I Had Cancer (IHC) was founded by Mailet Lopez, Squeaky's co-founder, and was ideated after her experience with being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 at only 33 years old. I Had Cancer aimed to connect individuals affected by cancer, providing a unique support system and a platform for sharing stories and knowledge, becoming a transformative resource, revolutionizing the global response to a cancer diagnosis, and have connected thousands of people in the cancer community to find a place to discuss and share personal experiences for more than a decade.
One of the main important features of I Had Cancer is its ability to help users connect with other members of the website. I worked with the web design and development teams and collaborated with them to help develop a search function feature that allows users to find and connect with individuals based on specific criteria such as location, age, gender, year of diagnosis, cancer type, and member type. With the 'Find Someone' search feature, IHC members can establish connections and discover someone they can openly share and discuss a wide range of cancer-related topics.
In addition, we developed a user-centric profile feature that empowers our members to personalize their profile page to help them to connect and create meaningful relationships with their connections. This peer-to-peer platform creates a safe environment where users can share their personal stories, experiences, and perspectives with a supportive and engaging community, giving the users a way to actively participate in multiple ways by encouraging interaction and collaboration among its members. It's a space where they can also vent, release their emotions, and find solace in knowing they are not alone in navigating the challenges of cancer.
Since the very beginning of IHadCancer, IHC has made it a mission to use the power of social media to reach as many survivors, fighters, and supporters as they possibly can. Through impactful campaigns like #5words2cancer and their heartfelt "Dear Cancer" section, we've built a genuine community where our primary focus is to uplift and assist one another in any way they can. As a designer, I helped with creating templated assets to help the marketing produce social media graphics to get members of the IHC community to engage and interact outside of the website platform.
"The New Normal" is an engaging video series featuring Mailet Lopez, the Founder of IHC, and AnnMarie Giannino, owner of StupidDumbBreastCancer. As both cancer survivors and close friends, they have collaborated to create an insightful and unfiltered mini-series. Through heartfelt conversations, they explore and discuss their personal experiences with their post-cancer journeys and address the unique challenges that arise after triumphing over cancer. This thought-provoking series offers a relatable perspective to many individuals who resonate and who have navigated the remarkable hurdles of cancer survival.
I had the opportunity to be part of the production team for this web series, where I played a vital role in supporting the Creative Director and assisting the video production team as a backup camera operator. My main focus was to ensure a seamless and efficient filming process, contributing to the timely setup and capturing high-quality footage that would greatly facilitate the post-production editing phase for the latest season of the series.
In addition to my role during filming, I was also fortunate to contribute to the creation of a dedicated landing page on the IHC website, specifically designed for the web series. This landing page serves as a centralized hub, bringing together all the captivating videos from the series in one convenient location. Our aim was to make it effortless and enjoyable for IHC members to access and immerse themselves in the entire series, whether they prefer using the landing page or exploring the content on the IHC YouTube Channel.
Another contribution I made with the series is helping develop the intro graphics for the web series. IHC wanted a fun and easy to understand intro, that would help first time viewers to understand what their show is about. We collaborated on a solution where the words of different topics that The New Normal Series would talk about in their series, would animate in quickly and fall into a pile, and transition to the intro logo for each video. You can see an example in the video below.
