Speaking up about microagresssions
Developing an engagement campaign that could address behaviors and raise concerns at the BBC.
About this project
Having previously delivered a campaign encouraging employees to 'Speak Up' as a response to a high-profile public inquiry on workplace abuse - the BBC wanted to shift the tone and develop a second campaign that addressed expected behaviors and encouraged self-reflection.
So what's the real issue?
It's pretty difficult for anybody to accept that something they may have said, or done, may offend another, particularly in the workplace. It's even more so when someone is also steadfast in their opinions and willing to go through formal proceedings. Unfortunately, these cases often take a long time before resolution, which has a knock-on effect for others - effectively creating traffic jams of complaints and frustrating everyone.
Above: Design charette from user workshop illustrating desired product feature.
Design challenges
Be Inclusive
I'd be developing a campaign for all 20k + employees, accounting for anyone aged 20-60+—anything from a recent graduate to senior citizens.
Make it stand out
Theirs a lot of 'visual-noise' in and about the BBC offices with it being a multidisciplinary public broadcaster. So to capture attention, any idea needed a nonconventional approach that a wide array of audiences could also interpret.
Self-reflection
Discrimination isn't an issue contained just to any particular place; it is omnipresent. We all have unconscious biases, and here I'd need to confront my own. I needed to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and recognize my experiences won't represent others lived experiences.
Creative role
I was responsible for everything on the creative side - research, ideation, campaign messaging, and campaign assets (print and digital).
Timescales from research to delivery were short, with just a month to have a campaign in place and ready for rollout.
It was clear from the outset that despite the short lead time, I'd need to allocate a large part of my time to research and understand the existing process the BBC employed for handling such issues.
Bottom: Comparison between the existing project page template and the new design using our page framework.
While researching the reported issues, a pattern appeared; many had escalated from microaggressions - comments that may appear to one throw-away, even complimentary yet offensive to the recipient or others. There was something in this; if we could raise awareness of issues early on and encourage people to be more self-aware, then perhaps we could reduce the number of problems further down the line.
Early iterations and mood boards drew on various styles. Still, words were at the forefront of any conflict, and it made sense to take a direct typographic approach to achieve the desired cut-through. For these explorations, I used statements from my research to create binary compositions demonstrating the conflict between intention and interpretation. These encouraged readers to consider how a comment may be interpreted differently, however innocuous its original intent.
Bottom: Digital assets for screensavers and billboards across the Met Police estates.
Delivering a solution
Shaping the identity alongside the client, we achieved a simple and straightforward solution that put messaging at its forefront. A monochrome palette consisting of just black and white meant for little distraction, pushing words to the fore and setting it apart from other communications across the BBC estates. We drew attention to particular words we deemed triggering by highlighting and shifting the baseline as if it was out of place in the sentence. In all, its simplicity made it very easy to manage and adapt quickly.
For the messaging we'd launch with, I suggested they be led by statements reflecting current affairs, using the momentum to focus attention inwardly. The topics the BBC chose to address as part of the campaign would indicate to employees' views and actions they deemed inappropriate in the workplace.
Bottom: Onboarding pop-up overlay introducing users to new features available on @work.
Having rolled out the campaign's first phase across the BBC, we wanted to make good on the promise of addressing real employee issues. The answer; crowdsourcing via an online employee amnesty box. Employees would be encouraged to anonymously submit their first-hand experience of microaggressions through their staff portal.
This collection would act as a repository for developing hyper-targeted creative assets to be delivered across BBC estates. Doing so allowed us to react to fundamental issues in near real-time across multi-locations. Moreover, we'd demonstrate BBC's unwavering commitment to addressing discrimination issues early in doing so at speed.
The simple nature of the campaign identity lent itself well to new creative assets being generated quickly by the BBC's internal teams. Moreover, being entirely typographical meant any concerns regarding anonymity or being directly targeted towards a particular group were minimized. This we hoped would empower more people to upload their suggestions without fear of repercussions or finger pointing.
Learnings outcomes
The BBC is a ubiquitous and iconic British institution, so the opportunity to work alongside them to tackle such an important issue was one I took great pride in. My decision to spend as much time as required on the research phase was the right one; in doing so, we unearthed a concept that'd seemingly gone unnoticed and touched on issues felt by so many. Further validation came from the Director of Internal Communications at the BBC, offering a 'standing ovation' and "respect to the designer who has done this and taken it all so seriously, creating something that will genuinely get to the heart of the issues."
Approaching such a sensitive job as a designer is sobering. It requires you to forgo trends to present a message with in-ambiguity to reach a broad audience. A healthy reminder that graphic communication is human-centered activity.
