She | Her App Development

Project Overview

Challenges + Constraints

Women from a wide range of cultural, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds often feel unsupported and underrepresented when seeking sexual and reproductive health information. They need a trusted platform where they can access accurate, culturally relevant guidance and learn from the lived experiences of other women. The client is especially focused on ensuring that women from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds have a safe, judgment-free, and secure space to explore these topics, ask questions, and find community without the fear of stigma or misinformation.

Accessibility

It was important to consider literacy levels, internet connection, and the types of devices that users would be using when using the She/Her app.

Cultural Differences

As we worked to design an app for women to access information about their sexual health, we made sure to conduct research with a trauma-informed approach and considered socio-cultural impacts that may affect how people interact with the She/Her app.

Languages

Our client emphasized the importance of language variability and accessibility. We conducted research to inform design iterations in Arabic and Swahili, which you can find near the end of this case study.

Privacy

Health-related topics require high levels of confidentiality. We ensured that our research directed us toward understanding how to better provide privacy to users.

Discover + Research

Comparative Analysis

Jiwa Ibu, Aya Contigo, and Nejjat are projects created by non-governmental organizations to deliver essential services such as education, healthcare, and emergency support. We conducted a comparative analysis using a feature inventory to understand how each platform delivers these services, with particular attention to language accessibility, geographic reach, and the breadth of support offered.

App Name

Language

Android or iOS

Help Feature

Live Chat

User Profile

Health Records

Community Forum

Informational Videos

Directory

Personal Journal

Video Tutorial

Onboarding Screens

Profile/Account

Direct Number for Help

Audio Feature

Jiwa Ibu

English, Bahasa + Melayu

Both

Aya Contigo

English + Spanish

Both

Nejjat

French, English, Hassanya + Pulaar

Both

User Interviews

What we hoped to learn

The goal of our user interviews was to understand how women from different cultural backgrounds search for information on a health app and to see how they respond to educational content about sexual pleasure. We also needed to understand what kind of access they have or have had to technology.

Learn about how our users experiences differ when needing medical help regarding women's health.

Find out what women do when they feel that they can not turn to anyone for help regarding their sexual health.

Understand how comfortable women feel sharing their experiences related to sexual health.

Our Amazing Women

User # 1

Age: 54
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Language: English
Technology: Mobile phone, Zoom, wifi

User # 2

Age: 40
Location: San Francisco, CA
Language: English
Technology: Uses lots of different tech, iOS

User # 3

Age: 30
‍Location: Malaysia
‍Language: English, Tamil
‍Technology: Uses apple products, iOS, Macbook

User # 4

Age: 59
‍Location: Luxembourg
‍Language: English, German, French + Italian
‍Technology: Android, Samsung phone

User # 5

Age: 55
‍Location: San Francisco, CA
‍Language: English
‍Technology: Android, Motorola, computer, no tablet

Interview Findings

After interviewing some pretty incredible women, we grouped key findings based on what they said regarding how they felt when approached about or researching women's sexual health. The following are direct quotes from those interviewed.

Emotional Support

I believe hearing these stories reinforces the importance of a woman’s ability to take control of her own healthcare.

I was brave enough to come out of the trauma that I have gone through so now I want to help.

Having a platform to share your experience can hopefully prevent women from going into a depression like I did.

Access to Information

I wish there was a platform to get education on basic women’s health.

We owe her mental and physical health to the internet.

They don’t want to scare you, so they sugarcoat what they say and don’t give you an accurate description of what it actually feels like.

Cultural + Religious Beliefs

Were were only taught about the science of sex.

If you are a modern muslim girl who is having sex outside of marriage the doctors refuse to do a pap smear saying: “I can’t treat you because it’s ‘haraam’ (sinful)”

The community and culture I grew up in, women are not allowed to share their sexual experiences or health problems.

Mapping Out the Responses

Through our user interviews, we learned that women want their experiences to be validated and to better understand what they’re going through by reading other women’s stories and accessing relevant medical information. Privacy emerged as a top priority, ensuring they feel safe engaging with what can often be considered sensitive content. From these insights, we identified three key areas that we focused building a solution for.

Emotional Support

I feel uncomfortable sharing my experience.

I don't know how or where to find support.

I want my experiences to feel validated.

Access to Information

I'm curious about my health.

I can't find reliable resources.

I feel frustrated by the lack of information.

Cultural + Religious Beliefs

I feel restricted by my cultural and religious background.

I feel a lack of empathy from the medical field.

View Full Affinity Map

Secondary Research

Developing a product for populations across 4 continents meant understanding the problem space from multiple perspectives and working within expected constraints. These constraints consisted of location, languages, accessibility, technology, privacy and socio-cultural differences. Given that women in Tanzania do not have access to a stable internet connection, we had to rely on Subject Matter Experts (SME) and Secondary Research to identify their needs. Our secondary research included scholarly articles, research on behavioral design for women’s health in marginalized communities, as well as design thinking in other cultures to help inform our solution.

31% of women in Tanzania are completely illiterate. In effect, rate of women’s health illiteracy is higher.

The design solution must consider technological limitations. All content must be hosted on the app.

The socio-cultural differences that affect how a woman seeks for healthcare providers must be considered.

Define

Meet Our Personas

After synthesizing insights from our research and user interviews, our team developed two personas: one grounded in interview data and a proto-persona informed by secondary research. We recognized that our interview participants represented only a portion of our user base. Our client emphasized that many users do not have stable access to the internet and may be illiterate. To represent this broader group, we created a proto-persona using secondary research and insights from subject-matter experts.

Meet Maryam

I want to connect with other women in similar situations to find support as I navigate menopause.

Maryam was born in Malaysia and moved to the United States as a young adult. Naturally curious about her health and the world around her, she is now navigating perimenopause and seeking trustworthy resources to make informed decisions about her body and sexual pleasure, especially after regretting a past medical decision. As a mother and community advocate, she is committed to sharing knowledge and creating supportive spaces for women to learn together.

Maryam

The Curious + Dedicated Mother

👩🏽
Age | Gender
47 | Female

💍
Status
Married

📍
Location
San Fransisco, CA, United States

💼
Occupation
Freelance Writer + Mother

Goals

Needs access to reliable and relevent information to help her make informed decisions about her health.

Needs to know what to expect about her body and pleasure in the next 5-10 years

Needs to feel supported and understood as she navigates her daily life through perimenopause.

Frustrations

Difficulty finding accurate information about perimenopause, making it challenging for her to make informed decisions about her health.

Feels that doctors lack empathy for the emotional journey connected with perimenopause and pleasure.

Feels uncomfortable sharing her struggles and experiences with family because of her cultural background.

Meet Sophia

I am to be married soon, and I know that means I will be having sex. I want to know what to expect.

Sophia, a 15-year-old in rural Tanzania, who has been arranged to get married. She works in farming and earns a low income. She shares a family phone and uses a community center for internet access. Speaking Swahili and her indigenous language Haya, she has limited sexual and reproductive health resources due to poverty, infrastructure gaps, and restrictive cultural attitudes.

Sophia

The Loyal Kin

🧕🏽
Age | Gender
15 | Female

💍
Status
Arranged Marriage

📍
Location
Rural Tanzania

💼
Occupation
Caregiver + Farmer

Goals

An accessible way to comprehend complex pieces of information.

A safe place to learn from other women’s experiences regarding sexual health.

Audio features and a speech-to-text feature in her native language.

Frustrations

Access to technology and the internet in rural areas of Tanzania remains a challenge particularly for woman.

Access to health and educational services in rural Tanzania.

Needs access to reliable and relevent information to help her make informed decisions about her health.

The Problem

Women from various ethnic communities feel unsupported regarding their sexual and reproductive health and need a platform to gain information and learn from other women’s experiences but don’t know where to go.

Our Solution

We needed to create an accessible platform where women from various ethnic communities with varying literacy levels can share their experiences that will result in helping them make the right decisions for their sexual and reproductive health because they feel validated and empowered.

Task Flow

Read a personal story about a topic of interest

Prototype + Test

Sketches to Low-Fidelity

We translated our research into a design studio practice to create app sketches, focusing on key insights from our user interviews and secondary research. These included an audio and microphone feature to support vocal interaction and accessibility, a PIN for privacy, topic cards with visual emphasis, a stories tab to share personal experiences and foster validation, a help function for guidance throughout the app, and filter features to simplify information discovery. After reviewing the sketches as a team and aligning on the functionality of each screen and feature, we developed a low-fidelity prototype for usability testing.

Usability Testing

For Usability Testing we were able to work with women from the United States, Tanzania, and Malaysia. Our users have diverse backgrounds through location, experiences, and religion which provided our team with very important insights on how users with varying backgrounds would access information in the app. Our users are curious about the world around them and their health. They are deeply committed to passing on their knowledge and wisdom to their children, encouraging them to live healthy and fulfilling lives. Users want to access resources that will help them make more informed decisions about their health and sexual pleasure.

Tasks

Task 1: Sign-up and navigate to information on fungal over-growth.

Task 2: Navigate to a written story about pleasure.

Objective

Users need to be able to land on the homepage within 30 seconds of opening the app. Also to be able to navigate to medical information on a specific topic and find a specific story relating to orgasms in 2 errors or less in less than 3 minutes.

Results + Insights

Usability testing and validated client feedback guided the key refinements in our design, and the insights from both are reflected in our final prototype.

Unclear Navigation

Use of Technical Terminology

Difficult to Find Key Actions

4 out of 6

users went back to "Topics" to select "orgasm" rather than navigating to the stories page and using the filter.

5 out of 6

users mentioned that they are more likely to search by symptom rather than the name of a condition.

3 out of 6

users did not click on information toggle to learn more about a topic, and just remained on “about” section.

Revisions After Initial Testing

CLIENT FEEDBACK: Included tagline

CLIENT FEEDBACK: Included privacy checkboxes on the sign up screen

USABILITY TESTING RESULTS: Added header to homepage

USABILITY TESTING RESULTS: Added questions to elaborate on topic cards

CLIENT FEEDBACK: Changed button from ‘Help’ to ‘Index’

USABILITY TESTING RESULTS: Changed button from ‘Information’ to ‘Learn More’

CLIENT FEEDBACK: Added a chat feature

USABILITY TESTING RESULTS: Included an Index for navigation assistance and use

CLIENT FEEDBACK: Included ‘Select by Language’ instead of ‘Select by Location’

CLIENT FEEDBACK: Added ‘Listen to Audio’ within the video feature

Design

Style Guide

We presented Hanai with a range of color and branding options, carefully developed through research and informed by a socio-cultural perspective on color use. We took into consideration the meaning behind each color in different cultures. Developing a bold palette with compliments of softer colors representing, health, loyalty and security.

Orange

Many Eastern countries link orange to love, happiness and good health.

Pink

Pink is representative of good health and femininity. In many African cultures, pink symbolizes care, and sweetness.

Blue

In Asia and the Middle East blue represents immortality. In North America and Europe, blue represents trust and serenity.

Solutions

Based on insights from our usability tests, user feedback, and client input, we implemented updates that are now reflected in our final prototype. Additionally, we designed screens demonstrating the app’s functionality when translated into other languages, including support for right-to-left reading formats.

Swahili + Arabic

Conclusion + Takeaways

Learnings + Findings:
‍• Learned of the spectrum of women’s needs based on actual research.
‍• Cultural nuances and accessibility.
‍• A mesh of technical and personal constraints means we had to constantly rethink our solutions from many different perspectives.

‍Next Steps:
• Working with Hanai to expand the secondary persona.
‍• Building more accessibility features based on research.
‍• Chatbot feature to be able to assist people in real-time.
‍• Collaborating with engineer on design.