DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE BASE SYSTEM TO SUPPORT HEALTH FOOD COOKING

Abstract

This research aimed to 1) study restaurant entrepreneurs’ information needs related to health food cooking, 2) analyse and design an online knowledge base system compatible with Smartphone devices in order to support health food cooking, 3) develop a knowledge base system to support health food cooking. The sample group for the study consisted of 400 people, including restaurant entrepreneurs and general users in Kamphaeng Phet Province. Research instruments used in the study were, 1) interviews to collect data on restaurant entrepreneurs’ information needs, 2) questionnaires on system performance, completed by experts in system development, and 3) questionnaires on system users’ satisfaction with the database as per the support it provided in health food cooking. Statistics were expressed as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation.

          The findings revealed the following: Firstly, regarding information needs in support of health food cooking, general users expressed that their highest need for the website was searching for cooking materials within the area of Kamphaeng Phet Province. The second highest need for the website was analysis health foods. The lowest priority need was the collection providing a list of informative websites on health foods. The study’s next findings were related to the design and development of a knowledge base system compatible with a Smartphone operating system in order to support health food cooking. The Gane and Sarson data-flow diagram and the Crow’s Foot diagram were shown to be applicable toward identifying relations between sets of information. The development of a knowledge base system to support health food cooking could be conducted using MySQL, PHP language, Bootstrap framework, and Google Map API to launch the system on an Ubuntu operating platform. The system operation was developed to support its two major user groups. The first part of the system supports system users’ search for knowledge on health foods, raw material selection and preparation, raw material distribution and delivery, health food cooking, and delivery and sales promotion, including a component that conducts food menu color scheme analysis. The second part of the system supports system administrators’ managing the system and maintaining up-to-date information. During system development, the knowledge base was evaluated as follows: 1) Five experts reported that the effectiveness of the system was excellent ( = 4.42, S.D. = 0.52) and 2) 400 general users in Kamphaeng Phet Province reported on their experience, indicating highest overall satisfaction ( = 4.40, S.D. = 0.57). This shows that the knowledge base system for supporting health food cooking developed in this study was effective and most importantly, consistent with user needs.