Some time back, Ocean was commissioned by the International Labour Organisation to help provide clarity around one of their programmes, Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining (FACB). The challenge was to help them to better communicate their process to internal stakeholders, case officers and governing constituents. By clearly articulating the FACB process, we helped them to communicate the value they provide.

The FACB is a tripartite system which brings together the Government, employers and workers to support workers’ rights. It gives governments the information that they need in order to assess and act on employment issues in their country’s primary industries.

We designed a visual system to help organise the documentation ­– questionnaires, educational materials, reports, and timelines, in both physical and electronic formats – that the ILO would need when undertaking any of the FACB projects. Early on we learnt that case officers were often operating in testing environments that were isolated, hot and overcrowded, with no internet access. All of this was compounded by a very busy schedule. While there was a need for printed material, we knew the solution needed a more manageable digital format. Clearly defining the process made documents easier to find; more importantly, it helped the ILO staff and constituents to articulate the benefits of the process rather than the process itself.

The photos below represent the five phases of the project. Each of the cases contains the documentation that belongs to that phase. The same information architecture was applied to a bespoke tablet app. This meant that staff could easily access the same type of content when out in the field.