EXHIBITION/EDITORIAL DESIGN
Dysphagia Bistro: A Pop Up Cafe and Exhibition
Designing an immersive, cafe-based experience to raise public awareness of feeding and swallowing disorders (dysphagia).
Overview
Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) affects up to 15 million adults in the United States each year. Nevertheless, many are unaware of its existence and implications. My past professional experience diagnosing and treating swallowing disorders prompted me to consider ways to raise public awareness about this debilitating condition. Drawing upon my design background, I sought to devise a way to inform the general public about dysphagia in a manner more engaging than say, a stereotypical information pamphlet. I strove to create an experience that would engage the general public and make them eager to continue learning about this life-altering condition.
The Space
Dysphagia Bistro is a pop-up café staffed by speech-language pathologists (and speech-language pathology students), who work the most directly with swallowing disorders. The walls of the bistro are adorned by large, radiographic imagery that depict the intricacies of normal and disordered swallowing. Visitors order food and drinks from a menu but instead of selecting specific items, they order food and liquid based upon texture. This exposes individuals to the notion of diet texture modification, a daily reality for many who suffer from dysphagia. After completion of the meal, visitors are encouraged to reflect upon their experience by recording their thoughts on notecards and adhering them to the bistro walls. Their thoughts become a part of the exhibit for future diners.
The Exhibition Catalog
All Dysphagia Bistro visitors receive an exhibition booklet which adds informational context to the primary “activity” of ordering a modified texture diet. The booklet explains why individuals with dysphagia often require modified texture diets while touching upon dysphagia causes, characteristics, and treatment. Because such an abundance of information runs the risk of becoming too dense and difficult to absorb, I chose to break up text with image spreads; this also gave me the opportunity to bring in the radiographic images from the physical space. While these “break" spreads offer some informational context, their primary purpose in the booklet is to illustrate the various body systems that can be affected by swallowing disorders. Ideally, this will encourage viewers to view dysphagia (a disorder they’ve likely never heard of) as less of an abstract idea and more of an anatomic, physical process.
In an additional attempt to mitigate the risk of information and visual overload, I opted to present text in either short paragraphs or lists. I made generous use of negative space to make the text feel more approachable and eliminated any superfluous design elements. The ultimate product took on a fairly clean, minimalistic style that was both informational and approachable.
