Designing for Real-Life Eating

Challenge

To shine a light on people’s relationship and struggles with food change throughout their life, and how it affects their day-to-day decisions.

Our client wanted to stretch further into meals but first, they needed to understand the people making them. Not just what they buy, but what they believe. Not just what they cook, but what they feel. So we went deep, uncovering how food fits into people’s lives over time, and how their needs, pressures, and priorities evolve along the way.

Approach

What stood out most in this phase wasn’t just what people cooked but how much was wrapped up in it. Meals became a mirror for the pressures, priorities, and emotional labor of everyday life.

What we found was more than a set of behaviors. It was a system of emotional tensions between care and exhaustion, aspiration and reality, freedom and routine. These tensions shaped how people showed up in the kitchen and who they cooked for, with every meal telling a slightly different story.

Impact

By mapping this journey, we gave our client a new lens on the mealtime experience – one that moved beyond food categories and eating occasions, and into the beating heart of what food really means to people. It grounded their innovation efforts in emotional truth, and unlocked clearer direction on how (and where) they could play a more meaningful role.