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Article published In: Cultural Turns in Information Design I
Edited by Juhri Selamet and Nina Hansopaheluwakan Edward
[Information Design Journal 30:1] 2025

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Culturally responsive information design in grassroots menstrual health advocacy

ORCiD logo with link | Texas Tech University
Published online: 29 January 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.25015.gan
Abstract
This article examines how grassroots menstrual health advocates re-author global communication templates into culturally resonant designs. Drawing on multimodal artifacts and interviews from South Asia, East Africa, and Latin America, I examine typography, color, layout, iconography, and infrastructural strategies as rhetorical resources that redistribute authority, create emotional safety, and sustain circulation under fragile conditions. From this analysis, I propose the Culturally Responsive Information Design (CRID) framework: community epistemic authority, responsive design adaptation, infrastructural responsiveness, and decolonized translation processes. CRID advances the cultural turn in information design and offers guidance for UX, technical communication, and public health scholars and practitioners.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background and literature review
  • 3.Methodology and methods
    • 3.1Case selection
    • 3.2Data collection
      • 3.2.1Advocacy artifacts (n = 13)
      • 3.2.2Semi-structured interviews (n = 10)
      • 3.2.3Informational staff interviews (n = 3)
    • 3.3Data analysis
    • 3.4Reflexivity and trustworthiness
  • 4.Findings and analysis
    • 4.1Typography as epistemological positioning
    • 4.2Color as emotional safety
    • 4.3Layout as social choreography
    • 4.4Iconography and symbol hybridization
    • 4.5Infrastructural responsiveness
  • 5.Discussion and implications: The CRID framework
    • 5.1From themes to principles
    • 5.2Advancing information design conversations
    • 5.3Menstrual health communication: Unique design challenges and opportunities
    • 5.4Practical implications for design practice
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
References (29)
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