<aside> 🔎
Overview
I lead design for InnovaRx Global Health (lovingly “IGH”) first as the lead designer at Milan Global and now as an independent design consultant. I led the end-to-end design for their websites as well as the collaterals for both IGH and their sister company Kartan Pharma to earn trust and reach the Gambian diaspora to enable access to quality healthcare in Africa.
</aside>
This is Dr. Badjie. Dr. Badjie and I have never met in person yet, we are both at a point in our professional relationship where he can send me an pitch deck for an urgent design revamp in 12 hours and I can request access to files at his 12AM with the utmost confidence that we got each other. Dubbed by our colleague as “charming storyteller”, Dr. Badjie, ironically reached out to us at Milan Global to help tell the IGH story for investors. IGH was my the first project I led end-to-end all by myself.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown and heavier are the stories to tell that are most impactful. I was flummoxed for 2 whole days for I did not know how ever am I going to do justice to all that IGH is doing for the Gambian diaspora.
<aside>
Dr. Ismail Badjie
</aside>
<aside>
Team InnovaRx Global Health
</aside>
I felt so intimidated by the gravity of the impact they are doing with their work. I wondered how ever is my design going to do justice to it. What aesthetic do I pick? What do they see first? Should I do a video in the hero or would it screw up the loading time?
I went back to basics and broke it down on pen, paper, and an empathy map. When in doubt, focus on the users. This is a corporate website to showcase their work to future investors and partners who probably come across thousands of stories claiming impact. What they need to see is the ethos to back it up. That is gaping hole the design needed to cement. Sleek, bento-box style design followed by a consistent CTA for connection.
Thus was born: https://www.innovarxglobal.com/
Ever since I had started working at IGH, I had hinted constantly that I needed to get my hands dirty with their Shopify site. I dreamt about how to fix this UX nightmare. Finally, in 2024, I was blessed with access to build up their new Shopify site.
<aside>
The scariest part of IGH’s old store was it looked like Amazon knock-off for medicines which ( you can guess had you paying attention) is a steep landslide from the premium feel of their corporate site.
</aside>
<aside>
One of the biggest problems IGH tackles is counterfeit medication. We had to position quality healthcare as an empowering choice each Gambian can make because IGH has made it accessible.
</aside>
In this update, I focused the entire journey on positioning accessibility to quality healthcare as an empowering choice that Gambians can make themselves or the diaspora can guarantee for their loved ones at home.
<aside>
</aside>
<aside>
A key feature of IGH’s healthcare access are the subscription plans. Many Gambians have families across the oceans in Europe, and North America who are deeply concerned for the health of their loved ones back at home. IGH, until now had been relying on word of mouth referrals for a service they have been exemplarily delivering these concerned loved ones for long time: peace of mind.
</aside>
<aside>
</aside>
<aside>
</aside>
Remember the urgent pitch-deck I mention at the beginning of the page? Did I also mention that it was a hundred-slide long deck? And that I was in a layover to my first international trip?
If you are worried this is going to a toxic-workplace story, I implore you to talk to more entrepreneurs. I have worked all my professional life with start-ups and entrepreneurs. This was one of those happy emergencies where a huge opportunity was knocking at IGH’s door and the team was gearing up for the big pitch at Stanford. Dr. Badjie had already laid out his beautiful story behind IGH, what they do, and the future they envision for African healthcare.
My job was simply to ensure that the design did not come in the way of his story. This story sticks with me when I think about the assumptions we make about the job of a designer. Sometimes (read “most times”) we need to ensure that the design reduces inconveniences that the user did not even realise they had. If I redesigned the entire slide deck purely for aesthetic reasons, it would make the presenter’s job even harder.
The role of design here is to aid, not attract. Without changing much within the content of the slide, I ensure each slide was consistent with the next so attention stays focused on our charming storyteller and not on the tiny misalignments and jarring icon style difference between each slide.
<aside>
Pitch deck templates (without actual content because confidentiality)
</aside>
<aside>
As a part of our ongoing design support, I was also entrusted with internal employee handouts that needed to be current with the brand.
I designed a cohesive core care code across various touchpoints: wallpaper, social media posts, flyers for external distribution, and internal flyers specific to each department.
</aside>
<aside>
</aside>
<aside>
</aside>
<aside>
Dr. Badjie entrusted us with refreshing the logos for their sister brand, KARTAN. He was insistent on the continuing the historical attachment to the pestle from the previous logo as a reminder of how medicine began in pestle and mortar.
We created a brand-new logo for their new pharmacy, incorporating the pestle and redesigned it for their US-based branch, KARTANÂ Health, to ensure brand alignment across all locations.
</aside>
<aside> <img src="/icons/username_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/username_yellow.svg" width="40px" />
</aside>