RISA Design review

Rapid Infrastructure and Service Assessment · Design options · Rough draft for internal discussion

An identity for a method, not an organisation.

RISA is an open assessment method developed by HI/Atlas Logistique, MapAction and Kobo, and meant to be handed over to national emergency management authorities. Its identity has to work on a website and a training deck, but above all on the three-page product a coordinator reads in under a minute, often printed, often next to a national authority’s logo. Here are six directions and eight logo concepts for round one.

How to review

Every themed page has a small review bar at the bottom. Use it to switch theme, page and logo without losing your place.

  1. Open a theme below. Each one has a home page, a style guide, the three-page product, the toolbox of SOPs and templates, a deployments map with a profile for each response, and a collateral page with the brief, training slides, event pieces and field kit.
  2. Start with the product. It is where the identity matters most. Then try other logos with the Logo menu in the review bar: every logo works in every theme.
  3. Pick your top three. For each favourite combination, click “Copy link” in the review bar and paste it into the shared review doc (the organisers will send the link) under your name, best first. Comments are welcome too, e.g. “A’s product frame with logo 4”.

Directions

Each builds on colours the three owners already use (see Colour). All six use the same content, from the RISA SOP v2, RISA in Brief v2 and the consortium notes, and the same fictional sample site. Figures and dates marked “TBC” are placeholders.

Logo concepts

Each concept works in one colour, survives a photocopier and reads at 16 px. None uses red, amber or green, which are reserved for status on the map. See the logos page for rationale, variants and co-branding with a national authority.

Design principles

From the RISA SOP, RISA in Brief and the consortium’s capacity-transfer notes, and applied to every option.

Legible in 60 seconds

Type, colour and layout serve a coordinator briefing from a printout. The product is a mission-ready document, not a research report.

Status colours are reserved

Open, restricted and closed (and working, partly, not working) use one shared, colour-blind-safe set. No brand uses red, amber or green.

Survives the photocopier

Status is shown by line style and symbol shape as well as colour. Every logo works in one colour and in greyscale.

Theirs to run

RISA is meant to be handed over. On a national team’s product, the authority’s logo leads and RISA is credited as the method.

Fits the ecosystem

Sits next to OCHA, UNDAC, Logistics Cluster and MapAction products without clashing, and follows OCHA icon conventions on maps.

Low bandwidth, open

Static HTML, inline SVG and open-source fonts. Tokens any partner or national team can reuse in QGIS layouts, Kobo forms and slides.

Status: a rough, indicative draft for internal review and discussion, not a finished product. Content follows RISA SOP v2 and RISA in Brief v2 (six steps, observation-only field data); the concept note describes an older five-step version with key informant interviews as a third input. Nothing here is final or public, and the site is marked noindex. Partner names are shown as text; official logos would be swapped in once a direction is chosen. HOT is not named in round one while its role is agreed. All maps use a fictional sample site.