University of Manchester – Keeping well at home

Shortly after the Covid-19 crisis struck the UK, we were approached by Jane McDermott, a representative of the Policy Research Unit – Older People, National Institute for Health Research at the University of Manchester with a very specific project.

The brief was to design an informational booklet that would be printed and distributed to all the over 50s, within the Greater Manchester area. It had been identified that many of the age group wouldn’t engage with an online PDF. Despite this expectation by October 2020, the project had received over 10,000 downloads.

This was a direct response to being tasked by various stakeholders, including the Department for Health and Public Health England, to write a set of instructions on how older people could stay fit and healthy, safely, at home during the lockdown period.

Typically, the type of literature with this sort of information is at best patronising, poorly designed and produced using clip art.

Working with a visual brief of, “make it fun and pop”, we developed a contemporary illustration style to convey the exercises, complimented by a friendly design tone and typography that clearly communicated the information within the brochure.

Since the booklet would also be available online, we also considered The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA (a set of internationally recognised standards.) and meet offline RNIB accessibility rules.

The final PDF also needed be web reader-friendly and pass all accessibility checks.

The project spanned over two years and we delivered adapted regional versions for Greater Manchester area, Leeds, Liverpool, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Bute, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Cheshire and delivered updated content for regions in Canada and Australia. We also produced a winter version for many of these regions, with updated information.

Over the two years the project was active we printed and delivered over 300,000 copies to an age specific audience across the UK.

The project has been featured on the World Health Organisation website.

98% of people surveyed who received the first edition of the booklet loved the fact it had been printed and posted to them during a time of extreme social upheaval, irrespective of their level of internet access.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said, “In Greater Manchester we want to make sure everyone, no matter what their situation, can access the information and advice they need to keep safe and well during the outbreak. Not everyone in the city-region can access the internet and this booklet will go a long way to ensuring that our older residents can find out what they need to do to look after themselves and their family.”