UI Designer and UX Researcher
João Marinato: Developer and UX Designer
The journey of transitioning in BC is a complex path that can often be confusing and overwhelming for newly out trangender people. In this project my teammate and I wanted to create a solution that can break down resources and possible paths into an easy to navigate virtual roadmap.
We were specifically tasked with creating a project around social change. My teammate and I did some research on trans individuals and had an idea of how we could help.
Here is some of the things we found:
* 1 in 300 people in Canada are transgender.
* In 2021 there were 100,815 transgender people in Canada.
* Among provinces and territories, Nova Scotia, Yukon and British Columbia show the highest proportions of transgender and non-binary individuals.
Though transitioning is different from province to province, we knew we could at least tackle breaking down the transition steps for BC.
For a project dedicated to guiding users through a process that may require medical care, we knew we needed to spend time researching and gathering resources. As I have personal experience with this long process I was able to pull together a strong list of sites and resources we could utilize.
We pulled from many sources and often referenced Transcare BC and Rainbow Health Ontario. Though these sites are extensive, they are extremely hard to navigate. This is a barrier for a lot of people when they begin their transition.
We worked hard to make sure our organization of these resources would be as relevant and helpful as possible. For that reason we had to take into consideration things like; the user's age, and their assigned sex at birth. This information allowed us to create different paths that are as relevant as possible for that user.
Joao and I wanted to create a simple card layout with expanding tables so that we could have headings, categories, and sub categories for different sections.
We spent a lot of time working on hierarchy and making sure each sub category was relevant and intentional for each category.
We took a lot of inspiration from video games and online platforms to get a design that feels more natural to younger users.
Later on we started working on design and trying to find a way to make the site visually appealing, without it being too sterile, or 'obviously trans'. Due to our research we know that not every transgender person lives in a safe home. For that reason we aimed to make the design appear more neutral, and also added a quick 'exit' feature for additional safety.
As we worked on this project we knew we wanted to further this plan. Right now we have an incredible proof of concept. Moving forward we have talked about things like adapting the site to react.js, seeking out or creating API's for transgender health, and possibly expanding the site to still be relevant in other provinces and territories.
We are so proud of the work we created, and would love to move this project along in the future, as we know how many people it could help.