One kit, one session.
Families needed their own.
Plum Tree is a not-for-profit. It helps young children with disability and their families build a good life together. A big part of their work was Pictability, a visioning tool built around connecting through touch and pictures. Families use it to set goals and find a clear path forward.
The tool worked and families responded to it, but there was only one. That single kit travelled from session to session and never went home with the families who needed it most.
At every step we had to think about cost, production and accessibility. We also had to think about the families' real lives. Many parents were exhausted or burnt out, and many came from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Every family deserved their own Pictability: something to take home, return to and keep using long after the session ended. Plum Tree · project brief
One brief that took
many iterations.
Pictability was refined over many years. It was prototyped quickly, tested with hundreds of families and reshaped by the feedback that came back. Each round of testing showed us something new. Maybe a part didn't land for a CALD family, or a step was too complex for a parent running on empty.
We also made picture stories to walk families through the positive psychology behind Plum Tree's work. These methods are complex, so we drew them in a way that feels accessible and human, not clinical.
A kit that any family
can use without instruction.
We redesigned the printed kit so every family could have their own. They can take it home, use it without help and come back to it over time. We shaped every part around the families' lived experience, including how much they could take on and their cultural background.
We also reworked the box so it posts cheaply and arrives in one piece. That meant families anywhere could get one, and it let the kit reach far beyond a single organisation or region.
Over 2,000 kits sent out to families in Australia and overseas.
Accessibility set the design brief, right from the very start.
We knew the families using this kit were already carrying a lot. So every decision had to make their day a little easier.
We kept CALD families in mind the whole way through. Wherever we could, we used pictures instead of text, so the kit works across languages. It's also ready to translate and share more widely without starting again from scratch.
- Product design & development
- Visual communication
- Visual storytelling
- Co-design & HCD