I was lucky to work with South London based charity PEACE, illustrating their research into helping those with both an eating disorder and autism. Starting off by illustrating their latest book, I continued working with them to design their website, making it easy to use for clinicians, carers, and those with the comorbidity.
PEACE's audience is split into 3 user groups - clinicians, carers, and those suffering from ASC and ED. Resources available to clinicians might not be relevant to other groups, yet still need to be communicated in a caring, considerate way, as they are accessible to everyone.
While learning more about the comorbidity through research and feedback from patients, carers and clinicians, I learned how to design for a more inclusive experience. Staying away from too many gendered colours, creating clear UX with obvious CTAs and user paths, while keeping the web design as simple as possible to avoid overwhelming any users.
PEACE patients tend to be young, caucasian women and girls, but I felt the need to represent different minority groups in my illustrations, so that everyone feels welcome to ask for help.
I learned a lot while designing for users suffering from ASC and ED. One fun part of this project was illustrating idioms and metaphors, which could be interpreted very literally by someone on the autism spectrum. Coming up with ways to illustrate issues surrounding mental health and illness in a kind, appealing way was a challenging and welcome task.
The book and website both explore the link between autism and eating disorders through testimonies from practitioners, service users and carers. PEACE is the first charity to provide guidance this topic, and the website is already helping countless families and clinicians who had given up on seeking help.
Thanks for reading! You can find lots of information and useful resources at peacepathway.org and you can see more of my work below.
