Toward Food Sovereignty for Coastal Communities of Eastern Quebec: Co-Designing A Website to Support Consumption of Edible Resources from the St. Lawrence

Despite the abundance and proximity of edible marine resources, coastal communities along the St. Lawrence in Eastern Quebec rarely consume these resources. Within a community-based food sovereignty project, Manger notre Saint-Laurent (Sustenance from our St. Lawrence), members of participating communities (three non-Indigenous, one Indigenous) identified a need for a web-based decision tool to help make informed consumption choices.

To co-design a prototype website that facilitates informed choices about consuming local edible marine resources based on seasonal and regional availability, food safety, nutrition, and sustainability.

We co-designed a prototype with community members, regional stakeholders, and experts in user experience design and web development. We conducted 48 interviews with a variety of people over three iterative cycles, assessing the prototype’s ease of use with a validated measure, the System Usability Scale.

Community members, regional stakeholders, and other experts identified problematic elements in initial versions of the website; for example, confusing symbols. We resolved issues and added features people identified as useful. The final prototype’s usability was rated at “best imaginable” with scores similar across socio- demographic groups.

By co-designing with community members, regional stakeholders, and other experts from the beginning, we were able to integrate communities’ priorities and perspectives about edible marine resources into a prototype website adapted to community members’ needs. The final prototype includes a tool to explore species, and index cards to regroup accurate evidence about food safety, nutrition, sustainability, regional and seasonal availability, taste properties, and responsible fishing, hunting, picking, and preparation methods.