HealKitchen - a persuasive, artificial intelligence driven, mobile application to influence healthy dietary habits

Unhealthy dietary habits remain a global concern, particularly among individuals managing health conditions. While many mobile nutrition applications exist, they often emphasize calorie counting or weight loss, overlook personalization, and lack a foundation in behavioral change theories. This research presents HealKitchen, a persuasive mobile application that aims to support healthier dietary behaviors by leveraging behavioral science, artificial intelligence, and user-centered design. This research addresses five main objectives: the development of a mobile health app that aims to influence healthier dietary choices, the implementation of behavioral theories into the mobile application, the implementation of a recommendation system that delivers personalized nutritional guidance, the development and evaluation of an object detection model capable of identifying grocery items, and the assessment of the mobile application's usability, perceived usefulness, and engagement. HealKitchen integrates a range of personalized features, including a recipe recommendation system adapted to user health requirements, a recipe curation engine, and an image recognition model that identifies grocery items and provides nutritional information. The application design also draws on five foundational behavior change theories, operationalized into persuasive features that nudge users toward healthier choices. To evaluate the application, a mixed-methods user study involving 20 participants was conducted. Quantitative survey data revealed a high level of usability (mean = 4.6), perceived usefulness (mean = 4.45), and aesthetics (mean = 4.49). Thematic analysis of qualitative feedback highlighted the need for recipe diversity, improved multimedia support, and additional features, informing iterative design enhancements. This research demonstrates the feasibility of building a persuasive and theory-driven mobile health application for personalized nutrition support.