R U OK?
RUOK? is a charity with the goal of reducing suicide and self harm by encouraging people to ask their friends and colleagues a simple little question 'Are you OK?' In a society of selfies and vacuous conversations about celebrity and sports, their challenge is to educate people on how to ask, listen, encourage and follow up to ensure effective conversations are had, and help is given to those struggling with life.
A CONVERSATION CAN CHANGE A LIFE
For this year's R U OK? campaign, we wanted to reframe the conversation from one focused on talking about depression, to one focussed on the positivity and power of lives changed through conversation.
We wanted to acknowledge the people who'd already asked the question and remind them how a caring conversation can take someone out of the darkness, into a brighter place. By creating an interesting way for people to say 'Thanks', we've empowered people to celebrate the start of something new. By packaging the message in a beautifully crafted origami envelope, the message of Thanks can remain private to each user, but the positivity is shared.
UNIQUE STORIES, UNIQUE ORIGAMI
Our aim was to do justice to each word in those notes - unique and heartfelt. To elevate these letters from just an email or a text message on a screen.
For this, we found inspiration far from our shores, in a Japanese custom - the revered letter writing and folding art form of origami. Traditionally prayers were written on the paper and these words meditated upon as they are folded into beautiful shapes.
When each letter is sent, through the code we are algorithmically analysing and looking for the unique elements of their letter, looking at the words used, how often they appear. This uniqueness is used to plot out 3D co-ordinates to make a one of a kind folded origami shape via WEBGL (3D in the browser). Like snowflakes, no two origami pieces are alike.
These were designed around beautiful coloured patterns inspired by traditional origami that all hold different and relevant meanings, deriving the colours from the R U OK? brand identity.
Thousands of unique thank you notes each with their own unique origami shape. These can be shared on social networks, via a link, or printed out and folded by hand with instructions on how to create the unique fold.
HIDING COMPLEXITIES
This project was one of the most complicated builds I have been involved with, ironically because we tried to keep the complexity below the surface, so that the experience viewed, felt as organic and natural as possible. The end result might look simple, but the technology and use of javascript frameworks pushed front and back-end infrastructure (AngularJS, BabylonJS, Node.js and ExpressJS) to its limits to ensure seamless integration across multiple devices, browsers and channels.
R U OK? DAY
The tool functioned as a digital presence for the bus tour, where with each stop, people were encouraged to share their own message of thanks in person, and online.
The campaign ran for the month leading up to and including R U OK? Day. The campaign had thousands of people writing letters to thank someone who has taken the time to have a conversation. The total reach from shared messages on social networks is already well over 100,000.
