Co-designing Comics to Communicate and Understand the Lived Experience

I feel like I need to start this post by saying I find it sad I have not been able to blog more frequently. When I’ve had time I haven’t had the energy.

My workload this year has increased considerably and often within very short notice. The rapid code switching is exhausting, and the feeling that one cannot realistically ever be on top of everything is demoralising and, frankly, depressing. Nevertheless I continue working hard to ensure I can keep finding joy -or, to use a term I learned recently, buoyancy- in the tasks that motivate me and I find useful not just for me but for many others too.

One of these joyfuyl, motivating instances took place yesterday, when my friend, collaborator and fellow Mexican-in-exile Francisco de la Mora came to my Design Justice lecture (an MSc module within the Human-Computer Interaction Design programme) to talk with students about our work together and his latest book.

Francisco and I introduced the use of comics as a collaborative medium for communicating lived experiences and complex research topics and described and contextualised the work we have done together over the years as Symbola Comics, a project that co-designs comics with researchers, communities and institutions to translate academic knowledge into accessible visual narratives.

Through several case studies, including projects on migration, open access, disability and the COVID-19 pandemic, the talk illustrated how comics can support research communication, public engagement and Design Justice approaches. The talk also outlined the collaborative methodology behind these comics and invited reflection on the potential of comics as a tool for inclusive knowledge sharing and social storytelling.

Francisco concluded presenting the work behind his latest book, The Most Amazing Saturday Morning Rubbish Club (SelfMadeHero, 2025), a graphic novel he illustrated, written by Bill Tuckey. Both Francisco and Bill have first-hand experience of parenting children with Special Needs, and therefore the book puts the lived experience of SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) children at centre-stage.

Following the class yesterday, we have now openly shared the deck of slides from his talk yesterday on figshare as:

de la Mora, Francisco; Priego, Ernesto (2026). Communicating the Lived Experience: Co-designing Comics (10 March 2026 Design Justice Guest Lecture Slides). figshare. Presentation. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31652803.v2

I am very proud of how students interacted with the material presented and Francisco as a guest speaker showing genuine interest throughout and asking relevant, critical, important questions and providing generous, intelligent feedback.

I continue to strongly believe that comics are an important part of the participatory research and community-led design ecosystem. Having this opportunity to feature Francisco’s work within a Design Justice disciplinary context was a welcome source of joy. It brought buoyancy in what are currently complex and difficult times.

(We also had cake and muffins during the break and the sugar rush was also welcome!)