The University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute:
The University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute is a facility in Jacksonville Florida. The facility offers an alternative to traditional radiation with a lower risk of side effects and more precise treatments, with an impressive success rate. Proton Therapy is a precise treatment that allows for higher doses of radiation to be administer with less healthy tissue being effected. This kind of treatment is highly effective, however it requires patients to be very still during treatment.
Pediatric patients have a harder time staying still than most; therefore they have to be put under anesthesia each day they go in for treatment. After the introduction of a child-life specialist and their ability to explain the process the number of children needing anesthesia has gone down dramatically. However, the number of pediatric patients has been increasing, creating difficulty for the child-life specialist to see them all. As a part of an interactive design class, we were presented with The University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute as a client. The objective was to create a storybook app to help prepare pediatric patients for their treatment. Our class conducted research by touring the facility and interacting with the patients. Together we collaborated to create a brand and style for the app. We came up with Proton U! The storybook app, eventually became a physical book as well as an interactive microsite. From there, it expanded to different forms of promotion. The app has also been translated into Spanish and Norwegian for patients visiting the facility from outside of the United States. Included are some examples of the creative copywriting I have done.
