design, we based the nutrition aspects off of the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate, which includes a large portion for vegetables, medium sized amounts for protein and whole wheat, and smaller portions for fruits, oils, and sweets. In our shelves, we sought to present healthy nutrition in a visual way that, for grocery stores, would have two-fold benefits, allowing storage and appealing product presentation. As far as precedents go, we drew from Bento boxes for their minimalistic design and ability to store foods in particular portion sizes. Due to extenuating circumstances, our first iteration ended up being our ultimate product. Additionally, we were unable to create and finalize our mechanism for moving the shelves- in the future, we would like to install our locking device to help secure the shelves in place and allow desired movement. Our final Nutrition Shelves is a scaled model of what could either be full sized grocery shelves (approximately 2 meters in height) or smaller storage units that would belong in the consumer’s home to help guide meal preparation and install healthier eating habits. Overall, we aim to rethink the user experience at Publix by demonstrating how shelf design and the way we present and store food can be used to reflect nutrition guidelines for the consumer.