Young Faces of ALS
User Interface for an advocacy group
Visual Design, User Research, Brand Identity Design / Mar - Sep 2020
Challenges
The Young Faces of ALS (YFALS) formed in 2009 by starting initiatives like the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness and funding for ALS research. However, the YFALS program lost traction in recent years. Without new engaging resources, group members, and activity, the group cannot succeed in its mission to end ALS.
Show ALS impacts young people and people of all ages, genders, and races
Encourage new members to join like newly diagnosed and impacted young people
Re-energize the program and brand to empower young people to collaborate to end ALS
An advocacy group for young people impacted by ALS. The group started more than ten years ago with the start of the Ice Bucket Challenge, but has since lost energy and support.
Personas
Amit
Amit is a young person with ALS who needs to meet other young people with ALS because he is scared of his diagnosis and doesn’t want to go through living with ALS alone.
—“When I got my diagnosis I was terrified and had never heard of ALS. I need to find a community that will support me. Hopefully I will be able to give back one day too”
Anne
Anne is a young person with ALS and YFALS member who needs a way to spread awareness and fundraise for treatments because she wants to stop ALS from impacting future generations.
—“I want to spend the rest of my time helping to make the world a better place, a place that doesn’t know what ALS is”
Sabina
Sabina is a young professional whose dad passed away from ALS two years ago who needs a way to connect with young people impacted by ALS because she wants do all she can to prevent the disease from taking more people.
—”I do everything I can to work with my community for causes I believe in”
A user journey for Amit to get to know and connect with the group
Starting the Design
-
![]()
How might we exercise
Before jumping into visuals, I came up with a few thought-provoking questions to guide my brainstorming
-
![]()
Crazy eights exercise
To transition into the design phase, I brainstormed solutions in a crazy eights exercise
-
![]()
Paper wireframes
I used paper wireframes to think about how the design could be user-friendly, mostly for mobile users since the target audience is young, and approachable to people who might have been recently diagnosed with ALS
-
![Digital wireframes]()
Digital wireframes
I wanted to create organized sections, expressive layouts, and mobile-friendly designs in my digital wireframes
The Solution
The YFALS website and brand welcomes young people impacted by ALS to connect and help spread awareness about the incurable disease.
Group members share their voices and new members are encouraged to join and get support they need through the updated platform.
Challenge 1
Impactful shareable imagery
The updated brand features approachable but impactful shareable images that show the facts and realities of ALS.
Challenge 2
Website that speaks to connection
Creating a website that was inviting for those who might be newly impacted by a fatal disease welcomes the most important audience.
Challenge 3
Energetic brand imagery
New bright and dynamic brand elements represent the personality and energy of the group members.
Sticker Sheet
I created a set of iconography and design system to build a consistent experience across the website and brand.
Takeaways
The updated website and brand helped connect people impacted by ALS to grow that community into a larger supportive network.
What I learned
By redesigning the YFALS website, I learned that empathizing with users, rather than focusing on marketing or monetary goals of the company, to design a more human-centered product is what connects people and builds relationships, which is the most important goal.
Next steps
Continue to get user feedback on the website redesign to improve the experience and make meaningful connections with people impacted by ALS
Continue fostering a growth in this community with design