Never Just a Smoke
As the Lead Product Designer at Beyond, I was deeply involved in two significant campaigns with Duncan Channon for the California Tobacco Control Program.
The 'Never Just a Smoke' campaign sought to expose the hidden dangers of social smoking, particularly among young adults who don’t typically identify as smokers.
Our primary goal was to reshape perceptions, highlighting the health risks associated with casual smoking habits. To achieve this, we built a digital campaign that combined compelling storytelling with interactive elements, aiming to educate and motivate users to rethink their smoking behaviors and take definitive steps towards cessation.
my role
Lead Product Designer
Year
2018-2019
Skills
UX Design
Web Design
Interaction Design
Social smoking hurts more than you think
This campaign aimed to change the perception of social smoking from a harmless habit to a serious health risk. With new forms of tobacco, like hookah and e-cigarettes, misleading young people about the dangers of occasional use, our objective was to create a campaign that would educate and assistateively engage these 'smokers in denial,' focusing on communities that are at higher risk.
We wanted the site to feel like a conversation among peers. They've made the first step to come to the site. We needed to create an experience that doesn’t lose them right away. How do we encourage these users to make an active choice for themselves about their smoking?
The simple, mobile-first design, featuring stylized photography by Pari Dukovic and a conversational tone help ground the users in their own worlds. Then, we used interactive elements to challenge common perceptions about the health consequences of social smoking in a way that feels relatable, interesting and illuminating—not didactic.
We also built a sense of community support through user-generated content, giving social smokers relatable insights and motivations to quit.
