While working as a fellow at the Small Center for Collaborative Design, I partnered with a team of designers and scientists to graphically communicate the risk of high levels of lead in New Orleans tap water. Our goal was to clearly convey the danger to at-risk communities, and make them aware of a study that offered free water testing and was looking at the issue in general in New Orleans. We produced transit advertisements (grey glasses of water) as well as door hangers and testing instructions to be included with the free testing kit.
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Because taking samples for measuring lead is somewhat complicated, the scientists working on the study were having a difficult time getting accurately retrieved samples from residents. Over the course of the project, we developed new test instructions (bottom) to be included in the free testing kit. Basing our decisions on community engagement sessions, we emphasized the most important parts of the sample retrieval, such as not using water before taking samples, and taking them in the correct order. We also canvassed a particularly high-risk neighborhood with door hangers (left) to talk to folks directly about the issue.
