Designing a product to enhance the experience of eating alone. An approach to enhance the solitary eating experience through design

Commensality, the act of eating together, is often seen as having many benefits while eating alone is frequently associated with adverse effects on a person. However, the increased number of people eating alone poses the question of how their solo eating experience could be improved. This paper describes the process of designing a product to enhance the eating experience of solo diners by considering their needs and requirements. A human-centred design approach aided in understanding the context of use and user requirements for the design. After scoping the literature, a digital food diary was filled out by six participants. Their feedback indicated several advantages of eating alone: feeling relaxed, enjoying a quiet environment, and having 'me-time', which were used as input to the iterative design process. Early ideas converged into a final design that was evaluated by solo diners as providing a more relaxing and satisfying eating experience.