Visual self help guides for legal rights during pregnancy
Here is a great example of visual self help. It comes from the legal aid group, Legal Aid at Work, here in San Francisco. They went through an extensive design process to layout a more coordinated and understandable set of resources for people who are during pregnancy and their legal rights and obligations at work.
Core Visual Principles of the Project
Some of the key visual principles they followed, that makes this such a promising approach, are detailed below:
- Bird’s-eye view: giving a full system map of what to expect in different phases of the issue.
- Staging information: letting the user selectively deep dive into more content if they are particularly interested in that area.
- Coherent color choice and image choice: to provide a consistent visual language that can become a point of reference and easy to glance at navigation system for the materials.
Comparison of Design Features
| Feature | Objective |
|---|---|
| System Mapping | Giving a full bird’s-eye view of what to expect in different phases. |
| Information Staging | Letting the user selectively deep dive into more content. |
| Visual Language | Consistent color and image choice for easy navigation. |
Future Development: Multi-Channel Expansion
The next step would be to make this Multi-Channel! Now that Legal Aid at Work has made a coordinated set of fliers and booklets — can we use the same content and visual assets laid out in different formats?
Potential platforms for these resources include:
- Mobile-friendly websites
- Text message systems
- Social media
- Other locations where people might need it
I am so excited to see this kind of visual legal help develop, and if you have interest in working in a similar way, our lab is working on similar kinds of projects.