Web Augmentation for Well-Being: the Human-Centred Design of a Takeaway Food Ordering Digital Platform

Abstract

Online services have become increasingly centralized, drawing on notions of the 'platform economy' to focus on ecosystem value rather than user value. In parallel, there have been efforts by developers to augment these platforms, empowering platform users in the process. We explored a 12-month participatory-action project, focusing on redesigning portions of Just Eat, an online aggregator for takeaway food ordering, building upon theoretical perspectives from public health and Digital Civics. We document our experiences in identifying user behaviours and motivations across multiple design workshops, including the design of a web-augmentation-based template to disrupt platform provider behaviours, empower service users and increase individual agency. Through this case study, we identify opportunities and mechanisms for platform modification, linking augmentation to adversarial design with outcomes that have the potential to improve the well-being of platform users.