Prototyping & Demo

At the end of the previous research, our project was focused on understanding the experiences of cisgender women during their menstrual cycles, with a particular emphasis on physical pain, emotional pain, and the strategies they use to manage both. The research was conducted through a combination of diary studies and a survey, aimed at gathering both qualitative and quantitative data to inform the design of the product.

In order to explore the product implications of the data we gathered, we condensed the key points we extracted from our diary studies and survey:

Women tend to be more introverted (compared to their baseline) during their menstrual cycle.
Emotional support was an incredibly difficult pain point that all women had mitigation strategies for, but still suffered in dealing with.
Pain management strategies were established and need very little assistance.
There exists a tendency that the older menstruating women are, the better the strategies they have for managing their menstrual syndromes.

Speed dating matrix

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eC7f7Jr1p91Wrz7QHbAdvbIvq2qbbROO/view?usp=share_link

User Enactment

Our initial user enactments were loose and exploratory with our initial prototype. We were still debating whether we would focus on serving the medical category or user needs, or the emotional side of user needs. In order to settle this debate, we decided to create rough prototypes for each category.

We quickly created cardboard prototypes out of each of the three Solutions plus the smartwatch. the smartwatch was assumed to be a given so we considered that conclusive and put it away. We then began testing the vending machine, dispenser, and corgi plushie.

User Enactments.pdf

The Initial Run

After quick idea checking with the users, we figured out that they have the strongest preference for the Corgi idea that supports their emotions during menstruation. For the vending machine idea, users mentioned the existence of menstrual product supplies in all the restrooms on campus that cover the usage. For the pill dispenser, we found out that almost all target users have generated different strategies to deal with pain management and pills are not the necessary treatment they take, combining the study results in M2. We conclude that an emotion-supporting toy should be the direction we take. We further developed the speed dating matrix and recruited more users for the user enactments of this idea.

Iteration and Selection

Our ideation and selection process was based on the user enactment process. We refined the corgi idea and generated one more plant toy idea. The changes we made to the corgi toy idea are to introduce variability in the shape/image of the toy such as penguins and squirrels, two opposite sets of facial expressions setting (empathetic vs. positive forever),

This new product that we envisioned was an electronic flower. This flower would have several key features. An LCD monitor in the center, allowed it to convey a multitude of expressions, and notifications, Animatronic petals that moved in conjunction with the emotions and notifications expressed on the LCD screen, and a servo motor hidden inside the flower pot that would be able to control the rotational direction of the flower.

Untitled document (1).pdf

Iterative testing