Housing Works is an AIDS services organization that works to end homelessness and AIDS through sustainable entrepreneurial businesses. One such business is running healthcare clinics across New York City. Familiar was tasked with creating an inclusive, welcoming site that would engage with the Housing Works client community and integrate with their existing healthcare brand language.
Our work included, strategy, art direction, design, development, and content migration.
The Website
Illustration
A challenge we faced during the project was not alienating the clients that Housing Works serves. When surveyed clients had complained that Housing Worksβ photography poorly represented the racial diversity and gender expression that makes up their vibrant community. We worked closely with a talented illustrator named Ivan Bravo to create a visual language of friendly, playful and curiously diverse characters for the site.
Navigation
Housing Works clients sometimes find themselves in temporary living situations, at or below the poverty line, in addition to being at risk for or living with HIV or AIDS.
Clients are looking for healthcare services that are either free or low cost at a clinic that will be familiar with queer, HIV+ and transgender individuals. Thinking about the needs of this diverse, multi-lingual, low-income population, we worked to create clear, user-friendly language and content guidelines that emphasized surfacing useful information front-and-center.
Intake Process
The main organizational goal of the site is to connect potential and existing clients to the healthcare they need. Every single page on the site includes a prominent call to action to help move potential clients into care.
Collaborators
Illustrations by Ivan Bravo