Resources
DESIGN Online Overview
The DESIGN Procedure provides a systematic process that uses the research on behavior change to help you design nutrition education that is more effective at changing eating behaviors. The DESIGN Procedure provides a framework within which you can use your own creativity to produce engaging, relevant plans that are tailored to your audience.
Nutrition education has the potential to improve people’s health, support ecological sustainability of the food system, and work toward social justice related to food.
The DESIGN Procedure steps are:
- Decide behavior
- Explore determinants
- Select theory-based model
- Indicate objectives
- Generate plans
- Nail down evaluation
Each of the six steps have several tasks, and DESIGN online will help you track your progress.
At the end of the Decide behavior step, you will have a behavior change goal. You can use the DESIGN Procedure to develop education plans for group or technology-based education (e.g., websites, blogs, apps).
If you have the opportunity to work with an audience for more than one session or over an extended period, you may want to design several educational plans, which may or may not be directed at the same behavior change goal. You will be able to move appropriate sections from your original plan to the new plans.
Enjoy creating nutrition education plans for your audience.
How to Use the Companion Textbook with the Site
The DESIGN Procedure accompanies Nutrition Education: Linking Research, Theory, and Practice, by Dr. Isobel Contento, published by Jones & Bartlett Learning. We strongly suggest referring to the textbook as you complete DESIGN Online to make your nutrition education plans really effective.
The textbook has three parts:
- Part 1 of the textbook provides background on nutrition education and shows that behavior change is better achieved when nutrition education is directed at the specific influences on behavior change called determinants. These can be motivational determinants or facilitating determinants. Theory-based models are descriptions of how these determinants are related to each other and to behavior change. Thus, these theory-based models are the foundation of nutrition education and the DESIGN steps.
- Part 2 provides an overview of DESIGN and details for completing each step in the DESIGN procedure.
- Part 3 provides guidance on how to effectively deliver nutrition education.
Offline Resources
- Decide behavior
- Explore determinants
- Select theory-based model
- Indicate objectives
- Generate plans
- Nail down evaluation