AIONX® is a tech/healthcare start-up that manufactures self-cleaning covers for high-touch surfaces in hospitals, with a current focus on ICU's. They came to Beyond Spots & Dots asking for a new illustration set to communicate new research and evidence that shows there is a network that germs travel to infect the entire patient's room and nurse's station.

The following illustration is what we received from the client as a jumping off point:

There was a lot of back and forth with the client on this project since the idea of network science was their discovery, so we had to create a way that communicates it within a few seconds.

For round 1a, I de-cluttered the illustration by distributing each item in an array so the network lines were visible and their destination was obvious. Green meant that the network was intact, and red meant that the item was out of the network - therefore clean.

The client felt that there was not enough emphasis on the high-touch surfaces that were covered and now clean so I created another iteration.

Round 1b created emphasis on the high-touch, or heavy traffic, areas in the network by using line weights and different shades of green. The other network lines are there, but with a much lighter weight and a darker shade.

The client did not think enough emphasis was made on the high-touch surfaces, back to Illustrator!

Round 1c created even more emphasis on the focus surfaces, by making them bigger, making their node (circle) bigger, and continuing to use heavy line weights to show how much they influence the transmission network.

The client felt we should rethink this scenario by showing the two separate areas that the network takes place: the patient's room and the nurse's station.

While working through Round 2, and sketches from the client, it became clear that we needed to make this a 3 step illustration, rather than 2.

Round 2 is a drastic change from Round 1, but a little more visually descriptive of what is actually happening. The network lines are gone, and the scene is split up between the patient's room and the nurse's station.

Instead of network lines, I used small germ-like shapes that based on their density around each object will show if it is dirty, being cleaned, or clean. Step 1 of Round 2 is above. It depicts a normal scenario. I switched from using red and green to communicate the network to green germs and AIONX® light blue to show the product placement, as well as tie it into the overall brand.

Step 2 shows the products cleaning and therefore making the germs disappear.

Step 3 shows the clean areas in each scenario.

After the client saw these iterations, he loved the idea of splitting up the scenes, but wanted to go back to the original array of items.

For round 3, we kept 3 separate steps, but the key change lies in step 2, where it is clearly illustrated that the cleaning emanates across the network. Step 3 now also includes statistics from their research showing the percentage of different specific breeds of germs that were eliminated. Since we were now using data, some nodes in the network needed to be changed based on research and testing.

Step 1 shows a normal ICU transmission network.

Step 2 shows AIONX® products being placed on key high-touch surfaces and how doing so interrupts the transmission network.

Step 3 shows the final efficacy of using AIONX® products in a normal ICU scenario. Step 3 now also includes statistics from their research showing the percentage of different specific breeds of germs that were eliminated. Since we were now using data, some nodes in the network needed to be changed based on research and testing.

To learn in more detail from people who are way smarter than I am, please use the following link.

http://aionx.com/cleansurfaces/