Practicing good hygiene and sanitation is an important step in staying safe and healthy. However, people without stable housing or who are living in a temporary shelter or outdoor community often have less control of their environment. Knowing that falling ill can be devastating for someone in a vulnerable situation, King County Public Health wanted to provide the best information possible to facilities that serve people who are experiencing homelessness.
Public Health had existing sanitation and hygiene guides that were full of great information, but were text-heavy and jargon-dense. In order to better serve the needs of staff, volunteers, clients and residents, they knew they needed to reimagine the guide into something that used simple language, substituted illustrations for text, and, above all, was easy to use.
Fortunately, EnviroIssues knows a thing or two about decoding dense information. By facilitating an information gathering session, identifying key users, and audience testing a draft section, we arrived at a modular design that offers cascading levels of detail. The final guide has eight main sections that focus on topics ranging from disease prevention to pet management. Each section is anchored by an infographic page using bold iconography and sparse language that is easily scannable for someone on the go. These pages can also be pulled out as stand-alone posters for easy reference.
Once the full guide was completed, King County Public Health sent it out to local service providers to collect additional input. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and the main question from providers was “When can we get a copy?” Since then, the guide has been distributed to hundreds of facilities that serve people experiencing homelessness throughout and beyond King County – taking one more step towards keeping our community members safe and healthy.
You can view the full guide here.
