Idea to Design

Idea to Design

Content

It begins with a problem

The Creative Journey of a visual aid I called Daily Dozen: Visual Exercise Guide—for Seniors 65+ began with a problem of social isolation and physical inactivity among seniors. This Creative Journey took many steps and curves along the way but there were three milestones I want to share with you.

1. The first milestone was research—we wanted to know why there was a problem, what solutions were available and how we could fix it. Most of the resources we found were available only online in a written form so seniors with language barriers would not be able to access or use them.

2. The second milestone was creating a visual aid, an exercise guide that would be simple and safe, yet addressing three most important elements of the exercise routine: balance, stretch and strength. We had the privilege of working on this project with a registered kinesiologist who decided what kinds of exercises should be included in this guide.

3. The third milestone was design; style, colour and fonts with seniors in mind. It is important that the design of the visual aid reinforces the message and this can be done only through testing different styles. The seniors chose the style and the management approved the quality, size and material.

Let’s talk about each of these in detail.

Milestones

✔︎ Research

Why was there a problem? We found that there are several reasons why seniors face social isolation and physical inactivity.

1. Most common reasons are

  • Lack of knowledge; sometimes seniors don’t know how, where and when to exercise. 
  • Living conditions; like living alone, lack of access to the Internet, technology and language barriers, immobility or weather.
  • Lack of a common area at the entrance of the building.

2. Are there any solutions available?

  • There are many resources such as written publications and videos online but they are not available to people who lack access or knowledge on how to find them.
  • Many written publications don’t contain any graphics.

3. What was our solution?

  • Since we learned that seniors used hallways for their walking routine, our solution was to install a visual exercise guide on the hallway walls of a senior residence as a supplement to their walking routine. 
  • It could be available to all seniors regardless of their ethnic background and skills or access to the Internet.

✔︎ Creating Visual Aid

This project required several photo shoots with a model to make sure we got the right exercise set and it had to be done in steps:

  • Our kinesiologist made a list of exercises that could be used as a supplement to the walking routine.
  • The seniors decided what exercises they preferred.
  • The residence management had to approve these exercises for safety and liability.
  • Every exercise’s true representation had to be approved by the kinesiologist.
✔︎ Design

We created examples of different designs so our seniors could pick their favourite and the management could approve it for installing it on the hallway walls. The design had many requirements:

  • The recipients were seniors who may not be able to read so they had to contain easy-to-understand illustrations. 
  • The colour palette needed to be appropriate for the people it was meant for and the space. 
  • Captions in a simple, large, clear font written in English and French, two official languages in Canada.
  • Small enough to easily print and install by the management but large enough to see the details by the seniors.
  • The visual aid could not become a reason to crowd a hallway.
The result
Book-Posters-Daily-Dozen-Iwona-Buziak-Mohamed-hapy.ca
Book & Posters – Daily Dozen – Iwona Buziak-Mohamed – hapy.ca

12 posters illustrating 1 exercise per poster in a simple colour drawing with captions in 2 languages that could be spread on hallway walls of each floor in the senior residence.

It would serve as an interactive art where people could look at it and use it during their daily walking routine.

It needed to be done in more than one format to make sure it could serve all parties involved. I called this visual aid Daily Dozen: Visual Exercise Guide—for Seniors 65+. It was inspired by the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for Older Adults – 65 Years & Older which was available only online and only to those who would be able to search for it and who would be able to read it because it did not contain any graphics. I found it on the website of CSEPguidelines.ca

Summary

The Creative Journey of the Daily Dozen began with a problem.  We accomplished our goal of creating this visual aid through three milestones:

  1. Research 
  2. Creating a visual aid
  3. Design

This project took about a year to complete and it was only possible by the contribution of knowledge and time of many people.

Poster download
1-Page-Poster-Daily-Dozen-Free-download-Iwona-Buziak-Mohamed-hapy.ca

Free Download

Download free of charge 1-Page Poster of Daily Dozen: Visual Exercise Guide—for Seniors 65+

 

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About Iwona – My Story

About Iwona – My Story

Content

  1. My background
  2. My Why
  3. Involvement in the topic
  4. Level of involvement
  5. Motivation
  6. Hope for the future
  7. My work as an artist
  8. Visual aids in action
  9. My invitation to you

My Background

As an immigrant I understand the difficulties of everyday communication in a culture which not only is new but it is also diverse and everyone around looks and speaks differently. As a visual artist I understand when there is an opportunity to try improving this communication so it becomes easier to deal with life challenges. 

I have received traditional training in visual art in Poland and classical animation and illustration in Canada but my passion is in communication and creative problem solving.

My why

My creative skills combined with my passion for improving life quality through Visual Communication in a Diverse Culture changed the course of my life and it was the reason I started this blog. 

Visual communication can help break down language barriers. I want to provide information that would help people make informed decisions about creating visual resources for their clients and employees to improve communication. 

Involvement in the topic

My lifelong passion for art started when I had to create my first postcards at the age of two, which my mom would send to family members for holidays and birthdays. 

My upbringing in a Communist Poland where the freedom of speech was suppressed resulted in my serious lack of verbal communication skills. 

These were my motivators in choosing the topic of Visual Communication in a Diverse Culture to talk about.

Level of involvement

For the past several years, I have been a member of Toastmasters to learn to communicate confidently and I volunteered many hours for an organization, such as the Catholic Center for Immigrants (CCI) which helps newcomers learn basic communication skills.

I have become an English conversation facilitator and a visual aid designer to help organizations and business owners create custom visual aids that can help them improve communication with their clients or employees. My books are examples of such visual aids.

Iwona-Buziak-Mohamed-books-hapy.ca
Iwona Buziak-Mohamed – books – hapy.ca
Motivation

As a creative person, I always look for inspiration and ways to improve life, learn something new and share. I believe that paying more attention to visual language can help:

  • Stop wasting your time and money delivering resources that your clients or employees don’t understand. 
  • Create visual supplements to your written resources so your clients or employees can understand. 
  • Improve Visual Communication in a Diverse Culture by sharing ideas and skills.
Hope for the future

I will be sharing my observations on Visual Communication in a Diverse Culture in my blog and podcast hoping that it may shed some light on the importance of visual communication as a necessary part of communication in general. 

Your business depends on relationships with your clients and employees. Your efforts to include visual supplement to your communication will improve your relationships. 

My work as an artist

Working in the visual art field all my life, I was able to navigate through the difficult situations possibly easier than many people I met.

Being adaptable and flexible was always my strength so I had always found work as an artist in various positions but still, my employment opportunities were limited and eventually I had become self-employed.

Artists have a keen eye on observing their environment and a gift to interpret it in their own way. And for me it meant simply surviving the immigration life. 

First, I doodled pictures on paper and stuck them everywhere to help me learn the language visually. I wondered then why I could not find visual resources to help people who were not able to go to school in order to deal with daily challenges. 

As I grow older, I notice that the people who struggle most and to whom we pay the least attention are the seniors. The market is full of resources for young people and children and these are used for seniors. 

Old people don’t like to be treated like children. They do need help but the resources they need must be created specifically for their age. 

If you are going to talk about bed bugs in an apartment, don’t bring a children’s story book with three little pigs to a senior just because it has a picture of a house.

I decided to create these kinds of resources for seniors with language barriers because they are the most vulnerable members of our society and the most isolated.

Visual aids in action

Here are a few examples of what work meant to me, as a visual artist and an Immigrant:  

  • The first image below shows a Catholic Center of Immigrants employee and a Senior Program Coordinator, Silvana Valentone, using a visual aid to explain an election to a group of seniors. 

  • The second image shows a Christmas Choir made of a group of seniors during a Christmas Community Lunch, using visual aids to help them celebrate the holidays in a fun and cheerful way.

  • The third image shows a group of seniors, with myself as a facilitator, gathering around the table. Using visual aids, we talked about body parts and pain. Visual aids used here include illustrations, simple vocabulary and a real stethoscope which helped to encourage the conversation.
My invitation to you

If you would like to read or listen to my story about how I started improving my writing and verbal communication skills to help me write this blog, please, go to the next post, titled: A creative outlet to practise communication.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, I would appreciate your feedback in the comment section below. If you would like to share your story through my blog, please, contact me.

 

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Language Barriers in a Diverse Culture 

Language Barriers in a Diverse Culture 

Contents:

  1. Welcome
  2. Why I created the blog
  3. What problems I identified
  4. What I hope for this blog
  5. My Mission

Welcome

You want to communicate with your clients and employees. You want your service or your product being appreciated, not wasted. 

To create effective communication with your clients and employees, you must take into consideration their backgrounds and language skills. You must acknowledge we live in a diverse culture, where not everyone is at the same level of fluency.

Why I created the blog

As a visual artist and an immigrant living in Canada for over three decades, I observe people with diverse backgrounds and language barriers. English is my second language. For years, I faced difficulties understanding people around me, at work or as a client.

What problems I identified

  1. People lost me as a client because I couldn’t understand them.
  2. I was not happy with them letting me make costly mistakes.
  3. I had limited options for employment.

Now, years have passed and I see other people struggle with exactly these challenges. Many people give up on living a happy, meaningful life simply because they don’t understand the language and we have yet to see any improvement on the solutions.

Many business owners have not made any efforts to close the gap to make it easier for their clients and employees. I see resources, business owners put efforts to create, are being wasted simply because they don’t pay attention to their clients and employees.

I hate to say it, but the communication in this country is in an abysmal state.

What I hope for this blog

I hope this blog will help solve problems I have identified and provide answers to visitors who may need to improve communication with their clients or employees.

My Mission

My mission is to help business owners save:

  • time
  • money
  • reputation

by supplementing their resources in a visual format. My intention is to publish weekly articles with new content concerning Communication in a Diverse Culture. 

If you are interested in the topic of improving communication with your clients, employees or community, please, subscribe to my newsletter. Let me know your opinion on the topics I will be covering. Your feedback is valuable to me. Nothing happens without a conversation.

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