MY SKIN

Brief - Ignorance is malignant. Change skin cancer care: Develop an idea that not only raises awareness of skin cancer, specifically melanoma, in people of colour around the globe but also helps to drive diagnosis to allow people to receive the treatment they need.

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52% of initial melanoma diagnoses are at an advanced stage for Black people, against only 16% for White people.

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I started the project by learning for myself more about melanoma and the effects it has on different skin types. On darker skin tones melanoma appears differently and in different places on the body. On a person of colour you would look in areas that are not exposed to the sun. I then chose to conduct primary research to find out what the public knew about skin cancer, specifically melanoma. Initially the brief asked to target People of Colour who spend a lot of time outside. However I decided that the topic was very important that the outcome should have multiple touch-points and reach more audiences. From my research I found that there were 3 main audiences that my outcome would be targeted at: young people, GPs and educators.

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78.6% of the young people I surveyed did not know melanoma appeared differently on different skin colours.

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All groups identified were not fully educated on the project topic and did not know what to look out for on darker skin colours. Specifically young people found it difficult to keep track of changes in their moles, finding sunscreen suitable for their skin tone and did not see darker skin tones represented in resources about skin cancer. I decided to target GPs as well as they did not have many resources that showcased melanoma on People of Colour. During an interview with a GP I found that at University it was very common to only use White patients when practicing medicine. Additionally I decided to target people in the education sector as I found out from my online surveys that there was no teaching on how to identify melanoma on darker skin tones.

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My design solution involved 3 touch-points:

a campaign, app and a website.

 

The first was a campaign that aims to capture the attention of young people and prompt them to start thinking about skin cancer and if they check their body. Then material would be released advertising the new all-in-one skin checker app.

 

Young people would use the app to keep track of the different areas
of their skin. I chose to create an app as I found that the audience wanted an outcome that was convenient and accessible at the touch of a button. With the app you can make use of push notifications, that will remind you to perform your monthly skin check.

 

I created the website specifically for GPs and educators, to acts as a resource for information about skin cancer and melanoma on People of Colour. Additionally the website features a shopping page where people can purchase sun protection products for their skin type. On one page of the website there is a section where any audience can download resources influenced by the campaign to help spread the information they have learnt about skin cancer and melanoma in People of Colour.

 

If everyone is more educated on skin cancer and melanoma on People of Colour then the initial statistic can change and there will be less diagnoses of melanoma in the advance stages in Black people.