Chronic pain research animations and infographics for Canadian Veterans

English and French animations and companion infographics,
co-designed with Veterans and researchers

Overview

Canadian Veterans experience chronic pain at twice the rate of civilians. The Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence (CPCoE) improves pain management for Veterans by funding research.

We created four animations and two companion infographics to help CPCoE communicate their mission and share key research findings with Veterans. The promotional and priority-setting animations explain how CPCoE partners with Veterans to prioritize research and mobilize knowledge. The two research animations highlight urgent gaps: the absence of sex and gender data in chronic pain studies, and the lack of Veteran-identified health data across Canada.

The promotional animation is featured on the CPCoE homepage and the priority-setting animation is published on their research page. All the animations are published on the CPCoE Youtube channel and social media platforms. The companion infographics are designed to be downloadable resources or used as printed handouts.

Approach

Participatory design

We held advisory sessions with Veterans and worked closely with CPCoE subject matter experts throughout production. Their input shaped which research findings to highlight and how to represent the Veteran community in a way that felt both accurate and meaningful.

Health literacy & scientific accuracy

We applied Mayer's Multimedia Learning Principles to make data-heavy content clear. Content was grounded in peer-reviewed research and developed in close collaboration with CPCoE researchers. Complex findings and abstract concepts were paired with purposeful visuals: iconography distinguishing sex from gender using imagery relevant to Veterans, and a map of Canada using a folder icon to represent health data, making an abstract concept immediately visual while showing the scale of data across provinces.