Eye Disease Symptoms From Type 2 Diabetes
Masters Research Project
Advisor: Leah Lebowicz, MS, EdD, CMI
Defense committee: Karen Bucher, MA, CMI, FAMI and Rex Twedt III, MS
Content Expert: Jay Herde, RoxAnne LaVallie-Unabia, and Cynthia Gourneau, PharmD
Client: American Indian Health Services of Chicago, Inc
Role: Creative Direction, Research, Script Writing, Storyboarding, Asset Creation, 2D Animation
Duration: Research and IRB approval - 6 months | Script Writing to Final Animation - 2 months
Research Question
What decisions about representation should be considered when designing an animation about type 2 diabetes for a Native American audience in Chicago?
First 3 Pages of Storyboard
Character Development
Informed from surveys of preferences of representation
Significance + Impact
The proposed inquisition into relevant representation considerations helped identify AI/AN symbols for representation in the field of biomedical visualizations. Additionally, this research has the potential to aid in the development of medical illustrations and animations that include representations of American Indian and Alaska Native populations. By creating a conversation with this community, it allowed the target audience to reclaim the narrative about their ideals of representation and empower them pseudo-ownership of visualizations meant to represent them.
This has the ability to impact a community that is usually not represented in biomedical visualizations and potentially may impact the way they relate to the content.