Eco-feedback Visualization for Closing the Gap of Organic Food Consumption

This paper presents the results of EcoPanel, an eco-feedback visualization created in collaboration with a Swedish food retailer. The visualization uses automatic data gathering to provide consumers with detailed information and long-term trends about their organic food consumption. The results from a five months test with 65 users show an increase in organic purchases compared to the control group, especially for the users who overestimated their percentage of organic food before the test. From the results we point out the possibilities of using visualization as a way of creating insight on behaviors such as food consumption, that are difficult to grasp from individual actions. This insight can be a way of closing the gap between attitudes and actual behavior, helping users that are already aware and willing to change, to perform more sustainable.

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