One in seven people in the US has kidney disease. Kidney disease occurs when the kidneys can no longer filter wastes and extra fluids from the blood. DaVita cares for nearly 300,000 patients across over 3,000 outpatient dialysis centers worldwide
Unfortunately, many people don't know they have kidney disease until they need lifesaving treatment: either a kidney transplant or dialysis. Since there is a shortage of kidneys available for transplant, many patients need dialysis, a routine treatment that uses a machine to clean the blood. Treatments in a clinic typically last four hours, three times a week. Some patients can do treatments at home.
Living with kidney disease is a major—and terrifying—adjustment. Patients need to absorb an overwhelming amount of new information about treatments, fluid and diet restrictions, infection prevention, transplant possibilities, and more.
As a Lead Motion Designer on the Patient Education team, I took ownership of patient education from concept through final production—researching what patients needed to know, writing scripts, and producing animations, print materials, and interactive programs designed to meet patients where they were emotionally and cognitively.
Over 8.5 years, this work reached hundreds of thousands of patients navigating one of the most difficult diagnoses of their lives. By explanimating information in an easy to remember, friendly, and entertaining way, patients were more engaged in their care and showed better clinical outcomes. Patient feedback confirmed that characters felt like trusted peers and that patients knew exactly how to act on what they'd learned—evidence that good design can change health behavior.
Storytelling
People remember more of a message when it’s woven into a story rather than presented as facts. Plus, people often make decisions based on emotions rather than facts alone. Stories activate emotions.
While the voiceovers in our animations don’t sound like stories and there is no dialogue between characters, stories play out through the visuals. Characters facing relatable situations in robust environments make our animations immersive and engaging.
Metaphors
We use metaphors to connect new concepts to ideas patients already understand. Like sending a car down a road that’s already built instead of building the road while trying to drive it.
Character-Driven
I took the lead on designing characters that feel relatable to patients while not being too cartoony. Since our animations communicate serious health information and are meant for older adults, we're careful that our education does not feel childish.
Characters have faces so they can show emotion, but they aren’t overly expressive like cartoon characters. Each character has a unique story that we keep track of behind-the-scenes to make sure that they are always seen doing the same type of dialysis and have the same family, house, pet and so on.
In patient feedback sessions, patients have told us that our characters become recognizable, and they feel like "trusted peers".
Simple Scientific Animations
In order to make our education as accessible as possible, we aim for a fifth grade reading level. Rather than use complex 3D medical animations to explain health information, we’ve developed a clear, simplified, yet still accurate style that’s easy to understand.
Motivation
While information is a necessary first step, facts alone often aren't enough to motivate someone to make a change. Through the use of storytelling and other behavioral design tactics, we strive to not only educate, but to motivate patients to make healthy choices. For example, we connect long-term goals with short-term critical actions by animating what the future could look like. We prompt patients to remember their reason for doing dialysis in critical moments, and to choose the healthy path forward rather than the shortcut.
This free educational program is designed to help patients and their caregivers understand chronic kidney disease.
I designed, illustrated, and animated the visually-rich, interactive presentation for instructors to educate patients in-person or online. I did the graphic design work for the take-home booklet that patients receive to remember what they learned in the class.
I also designed two "home editions" of the Kidney Smart class to help patients who may be good candidates for home treatments preemptively prepare.
Over 100,000 patients have attended a Kidney Smart class.
KDE is a series of four interactive classes for newly diagnosed chronic kidney disease patients. I designed the curriculum and led the creation of this interactive presentation, collaborating with teammates on illustrations and animations.
The program designed as a presentation by doctors or other clinical professionals to small groups of patients. The rich visuals and educator guide help clinical experts more effectively communicate critical health and treatment information in a way that meets patients where they are.
I'm also responsible for the graphic design and copywriting of the educational handouts that patients receive with each class.
Watch the promo video below.
Many patients are able to do dialysis treatments in the comfort and convenience of their own home. My team was tasked with reinventing the outdated patient training program with the goal of increasing completion and home dialysis retention rates.
I worked with subject matter experts and researched content to be included in the program, and collaborated with project managers to design the curriculum. I created illustrated and animated visuals as well as interactive components for the patient-led modules of the program and established the design language and templates for my teammates to work off of for the remaining modules.
The Welcome Home program is reported to have increased patient retention on home dialysis by 8% and is highly regarded by both nurses and patients.
Working within the DaVita brand guidelines, I created the visual identity for printed patient education materials. These handouts and booklets accompanied animated videos, classes, and programs so patients could quickly reference what they learned.
Selected creative work created during employment at DaVita and displayed for portfolio purposes only. All trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective owners.
The majority of my work at DaVita is not available to the public, which is why there are no full-length versions of my educational animations (with voiceover) on my portfolio.
