BBC News HPV Multimedia Composite

Project Brief

The challenge was to design and develop a multimedia composite that would create awareness of Human papillomavirus (HPV) and Cervical Cancer among youth in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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In 2019, African countries began rolling out nationwide HPV vaccination plans for children under the age of 11 years. 

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User Needs

How might we design an informational product that will sensitize both African children and their parents on HPV awareness and cervical cancer prevention?

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My Role

I doubled as producer and UI/UX designer, working with a team of 7 multi-skilled individuals including a producer, a journalist, a software developer and an animation artist to execute a design concept that would appeal to young African audiences and at the same time provide crucial sexual and reproductive health information. The interactive was published on five BBC World Service language websites – English, Afaan Oromoo, Tigrinya, Amharic, Swahili and Gahuza.

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Design Process

The project entailed research on content strategy to identify a human-interest editorial angle for the presentation. We collected up-to-date statistics on cervical cancer and HPV in Africa, brainstorming and researching possible story treatments and formats. 

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Findings

Most local informational products that focused on HPV and cervical cancer were not suitable for younger audiences and tended to target the expert reader. Younger audiences preferred the animated video explainer format when consuming news content. The project needed to cater for the majority of the African audiences who consume content on mobile devices, with limited browser capabilities and low bandwidth.

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Design Solution

We delivered a multimedia composite with a text article, a digital video, an animated video explainer and infographics presentations. The users mobile experience was prioritised and the provision of core content was enabled to cater for users whose browser capabilities were limited. The visual assets included animated video’s and infographics, that could be shared on other platforms, enabling a wider circulation of the content. 

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Design deliverables included wireframes done in Sketch, a clickable prototype in Marvel, a Handoff link on Marvel and UI assets.