Responses by Liviu Avasiloiei, senior designer; and Alexandra Mitoi, senior copywriter, Designed by Liviu & Alexandra.

Background: Living with OCD is a personal project created for Mental Health Awareness Month. The project idea came about when a close friend was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We realized then that most people think OCD is about washing your hands and organizing when, in reality, it’s an isolating disorder that traps people in their heads and consumes and upends their lives.

The website has two main goals: first, to create awareness and educate people on OCD, a disorder that ranks seventh on the World Health Organization’s list of most disabling illnesses but is still often misdiagnosed, misunderstood and trivialized; and second, to become a safe space where people can share their OCD journeys and bring themselves some relief while also helping people not to feel alone if they’re struggling.

Larger picture: Only the website is live for now, but the project will also expand with a social media component focused on sharing OCD stories and helpful resources.

Design core: The website’s purpose is to give users a basic but clear understanding of OCD and a starting point in case they need help. Well-planned information architecture and easy-to-read content were key features to achieving this purpose. Easy navigation and the separation of ideas and sections were also very important.

Favorite details: The 3-D illustration style because it feels fresh, helps communicate abstract ideas in unexpected ways and gives a distinct character to the entire narrative that makes it stand out.

Challenges: Finding the balance between content and visuals. There’s so much to say about OCD, but we wanted the site to feel approachable. Another challenge was expressing abstract concepts through 3-D illustrations; this was the most time-consuming part of the website but also very exciting since we got to experiment with Cinema 4D.

New lessons: While not new, this project reminded us of an important lesson that might sound cliche, but it’s essential to embody after the last years of living through a pandemic: be kind to others because you never know what they are going through.

Divergent paths: We would like to explain and visualize the section about OCD types differently, but that’s what updates are for!

Navigation structure: The navigation menu is straightforward, primarily addressing users interested in reading or sharing stories. The ultimate goal of the website is to collect diverse stories and create a sense of community for those who feel isolated by OCD.

Special features: Multiple special navigation features—horizontal and parallax scrolling, different dropdowns, and an anchor menu bar—combine to help deliver health information in a friendly, easy-to-follow way.

Technology: The website was designed in Figma and developed entirely in Webflow. The illustrations were created using Cinema 4D and integrated as Lottie animations.