Helping children eat well via mobile software technologies

Violetta Vylegzhanina, Douglas C. Schmidt, Pamela Hull, Janice S. Emerson, Meghan E. Quirk, Shelagh Mulvaney

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper describes an Android mobile app we developed to simplify the shopping experience of participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides low-income families vouchers to purchase life-stage appropriate, nutritious foods. Our app helps alleviate the tedious and error-prone use of paper WIC vouchers by allowing participants to scan food items in the store and automatically identify if an item (including its size and quantity) is authorized for the enrolled WIC participant. In addition to serving as a shopping tool, the app also provides a platform for nutrition education through healthy tip push notifications and a gallery of easy-to-fix snack recipes that are tailored for WIC participant shopping choices and other racial/ethnic patterns in dietary preferences. This paper explains the key domain and technical challenges we faced when creating our Android app and describes how we overcame these challenges by applying data normalization, software patterns, and Agile development methods.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMobileDeLi 2014 - Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Mobile Development Lifecycle, Part of SPLASH 2014
Pages9-16
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781450321907
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 21 2014
Event2nd International Workshop on Mobile Development Lifecycle, MobileDeLi 2014 - Portland, United States
Duration: Oct 21 2014Oct 21 2014

Publication series

NameMobileDeLi 2014 - Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Mobile Development Lifecycle, Part of SPLASH 2014

Conference

Conference2nd International Workshop on Mobile Development Lifecycle, MobileDeLi 2014
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPortland
Period10/21/1410/21/14

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2014 ACM.

Keywords

  • Agile
  • Android
  • Data analysis
  • Data normalization
  • Mobile app
  • Open mhealth
  • Software design patterns

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications

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