Strategic foresight, toolkits, workshops, research, marketing strategies, & more.
I had the privilege to work with the following clients:
American Heart Association, Rural Opportunity Institute, The National Hispanic Latino Cardiovascular Collaborative, Chapter House LA, Medidata, and Heluna Health
Design Strategy
American Heart Association
Hey there! I am under an NDA and I’m waiting for the project to be published in order to display my work. Please reach out if you would like more information, or check back later!
Rural Opportunity Institute
The Rural Opportunity Institute, or ROI, aims to build resilience in rural communities by offering workshops and resources to help community leaders implement innovative, trauma-informed, solutions.
I spearheaded the development of a comprehensive toolkit for ROI's Resilient Leaders Initiative, a 10-week program designed to impart strategic concepts and foster community cohesion.
The challenge was to broaden ROI's reach, so I conceived a versatile toolkit for nationwide distribution to organizations and facilitators. This toolkit, born from stakeholder interviews, material synthesis, interactive activities, a unified design system, and the inaugural convening, now serves as a blueprint for future iterations by other designers.
Continue reading to walk through my design process and to see the final product. ☺
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Toolkit Designer, Design Researcher, Visual Artist
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July 2023 - August 2023
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Content Design, Activity Creation, Visual Design
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Figma, Procreate
1. Research & Synthesize
I began by thoroughly examining RLI's facilitator guide, participant packet, and slide deck to create a unified toolkit for both facilitators and participants. My aim was straightforward: distill key information and create an effective structure.
I organized the content into manageable sections. From the facilitator guide, I retained relevant content while excluding facilitator-specific details. Engaging activities were extracted from the participant packet, and the slide deck provided a structural framework.
To ensure the final product remained focused and efficient, I carefully reviewed each topic’s necessity. I maintained open communication with ROI throughout the process, obtaining their feedback on the content I proposed to cut. This collaborative approach ensured that the resulting toolkit perfectly aligned with their vision while providing a seamless experience for both facilitators and participants.
2. Identify Gaps & Areas of Opportunity
It was now time to see how we could enhance the toolkit by identifying what information seemed to be missing as well as what things we could improve upon.
To get a better understanding, I interviewed multiple stakeholders, including organization leaders who had already attended the RLI program. I took notes on what they liked and what they would have liked to see done differently.
Information Gap:
ROI had a slide on “resilient zones”, but my coworkers and I could not understand what it meant from the diagram. That made me realize it probably was the same for outsiders. So, I got extra information from ROI and then recreated the diagram so it was clearer without being text-heavy.
Activity Opportunity:
I noticed that a lot of the activities were all “share-outs”. They lacked interactivity and felt monotonous. I realized that we needed to appeal to different people’s learning styles. One of the first activities changed was the “share a trauma in your community” exercise, which I changed into a more playful drawing activity.
I continued this process throughout the toolkit, pinpointing what activities could use sprucing and what topics still didn’t feel clear.
“Having emotional check-ins was the catalyst to receiving the information. Our team displayed emotions that I don’t usually see.”
- RLI attendee
3. Content design, iterate, iterate, iterate!
After identifying what changes could be made to the content, it was time to develop solutions.
One idea was to make a more hands-on activity so people could understand how trauma impacts our lives. I came up with an idea for a board game. In the game, participants would choose a random “character card”. They would then draw a socioeconomic level, abilities, and disabilities that would determine their QOL (quality of life score). Based on their QOL, they would go about the “life-board” in different ways and face different challenges. While at first we liked the idea, after further thought we realized it could be triggering for participants and wouldn’t help promote a supportive atmosphere.
So with help from my coworker, we changed this activity to be a series of more reflective exercises, giving it a more calm, peaceful, & respectful tone.
Another idea revolved around the symbolism of an iceberg. Initially, the iceberg metaphor was confusing as participants were told they would start at level 4 and then go to level 5. The imagery of an iceberg also seemed to be overused and not representative of the content.
Hence came the idea of making the iceberg a flower instead. The flower symbolizes how the roots or core of the plant affect how the flower appears. With this metaphor, we could have the levels be in chronological order as well.
4. Design System, Putting it all Together
After finalizing the content it was time to solidify a design system. My coworker was ideating different design concepts while I was working on the content. We convened and decided that a flower theme would best represent the goals of the material. We wanted to depict the cycle of how a flower grows, what is needed to let it thrive, and how it can be a sign of resilience.
I experimented with different styles but landed on using a sketch illustration vibe, a handwritten font, and some accent drawings that used the brand’s colors. This will give it a more friendly and wholesome aesthetic as opposed to something more clinical.
Finally, I put it all together, making careful adjustments based on the client’s feedback.
Below is the toolkit I made on Figma + Procreate. I would not have been able to do it without the support of my verynice coworkers: Kiera Smith who helped me with refining the content, Rebecca Ramirez who managed the project, Josie Smith who ideated the design system with me, and Matthew Manos who guided me on how to effectively make toolkits.
5. Takeaways
While making this toolkit, I learned a lot about what it means to be trauma-informed and the unique struggles that rural communities go through. Small organizations often don’t have the capacity to do strategic planning because they’re focused on actively making a change in their communities with the limited resources they have. Offering free services like RLI can make a big difference in these communities, so I really focused on making sure that the toolkit was mindful of the people it will serve.
I made sure to have an iterative design process with my coworkers at ROI to ensure that the activities I created and the imagery I used were appropriate and beneficial for the communities. For example, with the initial board game I designed, we thought about the implications of it more deeply. We realized that it could be triggering for participants and might make them feel discouraged instead of empowered. In the “drawing community traumas” activity, my initial copy said, “Draw the trauma as a villain.” With feedback from my coworker, I took out the word ‘villain’ again because it felt more inappropriate and insensitive.
Garnering this deeper understanding and empathy reminded me how important it is to truly understand the actual needs and nature of the communities my designs will go to.
The National Hispanic-Latino Cardiovascular Collaborative
During my time at verynice, I worked for NHLCC, a subgroup of the American Heart Association, to help create a trends report as well as a stakeholder insights report. NHLCC wanted to use this information to help them create a strategic plan for the future.
I identified 6 main topics of trends and 36 trends in total. Each trend had a summary, statistics, and relevant article(s). In addition, I wrote comprehensive summaries on each topic and its implications.
I conducted multiple stakeholder interviews, spanning professionals in the healthcare space, leaders of diversity organizations, NHLCC scholars, and NHLCC core team members. I compiled trends and takeaways from each conversation and used them to help craft the stakeholder insights report.
Continue reading to view the reports. ☺
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Design Researcher
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August 2023
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Design Research, User Interviews
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Figma, Google Slides
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I learned about the political and health care landscape from a global perspective. I learned how to identify trends from various levels and how to communicate them in a streamlined way. I improved on my interviewing skills and crafting purposeful interview questions.
1. Trends & Emerging Issues Report
Below is the trends report I made in collaboration with my other coworkers. In addition to creating the content, I designed the slides.
2. Stakeholder Insights Report
Below is the stakeholder insights report I made with my coworkers.
The Chapter House LA
Another client I worked for with verynice was the Chapter House LA, an Indigenous exhibition and community space headquartered in LA. The Chapter House wanted guidance on how they could expand their organization’s reach. As a new organization, they needed support facilitating its board members and generating both buy-in and participation from the group.
My co-worker and I ran a workshop for their board retreat where we allowed members to express their goals and interests, think about the org’s needs, identify how those needs aligned with their interests, identify needs that don’t align, and then prioritize action items they developed from the activities.
Continue reading to see pictures from the workshop. ☺
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Workshop Facilitator
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August 2023
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Facilitation, Public speaking, Design Strategy
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Post-Its & Sharpies :)
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This was my first time holding a professional workshop in-person. I learned how to assert myself in a kind way. I also learned how to adapt quickly as nothing ends up going to plan (such as changing the time allocation, adjusting activities). I learned a lot about the indigenous community in LA as well.
Board of NeedsWriting Down our FindingsOur Workshop SpaceNeeds with InterestsNeeds with No InterestMy co-worker & I with a member of the board!
Sample Case Studies
Trader Joe’s
the DMV
Tik Tok
Below are sample case studies for a variety of businesses in different industries. Studies include strategies for marketing, branding, service design, site maps, futures, & more. Full report PDFs are linked.
Prompt:
TikTok is looking to launch a new brand campaign that can compete against major educational institutions. They need a brand strategy, including recommendations on how to best position themselves in the market, 3 brand metaphors, a concept for 1 brand touchpoint, and a name for the new venture.
They are also looking for a marketing strategy, with recommendations on how to best attract their audience, including the channels they should work with, messaging recommendations, and a concept for 1 campaign.
Prompt:
Define the future of the food and beverage industry, more specifically the future of Trader Joe’s. Create a strategic plan for Trader Joe’s to stay relevant and afloat in the future.
Techniques:
Projected vs. perceived analysis, track signals of change in the industry, develop 4 future scenarios, strategic plan, strategic recommendations, outline actions to impact information architecture, service design, and brand strategy.
Prompt:
The California DMV has heard from its users that its website is complicated and could benefit from streamlining or re-organizing. They are looking for an audit of their website, along with recommendations for revising the current site map.
Techniques:
Defining a problem statement, creating user personas, conducting audits, & creating a sitemap
Report:
Techniques:
Defining a problem statement, brand positioning, brand metaphors, brand touchpoints, UI mockup, identifying key stakeholders, messaging, and making a concept campaign.