Alistair Norris, Clarissa Edeline Yu, Madeline See, Tee Jia Yu, Wong Eng Geng
Brief
Children in the early and middle childhood age groups are prone to obesity, diabetes, and even growth stunting due to poor nutrition and unhealthy eating habits. Factors such as education level and inherent behaviours also pose as major barriers to children and families integrating healthy eating habits into their daily lives.
Leverage play to enhance nutrition education and drive long-term behavioural change in children and families, by developing a ready-to-launch HaruPlate product line inspired by the act of playing.
Project Description
'Play With Your Food' is a design research and prototyping project focused on understanding how Singaporean families with young children engage with food and nutrition. The goal was to explore how play can empower children and families to make healthier food choices in everyday life.
The project tested cooking as a playful, hands-on medium for children to interact with food, making mealtimes fun, educational, and engaging. Through age-appropriate, skill-inclusive cooking meal kits, children are encouraged to participate in meal preparations and be independent about their food choices at home.
Exploring how everyday mealtime dynamics shape children’s relationship with food, and how play can help shift the script toward healthier habits.
Families have diverse mealtime routines, yet many face common challenges that impact children’s relationship with food. Time constraints, preferences for familiar foods, and limited exposure to nutritious options were all recurring themes.
Guided by ethnographic research and rapid prototyping, we explored how play could bridge knowledge gaps and help families embrace nutritious habits in a way that feels natural and sustainable.
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With price and time constraints as significant factors in their decision-making, busy parents often opt for convenience over nutrition when choosing food for their children.
A recurring theme in family food dynamics is that busy parents are constantly navigating between cost, time, convenience, and nutritional value when choosing food for their children. Meal planning demands time and energy that many simply do not have, and often, convenience wins over ideal nutrition. Price also plays a significant role, sometimes outweighing the priority of choosing healthier options.
At the same time, there is a natural desire among children to mirror the behaviours of adults. However, serving children 'kids food' often isolates them during mealtimes, especially when adults are not eating the same meals. Parents also tend to associate kids' meals with blandness, further discouraging them from eating together.
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The HaruPlate "Masak-Masak" Kits turn mealtimes into playful, hands-on experiences that bring parents and children closer through food.
Through live, hands-on prototyping sessions, we developed and tested the HaruPlate "Masak-Masak" Cooking Kit. These kits offered age-appropriate, scaffolded cooking experiences designed for children aged 6–10. Each kit helped kids learn to independently prepare simple, nutritious meals either for themselves or for their families, with just the right level of guidance and challenge.
From assembling spring rolls and mashing avocados to pan-frying burger patties, the kits encouraged children to build confidence in the kitchen through engaging, real-world tasks. The meal kits also encouraged a shift away from separate 'kids meals,' allowing families to share the same food and build mealtime connections.
While the main goal was to foster hands-on food literacy, many parents shared that the kits became unexpectedly meaningful bonding experiences. With minimal supervision needed, parents could enjoy watching their children take the lead in cooking, creating joy, pride, and connection around food.
