malin bengtsson

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Thesis

What: Design-oriented bachelor's thesis

When: 2023

Target group: Swedish sexually active young adults (aged 18-29)

Objective: To explore how visual communication may be used in order to encourage sexually active young adults to get tested for STD's

Challenges: One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to communicate about a sensitive and somewhat stigmatized topic in an appealing way. I based my design work off of a frame of reference that dived into sexual health and risk-taking, health communication, cultural aspects and behavioural design, and combined this with a preliminary study that sought to gain an understanding of the target group's relation to and experience with getting tested. This led way to a design process, where multiple rounds of brainstorming followed by evaluations of themes and concepts eventually produced two concepts to be user tested. One of the concepts performed better in the user tests, and was chosen to be finished and developed into a campaign consisting of three ads.

Translation of final design copy: Even sexier when you get tested afterwards. Sometimes STDs are spread despite safety precautions. Get tested with every new partner to catch and treat them early on. Order a home test today via klamydia.se, or go to umo.se or 1177.se to read more about how and where to get tested.

See the published paper here.

Final design

Campaign ads

Outdoors
Digital
Print

First sketches

Exploring different concepts and how to talk about STDs without causing shame or guilt
Continued exploration. All of these ideas were later scratched as their underlying tone was too negative towards sex. reframed and made "sex positive" a criterion for subsequent designs

Design proposals

Alternatives for the first concept to be user tested
Translation: Maja just had sex with a new person. Now she probably has chlamydia. Now she's gonna make an appointment to get tested
The first design that was eventually user tested
Alternatives for the second concept. The one above was eventually user tested
Translation: New partner? New test
Translation: Getting tested afterwards is almost as sexy

Campaign style guide

After the user tests, the final campaign ads were developed and with them, a style guide for hypothetical future campaign activities