Native Health Challenge

Columbia University School of Social Work

Columbia University's School of Social Work needed to create an engaging pilot program to encourage and empower Native American youth to improve their dietary habits. The team asked FableVision to create a program that showcased nutritional information in a framework that will appeal to 9–16 year-olds.

FableVision created an all-Native American OurSpace website where users create their own page and explore the pages of various "friends." Instead of moving linearly through dry, academic content, users click through a non-linear environment of age-appropriate MySpace-like pages. Using avatars representing four members of the user's peer group, each with a unique style and personality, we embedded nutrition content in blogs, pictures, forums, e-mail, animated videos, visitor comments, slide shows, and IM–using the voice of the target age group. We also included non-nutritional information intended to enhance pride in Native American culture.