The role of Motion Graphics in the fight against COVID-19: an evaluation of videos designed for citizens by DGS and SNS24, Portugal.

This article presents an analysis of the motion graphics and design of the most relevant COVID-19 videos directed to citizens, made by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) and the National Health Service 24 (SNS24), the main public health management organizations of the Portuguese State. This study was conducted as part of the investigation project "Health Risk Communication: Design and digital communication of official public health sources to guide citizens in pandemic situations" (HERIC 2D), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). HERIC 2D seeks to define a set of guidelines to improve the health risk communication of the official Portuguese government institutions during pandemic situations. The selected methodology consisted of a literature review in the areas of design and motion graphics, which served as the basis for the definition of the visual composition criteria used to evaluate the videos. The main results of the analysis of the videos show a lack of unity and visual coherence. This lack of visual identity has the potential consequence of making it difficult for citizens to recognize the sources of communication in the videos. The results have also shown a very limited use of motion graphics techniques in the development of the videos.