People with medicine pills

Visual design challenge

Design of the Pill Chart / Communication design

UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGE
What are the challenges of communicating with symbols and pictograms? What strategies can be used. Can meanings be conveyed without loss of information? What kind of ambiguities are generated when you design such visual messages? One more class assignment I give to my students. This is the most challenging.
THE ASSIGNMENT
A homoeopathy hospital in Ammoor, one of the villages in Tamil Nadu is famous for its treatment, related to reducing the clotting of blood. To avail of this treatment, a lot of patients from various parts of rural India visit this centre daily. This treatment is especially free for people under the income level of INR. 3000 per (approx. $60) month. These people are generally poor farmers or labourers who cannot afford costly treatment at other hospitals. People who visit are conversant with their mother tongue but may not know languages like English and Hindi. On weekends the hospital is overcrowded, and there is a continuous inflow of patients, sometimes up to 1000 patients in a day. The hospital authorities find it challenging to communicate with these patients as they speak different languages. Although the hospital authorities have found a solution by employing people who can speak various languages, however, the patients forget the instructions about the medicine once they reach their village. The hospital is asking for your design services in this regard.

Preview + Download:

Last updated: 8 APR. 2020
Free Download // Contains the PDF of the assignment.
ASSIGNMENT DIFFICULTY LEVEL
Very Difficult
70%

References:

Books on the design of signs/icons
The Icon Handbook
Author: Jon Hicks
Publisher: ‎Five Simple Steps Ltd - 2012

Signage and wayfinding design - A Complete Guide to Environmental Graphic Design Systems
Auhtors: Chris Calori and David Vanden -
Publisher: Eynden - 2015

Thinking in Icons: Designing and Creating Effective Visual Symbols
Author: Felix Sockwell
Publisher: ‎ Rockport Publishers - 2017
Youtube videos
7 GOLDEN RULES For Icon Design
Author: Satori Graphics
ASSIGNMENT DESIGN
Mandar Rane
Prof. Mandar Rane
Communication Design
Faculty IDC, IIT Bombay
AUDIENCE
Primary Audience:
Communication Design + Interaction Design + VIsual communication 
Secondary Audience:
Aspiring designers keen on solving communication design problems 
PREREQUISITES
1. Knowledge of basic typography
2. Awareness of elements and principles of design 
3. Visual Order - Rationalizing grammar of design decisions
Credits