The Liminal Space

All Projects

Life Support

 
 

What was the challenge?

Covid-19 has changed both how we live, and how we die. Not only has the pandemic impacted every aspect of our life, it has brought death and dying into our daily reality. Yet beyond the headlines and statistics, people are still not comfortable talking about death with their friends and families. This is having a huge impact on society, on our wellbeing and mental health, and our community support services. We wanted to find a way to help people take steps into difficult but essential conversations with loved ones, whatever their age or state of health.

Building on our knowledge and insight from previous work in death and dying we submitted the Life Support concept to Innovate UK’s ‘Business-led Innovation in response to Global Disruption’ competition. The ambition was to create an engaging digital experience that could support and enable everyone to find their own way to start talking about the end of life. We were awarded funding in summer 2020.

 
 
 
 

What did we do?

We developed Life Support as an engaging and informative mobile-first website. With content supported by The Academy of Medical Sciences, Life Support provides practical routes into the difficult conversations we all need to have with loved ones to understand what matters most to us at the end of life.

Designed for use on smartphones, reflecting the role they play in helping us start conversations and share information with friends and family in our day-to-day lives, the site includes practical tips and advice as well as personal experiences and expert insights on topics such as what dying looks like, how to have a dignified death, and overcoming the fear of talking about death.

The user experience was designed to enable navigation through the topic in a way that is approachable, accessible and provides a sense of agency. We took what we had learned about the ways people chose to engage with content about death and dying in our real-world installation and translated that to an online experience; creating a way for people to meander, explore and discover.

 
 
 
 
 
 

We put a great deal of thought into the tone of Life Support, balancing the sensitivity of the topic with a creative approach that would make an engaging experience. The site is designed to be direct and clear, removing euphemisms and offering practical advice, and the look and feel mirror this with bold use of colour and typography, clean lines and simple shapes.

While the experience itself is digital, the conversation starters are intended to help you take the conversation offline, offering tools and tips to open up lines of communication in a form that are beautiful enough for people to want to share with family and friends, and bold enough to act as reminders when you happen upon them again saved in your phone.

Life Support launched on 1st December 2020 and has received a substantial amount of positive feedback across social channels as well as articles in the press. 

We are now looking to build partnerships with forward-thinking organisations and investors. To find out more please contact amanda@the-liminal-space.com

 

COLLABORATORS

Digital Producer – Michelle Feuerlicht
UX Designer – Alice Parsons
Developer – Jonny Thaw

Film + WebSarah Douglas