Tell Us How You Really Feel
lighthearted card deck to make communicating pain easier
Tell Us How You Really feel is a 44 card deck that visually depict different kinds of pain, emotional, physical, and mental,with provided definitions. There are also two depictions of this card deck, one for kids that provides more kid friendly definitions as well as examples of the different sen sations for them to fully understand what they’re experiencing. The adult deck is for those who might already understand what these sensations mean but just need a moment to dissect and analyze their pain.
Role:
Product designer
Methods and Skills:
Art direction, product design, Figma, Procreate, graphic illustration, user research
How do we make the process of communicating pain easier?
The Wong-Baker scale is a visual indicator of pain that can be seen in most medical facilities in the U.S. Patients are asked to use this scale to rank the amount of pain they’re experiencing at the moment. However, as pain is a subjective experience, the numbers on the scale can’t accurately depict the amount and the type of pain a subject is feeling. For example, if a doctor’s 6 on the pain scale is less severe than what a patient might consider a six, that might lead to improper care. Also, this chart is in English, excluding those who aren’t English proficient to properly communicate their pain.
Questions
01
What does pain look like visually?
Developing a visual vocabulary that encaptures the different types of pain.
02
How do we communicate pain beyond words
Using visual indicators that can be understood by a global audience.
03
How do we acknowledge unique experiences of pain by expanding a preexisting visual vocabulary?
Cover a vast variety of descriptors that can be used to create personalized descriptions.
Audience
Children who don’t understand what emotions are yet
Adults who need to process their emotions slowly
People who have trouble communicating verbally
Process
Final Product
Testing with users
Reflections
01
Can only know if a product works by testing it, otherwise everything is theoretical.
When I went out to test my product, I quickly found out that my intentions when creating the cards was reaffirmed when the people interacting with it on their own.
02
Packaging material is a signficant with physical products
Products feel more intentional when there’s thought put into everything, including materials.
Conclusion
All in all, while Tell Us How You Feel may not cover all aspects of pain, the hope is that through the existing cards more people are able to understand their pain and convey it properly so they get the help they need. In the future, I hope to expand this project by creating customizable cards so that users can but their own descriptors and definitions for pain to further push the personalization of the cards.
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