Design in Public Health Crises : The power of empathy in visual storytelling

A refreshing and provocative explanation of how empathic storytelling in design can be employed when governments and science struggle to respond to public health crises.

Coming from a background in public health branding and storytelling, Kehinde Bademosi explores the intersection of design theories, sociolinguistics, narrative studies, and the psychology of empathy to uncover best practices in empathy-driven storytelling by speaking with the storytellers who worked on Covid campaigns around the world.

As we prepare for the potential of new pandemics, the realities of persuading people to act, and act with empathy, presents a daunting challenge for the communicators - the designers - the storytellers, who promote compassionate behavior during these crises. Like health crises before, the Covid pandemic interwove issues of vulnerability, fear and health concerns with related problems of trust in government, political polarization and resentment towards the science. Finding a quick path to create campaigns with empathy, which promote action, are essential.

Designed to learn lessons from what has been done before, this book puts the response to Covid into context with a brief overview of previous historical health emergencies and the official storytelling around them, before providing practical guidance and tools for communicators of the future:

· How to use the power of storytelling to elicit empathic behavior during health crises
· Potential of creative choices within design and their implications for public health campaigns
· How to collaborate with various actors - States, Science, Storytellers, Society, and Silent stakeholders - shadow undercurrents such as big donors, faith, and culture.
· Understanding the world views that shape science communications as an essential part of creating public health campaigns
· Multimodal choices in the storytellers'' toolbox for crafting empathic public health campaigns