Good design comes from knowing when to do something daring and when to practice restraint. If a design element doesn't solve a problem, signal meaning, or serve a purpose, it's likely superfluous.
After serving as a clinical research coordinator across multiple projects at all three main campuses of the University of California, San Francisco, I joined the EngageUC team piloting a new simplified consent form for biobanking throughout the university system statewide. Aware of my design work on the U-Find-Out and Vaccination Is Prevention studies, EngageUC's study team asked if I could create something that would help our project stand out in presentations, as other EngageUC sites across the UC system had done.
My only constraints were UCSF’s brand guidelines. The solution was straightforward: an orange rectangle highlighting white text, matched to the height of the Clinical Translational Science Institutes Venn diagram logomark. The result is a clean identifier that catches the eye while seamlessly slotting in to institutional visual standards. UCSF's guidelines specify Helvetica Neue 45 Light as the default weight, so the EngageUC wordmark uses Helvetica Neue 55 Roman- itself a mildly subversive decision when others might choose 65 Medium or 75 Bold.
The taped UI containers on this page? A gentle nod to the community engagement workshop that enabled this paper.
Design is tension.
Great designers calibrate accordingly.
Main Project Objectives
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Standardize & simplify biobank consent forms across all five University of California medical schools
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UC San Francisco
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UC San Diego
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UC Davis
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UC Irvine
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UC Los Angeles
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Engage broad coalition of stakeholders to shape the future of biobanking at the institution.
Creative Objectives
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Create EngageUC logo that compliments pre-existing Clinical Translational Sciences Institute Venn logo.
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Maintain University of California Branding Guidelines
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Complete storyboard development and narrative for a 4-minute supplementary biobank overview video
Major Success!!!
The consent form assessed in this trial is currently used in standard admissions for all medical appointments at the University of California medical campuses.
Pilot Education Aid - For Evaluation Purposes Only
By the time I joined the team, the biobank education video was nearly ready for evaluation and already looking excellent. It expertly adapted messaging on a complex topic for general audiences. My only note: include women and women scientists among the personas represented.
The animatic was revised post haste. Though a small adjustment, it had a meaningful impact on the inclusivity of the piece. A critical attribute for engaging patients navigating care throughout the University of California medical system, where many important choices about treatment and research participation intersect.
For some viewers, this four-minute video may be their first introduction to the role ethics review boards play in human subjects research, along with the core principles that guide their work:
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Beneficence
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Justice
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Respect for persons
Educational tools that represent science carry a quiet responsibility. Depicting the full range of people who make scientific progress possible, and whom science aims to uplift, helps by ensuring these tools reflect the communities they serve- and the communities they invite to participate.
PORTFOLIO: FEATURED GLOBAL HEALTH PROJECTS
PORTFOLIO: FEATURED TYPOGRAPHY
