The Canadian Women’s Foundation
Signal For Help
2023
From needs analysis to eLearning program production, LX Labs (Onlea) collaborated with the Canadian Women's Foundation to help regular people respond to signs of gender-based violence in a safe and supportive way.
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Design usually strives to be loud and attention-grabbing. But what happens when the user’s safety depends on being discreet? The "Signal for Help" project required a unique content strategy: teaching a visual language that is recognizable to a helper but invisible to an abuser.
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I approached this not as a "graphic design" project, but as a Life-Saving Interaction Design problem.
The Mapping of the Gesture: The signal (thumb tucked, fingers trapped) is a physical metaphor for being trapped. My role was to ensure that the educational graphics and animations clearly demonstrated this motion without ambiguity.
Reducing the Gulf of Execution: If a person in danger has to think too hard about how to make the sign, the design has failed. I used clean, high-contrast illustrations to make the "how-to" instantaneous.
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Cultural & Physical Accessibility: This signal must be performable by anyone, regardless of hand shape or mobility constraints. I designed the instructional materials to account for various physical abilities, ensuring the intent of the gesture remained clear even if the execution varied.
Content Strategy for Virality: The messaging had to be "snackable" for social media (TikTok/Instagram) while maintaining the weight of the subject matter. I edited video content that focused on the affordance of silence, teaching viewers not just how to give the signal, but how to respond to it.
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This project is a testament to the power of a simple, well-designed signifier. By creating clear, accessible, and strategically distributed multimedia content, we provided a tool for thousands of people to communicate across the "silence" of domestic abuse.
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