Integrating Human-Centered Design Methods Into a Health Promotion Project: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education Case Study for Intervention Design (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Human-centered design, or design thinking, offers an extensive toolkit of methods and strategies for user-centered engagement that lends itself well to intervention development and implementation. These methods can be applied to the fields of public health or medicine to design interventions that are more feasible and viable in real world context and in the long run than those developed with different methods. OBJECTIVE Our team was charged with developing approaches to deploy within food retail settings (e.g., grocery stores) to build food skills among caregivers of children ages 0-5 years who are eligible for a federal food assistance program. METHODS We applied three specific human-centered design methods – Extremes and Mainstreams, Journey Mapping, and Co-Creation Sessions – to enhance Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education reach and impact across food retail settings. RESULTS Ten caregivers with diverse lived experiences were selected to participate in virtual design thinking workshops and created individual journey maps to depict their grocery store experiences. These informed the co-creation of two potential interventions to promote healthy food choices in the food retail environment: a rewards program and a meal box option. CONCLUSIONS These three human-centered design methods led to a meaningful co-design process where proposed interventions aligned with caregivers’ wants and needs. This case study provides other public health practitioners with applied examples of how to utilize these methods in program development and stakeholder engagement as well as lessons learned when adapting these methods to virtual settings.