Designing for Learning – Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace
Aurora teamed up with the leaders of the Workplace Mental Health team, a division of Opening Minds, to create an engaging workplace training program on psychological health and safety. This course is a carefully designed learning experience that blends effective visual communication design with modern technology to create a meaningful impact.
Opening Minds
Opening Minds is a leader in workplace mental health, offering innovative solutions through a highly skilled product team. Dedicated to creating safe, supportive, and empowering workplace environments, Opening Minds provides organizations with workplace mental health tailored training programs and cutting-edge resources. Their proactive approach enables businesses to address mental health challenges effectively, fostering long-term success for both employees and employers.
Meet the Workplace Mental Health Team
- Liz Horvath, Senior Advisor, Psychological Health and Safety
- Tiana Field-Ridley, Brand Manager, Psychological Health and Safety
Together, they bring expertise and passion to advancing psychological health and safety in the workplace.
The Project
A Course to build safer, mentally healthier workplaces
The project, called Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, creates workplaces where employees thrive, not just perform.
Course Highlights:
- Why psychological health and safety in the workplace matters: Learn how it boosts well-being, productivity, and organizational value.
- Leadership’s role: Discover how people leaders drive change toward healthier work environments.
- Practical strategies: Gain actionable steps to foster lasting, positive organizational impact.
Why This Course?
Workplaces face rising challenges like stress, burnout, and mental health stigma. People leaders often lack the tools and training to address these issues effectively, leading to turnover, absenteeism, and decreased productivity.
This course breaks down stigma, offers proactive strategies, and equips organizations to create supportive environments where employees feel valued.
The Audience
This course was designed for managers in larger organizations and C-suite executives looking to integrate psychological health and safety into their workplaces.
Each group had different needs:
- Managers required tools to build support and plan implementation.
- Executives focused on aligning the initiative with organizational goals.
The course provided practical strategies to:
- Help managers recognize when employees might be struggling.
- Connect them to appropriate support.
- Implement accommodations to create a healthier, more productive workplace.
This approach aimed to address the specific challenges faced by leadership teams in a straightforward, actionable way.
Aurora’s Visual Communication Design Process
Aurora partnered closely with Opening Minds and subject matter experts, Liz and Tiana, to craft an engaging and impactful course. The process was highly collaborative, ensuring a polished final product that met both client goals and user needs.
Our Approach:
- Simplified learning: Content was split into two sections—foundational knowledge and actionable strategies—to provide clear, step-by-step guidance.
- Interactive engagement: Animated workplace scenarios, quick knowledge checks, and interactive elements kept learners engaged and made complex concepts easy to understand.
- Modern tech and design: Using Articulate Storyline and Adobe Character Animator, we brought real-world scenarios to life with custom animations and dynamic visuals.
The Challenge We Solved:
When it comes to building empathy and managing mental health challenges in the workplace, existing resources often fall short—either too surface-level or lacking practical application. We tackled this by creating a solution that’s hands-on, practical, and easy to follow.
Our team transformed a group workshop into an engaging, self-paced online course with animated scenarios, immersive visuals, and actionable insights. This shift ensured learners could access the content anytime, anywhere, while still achieving a meaningful learning experience.
High Touch Production
Small to medium-sized teams often struggle with projects like this, where rising production demands can quickly feel overwhelming. As a high-touch agency, we managed every step of animation and video production in-house. Filming on location in Vancouver and Toronto, we delivered a polished, cost-effective solution by combining dynamic animations with professional voice-over.
This project came with unique challenges. The course needed a strong foundation of knowledge to frame psychologically healthy workplaces. Coordinating interviews across Canada, managing multiple stakeholder reviews, and adapting to changing work environments required flexibility with scope and timelines.
Beyond producing the course, we developed supporting materials—social posts, one-pagers, a brand playbook, and a competitive analysis—resulting in a complete visual communications package.
The outcome? A clear, engaging, and actionable learning experience that simplifies a complex topic into something meaningful and easy to apply.
Impact Metrics
For an extended period, this course served as the primary source of revenue for Workplace Mental Health. Its success not only sustained the organization financially but also became the foundation for developing additional products and services. The online nature of the course allowed it to reach a wide audience, creating opportunities to expand the organization’s offerings and establish a broader impact in the field of mental health.
Client feedback
Our clients were thrilled with the completed eCourse. They praised the design, highlighting how the questions, interactions, and overall experience were seamlessly integrated. They deeply appreciated the care and effort put into creating something exceptional. The final product clearly exceeded expectations and left a lasting positive impression.
Designing great learning experiences
Designing great learning experiences isn’t just about creating good looking content. It’s about understanding what your audience really needs. We focus on clear, tailored solutions that address specific goals and challenges. By keeping the human experience front and center, we build strategies that boost engagement and make learning stick.
Ready to level up your learning programs? Let’s talk.
