Dialysis Vascular Access Educational Video

An 18.5-minute animated educational tool for UNC Kidney Center that improved patient understanding

Details

Client: UNC Kidney Center

Contributions: Motion Design, Storyboarding, Animation

Strategic Angle: Translate complex science into accessible education

We represented the process of getting a vascular access through a subway train metaphor to show a journey with many stops.

Challenge

UNC Kidney Center needed to educate patients about vascular access for dialysis — a technical and intimidating topic.

I was closely involved in this project from the beginning, including exploring character design and animation styles, storyboarding and creating assets based on scientific content, animating over 70% of the final video, and incorporating many rounds of stakeholder feedback.

The tone of the video was to be approachable, accessible, and informative.

Since we wanted to pair health education with a patient story, we landed on telling the story through the perspective of a real person named Caroline. We represent her journey through the subway metaphor to signpost the stages of the vascular access process.

The simple illustration style and eye catching but calming color palette are meant to resonate with viewers and validate their emotional experience during a potentially overwhelming medical treatment.

All characters originally had stylized skin tones for more ambiguous racial representations. Near the end of the project, a stakeholder requested that we change some of the characters to realistic skin tones, which I understand. In subsequent videos I’ve worked on, I have made sure skin tones are consistently portrayed across all characters.