Information design to promote better nutrition among pantry clients: four methods of formative evaluation

To demonstrate the use of four different qualitative methods in creating content, including text and graphic design for print interventions to support better nutrition in low-income households that rely on charitable pantries.

Four methods were used for measuring household cooks' responses to the content and design of recipes and food-use tips especially designed for low-income households: (i) focus groups with pantry clients; (ii) questionnaires administered at sites where the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) programme beneficiaries gather, to survey cooks' judgements about the appeal of recipes; (iii) recruitment of WIC clients to prepare recipes at home, followed by phone interviews about the cooks' actual experiences preparing and serving dishes; and (iv) a new technique to gauge pantry clients' preferred ordering of print information, using bits of content backed by Velcro strips that participants applied to felt boards. Ten sets of illustrated recipes and food-use tips were prepared, each set focusing on a different fresh vegetable that is periodically available from charitable sources.

Low-income recipients of food from community pantries in the USA, and beneficiaries of the WIC programme.

Illustrative findings show how the four types of qualitative evaluations can inform decisions about content and about graphic design. Discoveries from this formative research illuminate challenges of supporting better nutrition among households that depend on charitable sources of food supply.

These multi-method evaluation techniques can be adapted to the development of any print material, whether intended for widespread dissemination or for field research into nutrition behaviour.