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AGENY
TAGANYA

Product & Visual Designer and Bezalel graduate. I turn complex systems into simple, human experiences.
Index (04)
01
R-Fuge
Bureaucracy Assistant App
02
Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS)
Interactive Web Experience
03
Israel Competition Authority
Conference Branding
04
Rosy Is My Relative
Title Sequence
Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS)Interactive Web Experience2026
Role
UX/UI Designer & Web Developer

Team
Agenyo Taganya & Noga Kapon (Design Partners)
Graduation Project, Bezalel Academy

Tools
Figma, Claude Code, Cursor, Vercel

An interactive web experience that bridges the empathy gap for people living with HS, by visualizing their invisible daily struggles.


Visit Website 
1%
of the population lives with HS
7 yrs
average time to diagnosis
300+
patients surveyed in Israel and worldwide

The Challenge

         Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) is a chronic skin disease affecting 1% of the population. Due to a severe lack of medical and public awareness, the average diagnosis journey takes 7 years.

        Patients suffer not only from debilitating physical pain, but also from a heavy emotional toll: shame, damaged body image, and a loss of trust in the healthcare system.

        Who it's for: the people closest to patients (partners, family, friends and employers). HS is an "invisible" disease, and patients are tired of explaining it again and again. The goal: a link they can simply send.

Research & Discovery

         We conducted global and local research to understand both the clinical and the emotional scope of HS:
  • Surveys: responses from 111 patients in Israel and 195 patients worldwide.
  • Interviews: in-depth interviews with 5 patients, one of whom accompanied the entire design process to ensure authenticity.
  • Experts: interviews with two leading HS specialists, Dr. Yossi Tayeb and Prof. Yuval Ramot, to understand the flaws in the diagnostic process.
  • Market research: we mapped existing HS platforms in Israel and abroad. Abroad there are large foundations, apps and communities. In Israel, there is no central source of information in Hebrew, and support relies almost entirely on Facebook and WhatsApp groups.

Key Insights
  • The hardest part isn't only medical. Shame, loneliness and the need to hide came up in every interview.
  • The pain is invisible. As Dr. Tayeb explained, how the wounds look doesn't reflect how much they hurt. This is why the people around patients often don't understand, and patients hear "you're exaggerating" from family, friends and employers.
  • Myths make it worse. Both specialists described the same misconceptions: that HS is caused by poor hygiene, or that it's contagious. Neither is true.
  • Medical facts don't create empathy, personal stories do. Existing platforms focus on clinical information for patients, not on helping the people around them understand.
  • Empathy, not pity. In the words of the patient who joined our process: she wants people to understand it isn't simple, without looking at her as a victim.

Information Architecture
We started with a non-linear experience, but realized it would disorient users who are unfamiliar with the disease. So we pivoted to a guided narrative.

        The final structure leads the user step by step:
  • Personal stories that create an emotional connection.
  • Medical context that explains what HS is.
  • Patient testimonies that show the difficult reality.
  • A clear call to action at the end.
        We separated the conceptual titles from the informational text, to keep a consistent anchor throughout the journey.

Visual Language

         We created a deliberate visual tension between the medical institution and the human experience:
  • The clinical: thin, precise white lines represent the medical system: cold, organized, and mathematical.
  • The human: sharp, abstract shapes represent the body, the pain, and the patient's personal experience.
  • The confinement: grid-like square elements communicate the feeling of limitation caused by the disease.
  • No medical photos: we intentionally avoided the graphic images that dominate web searches. They don't represent all patients and can be highly triggering, and many of the patients we interviewed asked not to see them. Abstract shapes allowed for a more empathetic connection.

Development

         I built and deployed the platform myself, from Figma to a live website, using AI development tools (Claude Code and Cursor) and Vercel.

        The experience was optimized for the large displays of the Bezalel graduate exhibition, as well as for regular screens.

What's Next

         The research revealed a bigger product opportunity. The specialists we interviewed see patients only every few months, and lack information about what happens in between. Patients, on their side, need practical, everyday tools in Hebrew. A future product could include:
  • A visual symptom diary with an interactive body map, suggested directly by Dr. Tayeb, that turns weekly check-ins into a clear visual report for the doctor.
  • A treatment manager with reminders for medication and creams, as suggested by Prof. Ramot.
  • A Hebrew knowledge center with reliable, practical information, and tools to explain the disease to loved ones.
        For the graduation project, we chose to focus on the first step: helping the people around patients understand.
Next project
Shekel → Index · © 2026 Agenyo Taganya
 · Herzliya, IL